French Grand Prix — race
July 3, 2005

Jordan Grand Prix drivers, Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro made good starts at the French Grand Prix and drove strongly throughout the race. Both drivers were on a three-stop strategy, which were all superbly executed. Unfortunately, after three laps, Karthikeyan started experiencing gearbox issues, which prevented him pushing his car to a faster pace and allowed Monteiro to pass him. However, Karthikeyan did an excellent job in bringing the car to the chequered flag in 15th position. Monteiro finished 13th, his tenth consecutive finish of the season.

Team quotes on the French Grand Prix race

Tiago Monteiro (EJ15/03) — 13th
“It was a good race for me. I had a good pace, did not encounter any problem and was able to push hard. I was also satisfied with the balance of my car. I think there is less and less gap with the people in front of us, which is a good sign, but we must keep on improving the car. I had another finish today, which is good for my record. I had a lot of problems during the weekend, but the car was perfect again for the race. The reliability was great and I would like to thank everyone for that.”

Narain Karthikeyan (EJ15/01) — 15th
“I had a great start and was running in front of Klien but then on lap 3, I had a gearbox selection problem. I did not have the third and the fifth gear, so it meant that I had to shift from the second gear directly to the fourth and here, there are a lot of corners in third and fifth. Therefore that problem cost me a lot of time. It is a shame, as I was quick all weekend. I am really disappointed and unlucky, but now I will focus on the British Grand Prix next weekend.”

Adrian Burgess: Sporting director
“Tiago did an extremely good job as usual. He is now at ten out of ten finishes, which is really impressive for a rookie. Now we need to carry on the development of the new EJ15B and hopefully we will be able to provide our drivers with a faster car to show their talent. Narain had a very good start and was running in front of Klien and Tiago but unfortunately from a very early point, before our first pit stop, we started having gearbox problems which forced Narain to change the way he was driving and cost him a lot of lap time. However, he succeeded in bringing the car home. This will help our qualifying starting order for the next event.”