News - Brands Hatch GP Formula 3 - Rounds 13 and 14

Brands Hatch was the venue for rounds 13 and 14 of the Formula Three Season and Jordan’s third race in a Formula Three car. Brands Hatch is arguably the most exhilarating circuit in the UK and a real driver’s circuit. That said, Jordan had never driven on the GP circuit before and the team had never run an F3 car there, before this weekend.

The team and Jordan’s expectations were high after a productive test day on the Friday. After three 50 minute sessions Jordan was much closer to the best class lap time than ever before at this stage of the weekend. The only unfortunate circumstance was a red flag which was brought out near to the end of the last session, cutting short Jordan’s only run on new tyres. Only getting one lap on the new tyres left the team wondering what could have been, but they were still confident that Jordan could have been even closer to the fastest time.

Saturday dawned dry and bright and the team felt like they were in good shape for qualifying, but knew that Jordan would have to sacrifice his race tyres in order to give himself more laps on the circuit on Saturday. In order to compensate for this the team decided to opt for a less aggressive setup and knew that the car would be slightly off the pace as a result of this decision.

Q1 went well with Jordan running comfortably 4th for most of the session but fell back during his mid session stop and eventually qualified 8th. This was a little disappointing but the car was much closer to the pace of the more experienced teams and drivers.

Q2 also went reasonably well for Jordan; once again he was much closer to the pace of the faster cars and drivers. Again opting for the less aggressive setup, allowing Jordan to run for most of the session, did sacrifice some outright pace. The team were pleased to have maintained our progress even though this was a slower session than Q1 as the track had slowed considerably. Jordan qualified in P6 and ahead of International class drivers who were put to the back of the grid for yellow flag infringements during qualifying.

Sunday was a brilliant day, sunny and warm with no wind and the track looked superb. Jordan was very optimistic for the race and the team also hoped to make more progress.

Jordan had a little concern about some low rev vibrations that he had not experienced before but the data looked ok and the team had no reason the think there was a problem. However Jordan had a problem getting the car off the line and an engine stall caused him a 7 second delay to the rest of the pack. He made light of catching the cars ahead in the first lap and was past the first of his targets within a few laps. However catching and passing the other cars was a little more difficult as Brands Hatch is not renowned for many overtaking places. Jordan showed some good race pace and eventually finished in 8th place.

During the interval between races the team checked the data again but found nothing to indicate a problem. This time Jordan’s start was much better, off the line well and avoiding two stalled cars on the front of the grid, he picked up 3 places before Paddock Hill bend, then overtaking 3 more cars before the transition to the GP loop. On the way down pilgrim’s drop he was passed by all of those cars and Jordan could not understand why. He raced well and was 5th in class for most of the race keeping pace with the main National pack. Jordan was even in front of an international class car for many laps, brilliantly defending his position lap after lap, only being passed close to the end and then in the same move also losing positions to the national cars following behind. Jordan continued to press on and eventually finished 7th. After the race he complained about the vibration which was eventually traced whilst at the circuit to an electrical problem, which had left him considerably disadvantaged and unable to compete on equal terms with the rest of the pack.

Trevor Powell Team LOCTITE Principal said:

'The team and Jordan made significant progress this weekend and we were saddened to have had a very small problem which had major implications on our ability to compete equally. We are catching up and it is disappointing that we had a problem which slowed down our progress and definitely affected our results, but that's racing and we have been fortunate to have been lucky with this sort of thing so far; we will be back stronger and wiser than before. Jordan drove superbly and we look forward to Spa where he has driven once before on a Formula BMW test day.'

Jordan added:

"This weekend has been a major step forward for me. Although the results are actually worse than they have been in previous races, this in no way shows how close I was to the pace this weekend. It is very difficult for me and the team, as we are always playing catch up to the more experienced drivers and teams. But with this said we are moving forward very rapidly in the right direction and I don’t think it will be much longer until I can be challenging at the front of the class. I can’t wait to get back in the car and keeping improving my Formula Three driving style and experience. Bring on the next race!!"