Time for Jordan to address Prost threat

Prost driver Jarno Trulli's third place in yesterday's practice for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix is indicative of the struggle Eddie Jordan's team have on their hands in the race for fifth place in the Formula One Constructors' championship.

Michael Schumacher used a new lightweight Ferrari to head the field in both sessions, while title challenger Jacques Villeneuve, 10 points behind the German, could only manage the 11th fastest time.

Ralf Schumacher was sixth, Giancarlo Fisichella eighth, while Eddie Irvine was ninth in the old Ferrari.

Trulli, a 24-year-old Italian, has proven a more than capable standin for the injured Olivier Panis and his pace yesterday was worrying for Jordan.

"Prost have 19 points - two more than us and, of course, we must beat them in the championship. That is an absolute minimum. Our target is to be fourth or better," said Eddie Jordan last night.

Trulli's Prost is the fastest of the eight Bridgestone runners this year. Jordan's ambition is to leapfrog Prost. Fisichella feels he can deliver a win before the end of the season - but not this weekend. "Monza is like Hockenheim and we will be very strong there," he said.

Jordan designer Gary Anderson said: "Hungary is slow speed, dirty and slippy. It is a hard track to learn and neither Ralf nor Giancarlo have been here before. You need to be into a flow to be quick. There are 16 corners, so precision is vital and the high tyre wear will make the pit strategy critical."

Bridgestone Formula One manager, James Penrose from Castletownsend in Cork, took up the issue of tyre wear: "We have two compounds here. Normally our tyres are very hard wearing so we could have a real advantage here."

Irvine did not have Ferarri's new lightweight chassis and was unconcerned with being ninth fastest. "We just worked on the settings - to make sure the bumps aren't a problem. The high downforce is good for that. I used only one set of tyres all day, without even swapping them from left to right, so I thing we have a good set-up for qualifying," said Irvine, who brought his Falcon 10 jet to a grand prix for the first time.

With just six races left in the series, Villeneuve must win tomorrow if he is to maintain a realistic challenge to the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher.

Points for the Jordan team are essential if they are to achieve their goal of finishing fourth in the end-of-year team standings.