Jordan slippery when wet

The first came in the deluge that swamped Spa last September and yesterday Jordan gave a reprise of their rain song at a sodden Magny Cours when Heinz-Harald Frentzen earned the team's second victory at yesterday's French Grand Prix.

After the morning warm-up, Frentzen had prayed for a wet race and although forecasts predicted that the rains would hold off until late afternoon, the German's prayers were answered after just 20 laps and, starting from fifth, the Jordan driver was ideally placed to capitalise on the chaos that would ensue.

That chaos, when it came, saw the lead change four times as pole-positioned Rubens Barrichello relinquished the lead to a flying David Coulthard, regained it minutes later as Coulthard pulled up with with electrical problems, gave it away to Michael Schumacher after the Ferrari driver had battered the Brazilian into submission with a series of audacious manoeuvres and then allowed Mika Hakkinen to snatch the lead in the closing stages.

But all the while, Frentzen was waiting, patiently holding station behind the games of swap ahead, secure in the knowledge that as the rain started to fall his team had altered their pit strategy and he was now laden with enough fuel to avoid a second stop.

And as the race leaders filtered off to make their second stops, Frenzten snuck through to grab a lead he doggedly maintained to the chequered flag, giving Jordan their second grand prix win, 10 months after the first at a flooded Spa Francorchamps last September.

It was a race which initially had a different complexion. After a flooded qualifying session had resulted in an almost inverted grid, the race started dry and quickly remoulded itself into a more conventional shape as both McLarens charged away from the lights.

Fourth-placed Coulthard battered his way past Olivier Panis and Jean Alesi before taking the lead from Stewart's Barrichello while teammate Hakkinen, who had started in the unfamiliar locale of the seventh row of the grid, scythed through the field to sixth and then began to reel in Michael Schumacher.

Minutes later, though, Coulthard was off, pulling up with electrical problems and 10 laps later the rains came, a torrential downpour that caused as much havoc as the previous day's storms.

Amidst a flurry of pit stops from the lower orders, Jordan's pit crew took the bold decision to fill Frentzen's car to the brim in the hope that a long second stint would gain the German the upper hand. "The decision was taken as late as his in-lap," said Jordan technical director Mike Gascoyne. "When it started to rain we looked at the conditions and where everybody was and just went for it."

It proved to be an inspired choice. As Frentzen re-entered the fray and the rain became even heavier, the safety car was deployed. Running behind the pace car for 11 laps, the German was able to conserve the heavy fuel load and maintain enough to see him through to the end of the race. "We made a very good decision on the fuel. It was a risk because the track could have dried out. Then we would have had to come in for slicks and we would have been destroyed," said Eddie Jordan. "It wasn't warm enough to dry out quickly, it had been a deluge for some time, so I really believed it would be wet all the way through. If we conserved our fuel and didn't fight for positions then we would make it to the end. And at the end we just had, probably, a half litre to a litre of fuel left!"

While Frentzen kept control and drove an immaculate, conservative race to take victory, all around him the rain was wreaking havoc.

After climbing to sixth, Hakkinen passed Michael Schumacher and eventually pulled up to the gearbox of leader Barrichello but, attempting to overtake the Brazilian at the Adelaide hairpin, the Finn first went wide and then, trying to cut inside the Stewart, lost control and spun, plummeting to eighth.

The world champion's race was far from finished, however, and as the track began to dry and a racing line developed, Hakkinen once more ploughed through to second and this time, on lap 60, he wrestled his McLaren successfully past Barrichello at the hairpin.

But with Frentzen in third and the McLaren and the Stewart running dry of fuel, it was not be Hakkinen's day. Eddie Irvine meanwhile, again drove a spectacular race, clawing his way up from a dismal 17th place start to fifth before he too was bested by the inspired Ralf Schumacher.

"Everything that could go wrong did go wrong today," said the Ulsterman. "I was in neutral at the start and lost time as I had to select first again. When the rain came, I radioed the team saying `pits, pits'. I thought they might not be 100 per cent ready but we agreed I should come in anyway. It was a bad stop and without it, I might have finished higher."

Hakkinen now extends his world drivers' championship tally to 40, eight points ahead of Schumacher. The constructors' championship is slightly healthier for the Italian team, Frenzten's win means that McLaren now move onto 52 points.

Jordan, meanwhile, move into a decisive third place, with 26 points, a full 10 points clear of nearest rivals Williams.