Point-scoring start to the season for King
Date: 01 / 04 / 2019
Returning to the Formula One feeder series for the first time since 2017, Jordan and his MP Motorsport squad got up and running in free practice with Jordan using the session to get up to speed in the new Formula 2 car around the 3.363 mile circuit.
Finishing free practice in 16th place, Jordan was able to put on a stronger performance in qualifying as he shaved more than four seconds off his lap time from practice and ended the weekend’s qualifying session in 14th pace with a 1:41.857-minute lap time.
At the start of Saturday’s Feature Race, Jordan got off to a fantastic start in Bahrain as he sent it right around the outside of turn one to move himself up to 12th place and already knocking on the door of the top ten, points-paying positions.
Jordan eventually broke into the top-ten before he took his mandatory pitstop on lap 14, of 32, from 10th place and rejoined in 18th place as one of the first cars to stop in the Feature Race.
Changing onto the supersoft tyre compound, Jordan continued to progress through the field and got as high as 8th position on lap twenty before tyre degradation started to come in to play – the gamble on strategy had failed. Struggling to continue with the same levels of performance, Jordan eventually began to drop down the order and had to settle for 17th place in the first race of the season.
For Sunday’s Sprint Race, Jordan again got a rapid start off the line and moved up himself up two places to the 15th position and continued to showcase his overtaking abilities as he moved up to the 11th position by the end of the third lap.
Following on from Saturday’s Feature Race, everybody knew that the tyres were going to play a huge part to play in the race result and some of the drivers gambled on making a pitstop in this sprint race, with Jordan being one of them and deciding to make a pitstop on lap 12.
Dropping back to 17th position, and with a 39-sec gap to the leader of the race, Jordan began to carve through the field as he lapped more than four seconds quicker than the non-stoppers and with four laps to go he was inside the top-ten after passing four cars in two corners with five laps to go.
Continuing to progress, Jordan pulled off two more overtakes to break inside the top-eight and into the points from where he took the chequered flag to record his first point of the season.
Commenting on his weekend in Bahrain, Jordan was pleased with his personal performance and hopes to continue the upward trajectory.
“It was a mixed weekend really, we showed great progress from free practice to qualifying which shows that the team and I are already working well together. In the races, I had a lot of fun and we showed we have the pace to compete with the field.”
“Tyre deg is severe around Bahrain and our gamble to pit early on Saturday didn’t pay off but we learnt from it and used that data for Sunday’s race. Knowing we would struggle with the tyres, we were able to work out that a pit stop in Sunday’s sprint race was the way to go and that paid dividends as I went 17th to 8th. It’s always a great feeling to put in a lot of overtakes and it was great fun having all of the battles. Now we need to keep the momentum up as we head to Baku next month for round two.”
With one point on the board, Jordan currently sits in 11th place in the championship standings as round two of the season takes us to Baku, Azerbaijan, 26-28 April.