{"id":589356,"date":"2026-04-06T15:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589356\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:34:10","slug":"how-jordan-won-its-last-f1-race-on-this-day-in-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589356\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jordan won its last F1 race on this day in 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jordan<\/a> Formula 1 team is perhaps best known for its 1990s heyday, when it gave a certain Michael\u00a0Schumacher<\/a> his entry into F1 and took the fight to McLaren<\/a> and Ferrari<\/a> in 1999. While Jordan Grand Prix\u2019s form fell off at the turn of the millennium, it still managed one final race win in the 21st century, during a chaotic Brazilian GP on this day 23 years ago.<\/p>\n

After its highs in the late 1990s, which saw Jordan pick up three race wins and a handful of podium finishes, the team was struggling in 2003. It had arguably the second-worst car on the F1 grid with the EJ13, and was battling issues with its engines and finances – both on- and off-track.<\/p>\n

However, all that paled into insignificance on 6 April 2003 when a bold strategy call from the Jordan team helped it to its fourth and final grand prix victory.<\/p>\n

Giancarlo Fisichella<\/a> qualified an impressive eighth for the team\u2019s 200th grand prix start \u2013 which was delayed due to heavy rain at the Interlagos circuit. When the race finally did begin, it was behind the safety car, and this threw up an opportunity for Jordan to mix up its strategy. The team called in Fisichella and team-mate Ralph Firman Jr to fuel them as long as possible, which put them at the back of the pack for the restart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ralph <\/p>\n

Ralph Firman, Jordan EJ13, suspension fails as he crashes into Cristiano da Matta, Toyota TF103<\/p>\n

Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

Firman\u00a0then suffered a front suspension failure, while Fisichella stayed out during the next safety car period and ensuing stops. The wet conditions continued causing upsets, with Schumacher succumbing to the rain and Jenson Button<\/a> crashing shortly after the safety car had gone back in following the German\u2019s off.<\/p>\n

After this,\u00a0home hero\u00a0Rubens Barrichello<\/a> took the lead from McLaren\u2019s David Coulthard<\/a> on lap 45, while Fisichella sat fifth for Jordan. The Brazilian soon ran out of fuel, however, which promoted Fisichella up the order once more.<\/p>\n

Coulthard then stopped from the lead to refuel, while third-placed Ralf Schumacher also dove into the pits \u2013 promoting Fisichella to second. He jumped further up the order when\u00a0Kimi Raikkonen<\/a> made a mistake in his McLaren, which handed the Italian the lead \u2013 the first time a Jordan car had led a grand prix in more than two years.<\/p>\n

Raikkonen repassed Fisichella shortly before the race was red-flagged following a huge crash from Fernando Alonso<\/a>, and the Fin was initially crowned winner of the chaotic race.<\/p>\n

\"Podium: <\/p>\n

Podium: Giancarlo Fisichella, Jordan celebrates<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sutton Images<\/p>\n

However, Jordan appealed the result and an ensuing FIA investigation determined that the race result should have been declared at the end of lap 54 \u2013 the one lap on which Fisichella was ahead.<\/p>\n

It marked a return to the podium for Jordan for the first time since the 2000 United States Grand Prix and would be its final of four F1 race wins. The team went on to take a final podium at the infamous 2005 United States GP, before it morphed into MF1 Racing, Spyker, Force India, Racing Point and then Aston Martin.<\/p>\n

It would go on to take six podiums as Force India, before its next victory came for Racing Point at the 2020\u00a0Sakhir Grand Prix. In its Aston Martin<\/a> guise, the side has picked up nine podiums but is still chasing a return to the top step.<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jordan Formula 1 team is perhaps best known for its 1990s heyday, when it gave a certain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,153339,157274,817,813,816,867,287951,21420,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-589356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-autu00f3dromo-josu00e9-carlos-pace","11":"tag-brazilian-gp","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-giancarlo-fisichella","16":"tag-how-jordan-won-its-last-f1-race-on-this-day-in-2003","17":"tag-jordan","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}