Monteiro enjoys trouble-free 500km test.

Tiago Monteiro was back at the wheel of his Jordan-Toyota EJ15 yesterday [Thursday], completing a single day of intensive testing as the team prepared for both the British Grand Prix and the two races across the Atlantic that precede its return to Silverstone.

The Portuguese driver covered a total of 105 laps - almost the equivalent of two grands prix - despite some patchy weather at the British venue, and enjoyed the same commendable reliability that Jordan has seen for much of the season. As has been the case in the seven races so far, however, the EJ15 remained some way off the pace of the front-running teams but, while trying not to disguise that car's inability to match its rivals competitively, Monteiro at least had an excuse for Thursday.

"The morning was devoted to tyre testing, with Bridgestone putting several compounds at our disposal," he explained, "I tested a total of eight various compounds overall, all on a car that was set up in race configuration with a lot of fuel on board.

"We did not encounter the slightest problem and had an excellent working day. We constantly lapped with a car that was in race configuration, mainly because qualifying now means you must have the fuel necessary for the first stint of the race."

After a short break for lunch, the programme altered, with Monteiro working on some new parts to have been developed by the workforce based across the road from the circuit.

"We had a lot of things to test and develop," he continued, "New parts, shock absorbers and a new front wing that has been especially designed for Canada and its unique characteristics, as well as a different rear wing. The common objective to all these tests is to improve the behaviour of the car for the Canadian GP. I had the telemetry data already recorded from but it nothing replacing testing on the circuit."