Heidfeld and Janis start for Jordan.

Nick Heidfeld today spearheaded Jordan Ford's first test session since the close of the 2003 season, joined by Jarek Janis, the 20 year old Czech FIA F3000 driver, at the Jerez circuit in Spain.

Conditions remained cool and dry for most of the day with light rain showers in the last hour of track running.

Both drivers embarked on familiarisation programmes with the Jordan Ford EJ13, as Heidfeld drove a Jordan for the first time and Janis experienced his first ever F1 drive.

Heidfeld spent the morning familiarising himself with the car however he had reduced track time in the afternoon due to a technical problem, extensive scheduled changes to the car, red flags caused by other drivers and rain showers. He completed 35 laps and set a fastest lap time of 1m 19.99s.

"It was a nice day, my first time in a Formula One car after a few weeks and my first day with the Jordan team," commented Heidfeld, "I was quite happy with how the test worked, although we had a problem with the gearbox, a lot of red flags and unfortunately some rain in the afternoon.

"I got familiar with the car after a couple of outings, and with my engineer I've identified a few small changes I'd still like to make. The car was better to drive than I expected and it has been a nice atmosphere - I get on well with the people in the team. It was good and I'm looking forward to the next two days."

Janis meanwhile clocked 61 laps in the sister EJ13 - his quickest a 1m 21.93s.

"The first thing is to get used to the car and I really enjoyed today," noted Janis, "It was fantastic to drive in F1, everything went alright and I did a couple of tests with aerodynamics and tyres. I am trying to start slowly and not go crazy immediately so tomorrow if we are lucky with dry weather I'm going to push more."

Gerry Hughes, Jordan's test engineer, summed-up: "Today's programme consisted of familiarisation with a small amount of work on chassis, set-up and tyres. It was a slightly frustrating start for Heidfeld as there were a few things that lost us a bit of track time and the weather has been changeable towards the end of the day, but nevertheless he familiarised himself quickly and seems to be getting comfortable with the car and the team.

"Janis has gone reasonably well: again, the majority of the day was spent familiarising himself with a Formula One car and he did a good job."

Heidfeld and Janis continue the test tomorrow and on Friday Ralph Firman will join Heidfeld to complete the programme.