FORMULA ONE/German Grand Prix: Eddie Jordan faces a huge legal bill following his decision to drop a €213 million (£150 million) legal action against Vodafone over claims that the telecoms giant had reneged on a sponsorship deal with his Formula One team.
The surprise decision came just two days after proceedings had closed at London's High Court in front of Mr Justice Langley and just hours before a ruling was due to be issued.
"Jordan Grand Prix has decided to withdraw its legal claim against Vodafone," the team owner said in a statement. "We realise that for the good of the sport it is in everyone's interest to draw a line under this episode and concentrate on the rest of this season and the years ahead."
The judge also refused a Jordan application for his findings to be kept confidential in light of the team owner dropping the case, but agreed to delay the publication of his opinions until Monday afternoon to give Jordan's legal team time to prepare an appeal, which suggests Jordan had lost the case.
There have been suggestions that Jordan had been under pressure within Formula One circles to drop his action, which was seen as generating adverse publicity for the sport. But Jordan was adamant in his pursuit of Vodafone, claiming the words "you have a deal", allegedly spoken by Vodafone global brand manager David Haines to Jordan midway through 2001, constituted a binding agreement.
Now the major issue facing Jordan is the absorption of the costs of the month-long case, which could run to millions. Jordan have agreed to pay Vodafone's costs at the higher "indemnity rate".
The team's director of business affairs, Ian Phillips, the man upon whose handwritten notes the team's action rested, said yesterday: "Yes, we have dropped the case, but the team is not in jeopardy, we will be here next week, next year."
Meanwhile, on track at the German Grand Prix here, Justin Wilson proved himself an astute import for Jaguar, clocking the seventh quickest time in first qualifying on a day when Williams dominated proceedings.
Wilson was brought into the Jaguar fold after the British Grand Prix in place of the underperforming Antonio Pizzonia, and yesterday, in his first real test with the team, came to within three-tenths of a second of highly-rated team-mate Mark Webber.
"That was awesome!" enthused Wilson after his first run in anger in Jaguar's R4 car, a massive step-up in performance from the Minardi he has been driving this season.
"It's very unusual to see yourself in P7 having out-qualified Michael Schumacher on what is my first full day on the job.
"I was under pressure to begin with, but when Mark went out and scored fourth place then the goalposts shifted completely. It was an excellent lap from him, and given that I had only done two fast laps on low fuel before that session, I didn't think seventh was possible. It's a good start for the weekend."
Wilson's good start was bad news for David Coulthard, however. The Scot has been feeling pressure of his own this weekend as rumours have linked Juan Pablo Montoya with his McLaren drive in 2005. Jaguar has been mooted as the destination of choice for the Scot should he be edged out at McLaren, but Wilson's performance yesterday, four places above Coulthard, will have Jaguar's bosses looking askance at Coulthard's pace and the size of his paycheque compared with the cheap and very cheerful Wilson.
It was expected yesterday that McLaren would announce plans to continue with the Coulthard/Kimi Raikkonen partnership, but the absence of driver line-up announcement further fuelled rumours that Coulthard is struggling to nail down a contract at the Woking-based team.
But while the Jaguar drivers were staging their show of strength, Williams showed they have become a force to be reckoned with as Ralf Schumacher claimed provisional pole, over half a second clear of Renault's third-placed Jarno Trulli. Schumacher's team-mate Montoya was second quickest, just over two-tenths adrift.
With the Ferrari's of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher languishing in eighth and ninth respectively, this afternoon's final qualifying session and tomorrow's race are once again shaping up to be Michelin-dominated affairs.
Indeed, the Ferrari duo were the highest placed Bridgestone runners, with the next best runner on Japanese rubber BAR's Jenson Button in 12th.
The lack of competitiveness of Bridgestone's tyres affected Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman, though the pair were never in any danger of making a dent on the top 10, regardless of the tyres their EJ13s were shod with.
"Today was nothing special and we are quite far off the pace," said an increasingly dissatisfied Fisichella. "Admittedly, my lap wasn't fantastic, but it's another difficult weekend for us."
The Italian was out-qualified by Firman, with the rookie ending the day 16th with his team-mate one place further back.
