Eddie Irvine ended a nightmare weekend for Jaguar Racing with a shock fourth place in the season opener in Australia today - then warned his team not to harbour any false illusions. The 36-year-old Ulsterman somehow collected three points following the first-corner chaos in Melbourne after Jaguar's worst fears about the R3 were confirmed when he qualified only 19th.
"What an incredible race! We were certainly very lucky today, but we finished and the others didn't," said Irvine, battling with a car lacking any speed after a serious design flaw was discovered soon after the launch. "I had to be very careful out there because the car was not handling very well at all. It was extremely difficult to drive and the result doesn't change the fact that we have an enormous amount of work ahead of us."
"After the weekend we've had, these three points mean an awful lot to everybody in the team. As I entered the first corner after the start, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were cars lying all over the place and having weaved through the carnage, I found myself in fifth place," Irvine added.
"My thoughts immediately turned to who was behind me and I just kept pushing and pushing until the end. It's not everyday that so many cars go out at the first corner and there can't be any illusions about how we got this result today."
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
