JUNE 11, 2004

Pantano on the sidelines

Giorgio Pantano is having to sit out the first practice session in Montreal because of a dispute over money. Pantano is committed to paying Jordan to drive for the team this year and the money is in place but it seems that there is now a dispute over who is going to run his career in the future. The money has been raised by Pantano and his father Giuseppe but he is under a management contract with Denmark's Lars-Christian Brask and it seems that the two parties are now in conflict and the money is not being paid, so Jordan is refusing to run the car for Pantano. The team is now in a situation whereby it could end up running reserve driver Timo Glock in Canada, if the dispute is not settled. The team says that Pantano has not appeared because of "a personal problem".

Eddie Jordan says that there is no decision yet whether Glock will race.

"I haven't thought about that yet," said Jordan on Friday morning, just before the cars went out.