Jordan quell Pantano rumours

Formula One team Jordan has moved to quell speculation surrounding rookie Italian driver Giorgio Pantano's pedestrian start to his grand prix race career.

Paddock rumours had Augusto Farfus Jr, or even Jos Verstappen, replacing him.

But, on Thursday, the Italian clocked up another 100 laps of test mileage at Silverstone and even got within a tenth of Nick Heidfeld's own best lap time.

That performance earned Giorgio, third in last year's F3000 championship, the praise of Jordan's head of race and test engineering, Briton James Robinson.

'Giorgio is becoming more confident,' he said.

Unlike at Albert Park, Sepang and Bahrain, Pantano already knows the Silverstone track layout and is therefore 'progressing very well,' as Robinson continues.

He said: '[Pantano] is close to Nick's lap times here.'