Andrew Jordan had a mixed weekend in the opening round of the Citroen C2 Rallycross Championship in France (13/14 May), with a win in one of the heats but a clash with a rival that put him out of the running in the finals.Jordan was contesting the opening round of the highly competitive French series at the Mayenne track alongside his British Rallycross Championship campaign.In free practice, some car problems became apparent, but Will Gollop, who masterminds Andrew's British programme stepped in, and helped sort out the handling of the car.With the handling considerably improved, Andrew was able to take a second place in his opening heat. Then, in the second heat he was leading until he made a mistake and lost the place. Determined to get back in front, he went for half an opportunity but that ended in both cars sliding into the gravel. "I learnt a little bit of French then! I think the other driver was telling me the French for "I'm going to prod you in the chest!" said Andrew.He then went on to win his third heat on Sunday morning to qualify for the 'C' final. There, he came up against local hero Alexander Anne from the town of Mayenne, the younger brother of the French champion. However, Anne also has a reputation for being an aggressive racer."I got up to third, but he had already hit me a couple of times. Then we were side by side on the straight and he just kept moving over on me and was squeezing me towards the barriers," explained Andrew. "Just as I decided to back out of the situation, he tried to give me another shove and that spun him across my bows." His rival then hit the barriers, while Andrew was black-flagged and put out of the race."We were on the back foot a bit after the car problems in practice," said Andrew. "In the third heat, Anne is known as a bit of a bully, but I wasn't going to back out of it! I definitely learnt a lot and I learnt about the whole European Rallycross scene, so that was a good insight."Andrew's father Mike missed the French trip as he was busy racing in the British Touring Car Championship. "I'm glad he's done his bit for Anglo-French relations," said Mike. "Joking apart, we'd like to thank Andre Pean, who runs the series, for giving Andrew such a warm welcome."Andrew Jordan is supported by Shell, John Guest, Pirtek, Quaife Engineering and Bill Gwynne Rally School.