Tiago Monteiro was invited to meet the President of Portugal in Paris, where Jorge Sampaio was on a state visit to the French capital. “I am very happy to have finally gotten the chance to meet the President of the Republic, and I am thankful to him for granting me this private meeting,” the Jordan F1 driver declared. “His schedule is booked solid, but this time, by chance, we were both in France at the same time; it was now or never.”

“He is a big fan of sports and especially Formula One, even more so now that Portugal is guaranteed to be represented in the sport. He asked me a few about F1 and we shot the breeze for a while, it was really nice.”

The Jordan Toyota driver then took off for the Paul Ricard circuit, where he is driving this week, testing new solutions on the Jordan EJ15, in the hope of getting it ready for the fourth leg of the championship, which takes place April 22-24 on the Imola circuit.

“These tests are very important because we are testing new aerodynamic parts which have been approved in the wind tunnel. Unfortunately we only have one car to drive this week so I am sharing the work with Narain.”