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Barrichello started the season well with a 4th place finish at the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix, equalling the team's then best-ever result and coming home as the highest finishing Brazilian after Senna retired from the race. However Irvine was involved in a spectacular accident with Jos Verstappen, Éric Bernard and Martin Brundle, resulting in the retirement of all four cars. Irvine was deemed to have caused the accident and banned for the following race. He and the team appealed, only to have the ban extended to three races. At short notice Aguri Suzuki joined the team for the Pacific Grand Prix but was ill-prepared for an F1 return and failed to perform well. At this GP Barrichello scored his and Jordan's first-ever F1 podium finish, with third place. At the following San Marino GP, Barrichello was injured in a practice accident and did not start the race that saw the death of Ayrton Senna. Andrea de Cesaris substituted for the still-banned Irvine at San Marino and at the subsequent Monaco Grand Prix where he finished in 4th place. Irvine returned at the Spanish Grand Prix and scored a point for 6th while Barrichello still appeared to suffer following his accident and the death of Senna, his countryman and idol. As the season progressed, both drivers continued to score fairly consistently, notably Barrichello with 4th places in the British, Italian, Portuguese and Australian Grands Prix, and Irvine with 4th at the European Grand Prix and 5th in the Japanese Grand Prix. At the Belgian Grand Prix, Barrichello timed his Friday qualifying lap perfectly to record the fastest time. With Saturday qualifying wet, no one was able to beat his time, meaning he took his and Jordan's first F1 pole position and he became the then-youngest pole position holder in F1 history (a record subsequently broken by Fernando Alonso and then Lewis Hamilton, and later Sebastian Vettel). Sadly Barrichello retired from the race following a driving error while lapping a slower car. The season ended with Jordan having scored 28 points, their then highest-ever seasonal score, and having restored themselves to 5th place in the Constructor's Championship behind the 'big four' teams of Williams, Benetton, Ferrari and McLaren. At the French GP, the Jordan 194s carried the scoreline of the Republic of Ireland football team's victory over Italy during the Group Stages of the 1994 FIFA World Cup. At the Italian Grand Prix, Jordan announced an agreement to use factory-supported Peugeot engines in F1 from 1995, meaning the successful relationship with Hart came to an end after the Australian Grand Prix. The Peugeot engines powered the new Jordan 195. |
