While Michael Schumacher was wrapping up his ninth win of the season, to equal the record he set last year and shares with Nigel Mansell, Jordan were suffering again, events refusing to play into their hands and consigning the Irish squad to the ignominy of a second sixth-place constructors' championship place in-a-row.
In January, at the launch of the EJ11, Eddie Jordan had come across as a latter-day Harold MacMillan, telling his team that with Honda power on board, with Formula One's most potentially explosive driver combination in tow and with a car as good as the EJ11, they had never had it so good.
It would, he suggested, be their own fault if they let a great opportunity slip. Nine months later and they are at fault - sixth place in the championship, behind Honda rivals BAR and with only a forlorn appeal against Jarno Trulli's Indianapolis exclusion to hope in.
Yesterday, going for broke with Jarno Trulli eighth on the grid and retiring Jean Alesi 11th, there was at least the possibility that luck would play into their hands. But just as fortune has refused to favour the team all season, so it would not deal them in yesterday.
Alesi was taken out after just six laps, Sauber's Kimi Raikkonen spinning in front of him and leading to both smashing into the tyre wall. Trulli held a steady seventh until his second pit stop but lost out in the stop to the later pitting Benettons and dropped to ninth. The retirement of next year's Jordan team leader Giancarlo Fisichella late on boosted Trulli to eighth where he remained.
"I'm disappointed for Jarno in his last race for us," said a subdued Eddie Jordan afterwards. "When you have two Ferraris, two McLarens and two Williams finishing it's always going to be difficult to score points."
But even when the reliability of the Williams and McLaren cars was suspect, as had been the case in numerous races this year, Jordan had been unable to capitalise. Through accident and error, but chiefly through mechanical fragility, the team suffered 16 non-finishes from 34 starts.
"We still have the appeal to go through and we'll see what happens with that, but at the moment it is very disappointing," said Jordan. "There's no time for a holiday now. It's too crucial that we get moving for next season."
That appeal though, is a forlorn hope. Trulli was disqualified from fourth place and three crucial points for a technical infringement - the plank on the underside of his car having worn away when two retaining clips came lose. The penalty was harsh but, unfortunately for Jordan, is not the sort that is likely to be overturned by the FIA. David Coulthard suffered a similar penalty two years ago and had to suffer losing a second place. His appeal failed and Jordan's, which will be heard on Thursday or Friday week, is likely to go the same way.
It has been a season of cruel luck for Jordan but there is a adage that says you make your own luck. Next year, with Honda's crucial works engine support at stake and BAR, at least in the pit lane, positionally superior, it is imperative Jordan make that old clichΘ work.
