All he could do was shake his head and smile. Standing mute and mystified in front of a garage monitor, Eddie Jordan could only stare in amazement as Damon Hill, whose seemingly interminable soul-searching has caused nothing but frustration and confusion for the team, stole in to grab the fastest time of the day in yesterday's practice sessions ahead of tomorrow's Austrian Grand Prix.

In the run-up to Hill's phantom retirement party at Silverstone two weeks ago, the Englishman appeared wracked with indecision, crippled by the weight of public expectation on the weekend of his grand farewell and frustrated by the constant pressure on him to make a decision.

The pressure was affecting not only Hill. Eddie Jordan, too, wore the look of a haunted man, driven to frustrated distraction by a man who couldn't make up his mind whether he want to drive.

In the end the finale was postponed as Hill opted to take at least a few more curtain calls, and at the first of those, at the A1 Ring in Spielberg, the frustration of the last six weeks evaporated in a wave of joy from Hill and that curious mystified grin of Jordan's.

"I usually say Friday doesn't mean anything, but right now I'm pretty happy and I think we can confirm what we've got into a good qualifying position," said a jubilant Hill. "I really enjoyed myself. I found a good balance with the car and we're delighted. The team did a good job developing the car to give me a chance to fight, which is what I was missing."