David Coulthard re-launched the championship challenge that stalled on the Barcelona grid a fortnight ago as he took an Austrian Grand Prix victory that forced Ferrari to implement team orders.
After Michael Schumacher has been relegated to sixth after a 16th-lap clash with Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya, it looked like then-leader Rubens Barri chello could claim victory.
But when the Brazilian's lead was erased after a superb piece of McLaren strategy put Coulthard on track ahead of the Ferarri number two, visions of a second grand prix win for the former Stewart and Jordan driver faded. Schumacher had climbed to third and was pressing hard.
As Coulthard took the chequered flag and the 10 points, 100 metres back Barrichello slowed dramatically to allow Schumacher to take an undeserved second which keeps Coulthard six points adrift in the championship battle.
Afterwards, a visibly hurt Barrichello refused to comment, while an uncomfortable but unapologetic Schumacher insisted the decision had been necessary because, as Mika Hakkinen had failed to finish, McLaren would now surely throw all their resources behind Coulthard.
The rows over team orders and the accusations of un-sportsmanlike conduct which surrounded Ferrari in the aftermath will not have reached Jordan ears, however. The team's key players had packed up and left the circuit before the halfway mark in the race as the team suffered its most miserable afternoon in some time - both Jordans failed to get away from the grid.
Both cars were pushed to the pits as the field came under the control of the safety car. Sadly, Frentzen's day was ended, his engineers unable to repair a jammed gearbox. Trulli, though, had a more luckless exit.
Restarted after his launch control had stalled him, he sped back on track, but in the confusion, neither he nor the team realised that he had screamed out of a pit-lane that was closed by a red light switched on as the safety car-led field approached.
A little over a dozen laps later and the Italian was shown the black flags: disqualified for exiting a closed pit-lane.
If Jordan suffered badly, Sauber's Kimi Raikkonen has been left to agonise over his race performance for at least another week. The young Finn drove a superb race yesterday to claim fourth place. But delight turned to dismay after the race, however, as BAR, for whom Olivier Panis was fifth, lodged a protest claiming that the Finn had passed Prost's Luciano Burti under yellow flags. Within two hours of the finish the FIA had thrown the protest out, saying that Raikkonen's move was allowable as he was trying to avoid another car, but BAR have decided to pursue their protest to an FIA court.
