23/02/2007
NEWS STORY
Having flown overnight from a GP2 test at the Paul Ricard track in the South of France, A1 Team South Africa's main driver, Adrian Zaugg made his long awaited return to A1GP at his home race in Durban, South Africa this morning after a three race break as he recovered from surgery on a forearm injury.
Adrian flew in this morning and headed straight to the track for the first practice session of the Durban race weekend. Despite suffering a broken drive shaft on the first lap out, A1 Team South Africa recorded the 13th fastest lap of the morning session and 10th fastest lap of the afternoon session.
'It felt as if I arrived just five minutes before the session, but I had enough time to start on time and get prepared in the car so that was okay. It was just a drive shaft that broke on my first lap but in motorsport things like that happen. Then I pushed a bit too much later, missed my braking and hit the wall, so we had to retire and I was only able to do one lap in the rookie session. The track is really fantastic and lots of fun to drive. It is a bit bumpy but everybody has the same problems and so this is not something I need to worry about', Zaugg commented.
A1 Team France's Loic Duval set the fastest time of both sessions, putting his experience of street circuits at Pau, Monaco and Macau to good use. Commenting on the Durban track, Duval said: 'This morning I spent learning the track and this afternoon unfortunately we had some mechanical problems at the beginning and many red flags, but the car is quite good. I didn't do a really, really good lap but the time looks fine so it was okay. Now we have to take care about the German, South African and New Zealand teams, but everything is all right. Durban looks a really nice track and it was good fun to drive today.'
Unfortunately the final practice of the day was cut short when a small section of track kerbing at turn seven broke up. The organisers are now repairing the area and foresee no further problems over the weekend.
A1 Team Singapore did not set a time in the afternoon practice session as they continued to work on the car after an incident in the morning session where the car sustained damage after spinning off and hitting the wall.
To check out our Durban Friday gallery, click here