14/04/2007
NEWS STORY
Team Brazil
A1 Team Brasil will line up on the eighth row of the grid for tomorrow's A1GP Grand Prix of Nations sprint race at the Shanghai International Circuit in China. Vitor Meira qualified in 15th position for the team in his first A1 four-part qualifying session, and after only getting around half of the available practice time prior to qualifying due to technical issues with the car.
Vitor was looking forward to a productive final practice session this morning after sitting out the majority of yesterday due to a water leak on the Team Brasil car. He took the opportunity to get in some solid running, and completed 26 laps during the hour, with a fastest time of 1:37. 084, which put him 13th in the standings.
In his first time tackling the unique A1GP four-part qualifying session, Vitor quickly got to grips with the format. He posted top ten times in the first two segments to put him provisionally 10th. However, with the session becoming increasingly competitive, after the end of the session, he ended up 15th, albeit after setting a storming lap time of 1:35.982 in the final segment.
Vitor Meira: "This was my first qualifying of this kind and it surprised me to be honest. You hear the stories about how tough it is, and when you get out there it is way tougher than you think. I thought after my first lap things were going to be good, but it just gets tougher and the gaps start to build. I am on a steep learning curve and my last lap in qualifying was really good, so things are going in the right direction. We obviously lost out yesterday because having only one practice means we had half the running of everyone else. So it hurt us, but it is what it is and there's no point complaining. I think Team Brasil definitely has a car with a good pace, and we are pretty confident for the race, which is what counts right now. We want to survive the sprint, and then take advantage of the car we have for the feature race."
Emerson Fittipaldi: "We have been very impressed with Vitor. He is very professional and is working well with the team and engineers. He just needs more time in the car, it's a shame we lost nearly the whole hour yesterday so he had a lot less practice than anyone else and he didn't know the car or the circuit. In qualifying he did a very good job on his last lap, and would have been within the top ten with another lap like that. I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in the race tomorrow."
Team Canada
Sean McIntosh returned A1 Team Canada to the top-ten in qualifying for the first time since January's sixth round in New Zealand as he posted the ninth fastest time from 22 nations at the Shanghai International Circuit in China prior to Sunday's tenth and penultimate round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.
McIntosh's qualifying performance equaled his two previous starts in A1GP this season in Round 4 and Round 5 in Malaysia and Indonesia respectively. The 21-year-old from Coquitlam, who finished sixth overall in the World Series by Renault last season, steadily built his way up to Saturday afternoon's qualifying effort, finishing Friday's practice session 14th fastest and mirroring that performance in final practice on Saturday morning.
Making his racing debut in China, having missed out on the corresponding round last season as Champ Car veteran Patrick Carpentier raced for Canada, Sean posted a lap time of 1m36.950s on his first of four qualifying runs at the Shanghai track – the fastest two forming his aggregate time for Sunday morning's 20-minute Sprint race. Faster on used rubber on his next lap, this time recording a 1m36.601s, the Canadian was knocking on the door to the top-ten with half the session completed.
Gaining confidence in the car, Sean stepped it up on his third run armed with a fresh set of Cooper tires. His lap time of 1m36.057s was the ninth fastest of the third session but he was to go faster still in his fourth and final run. Lapping in 1m35.798s, Sean's fastest lap was good for eighth quickest in the last session and combined with his previous lap helped form an aggregate time of 3m11.855s, good for ninth on the Sprint grid and Canada's highest starting slot since Toronto's James Hinchcliffe bagged seventh in Round 6 at Taupo Motorsports Park in New Zealand back in January.
Great Britain's Robbie Kerr captured pole from New Zealand's Jonny Reid in the dying seconds of the afternoon's qualifying session while Round 3 Feature winner, Italy's Enrico Toccacelo lines up alongside McIntosh on the fifth row of the grid.
"It was a pretty good qualifying session for my first time back in the car since December and probably the best out of the three I've taken part in this season," reflected Sean. "We've been working steadily to get to where we're at now. I've never been happy with ninth before but it's good for the first weekend back in the car. We're improving and I'm sure we'll have a competitive car for the races."
Team France
A1 Team France qualified seventh for the sprint race with Jean-Karl Vernay at the wheel for the second time this year.
Following a trouble-free final practice session on Saturday morning A1 Team France was upbeat ahead of qualifying. In that session Vernay put his car in seventh place on the grid with an aggregate time of 3:11.525 for the start of his first sprint race in China tomorrow.
Jean-Karl Vernay commented, "The track was dry and the weather slightly overcast. I felt comfortable in the car and on the track and well prepared for the qualifying session. It took me longer than I thought to fully understand how to get fully up to speed here. In every outing, I was amongst the last drivers to take the car to the track with roughly two minutes to go. I clocked my two best times in 1.36.056 and 1.35.469 respectively and that brings me to seventh on the grid. This result is alright for my second ever qualifying, but there will be a lot of work to do tomorrow to finish both races in the points."
Eric Boullier, Managing Director A1 France added: "Jean-Karl Vernay's second qualifying reflects a strong performance. Data collected today will now be analysed carefully by the team in order to improve the car's balance for tomorrow's sprint and feature races. Jean-Karl learned quickly and
his second race appearance should be positive."
Team Germany
Willi Weber-managed A1 Team Germany starts the penultimate round of the 2006/2007 A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport season from the second row. Nico Hülkenberg qualified fourth in the powerful 520 hp A1 GP race cars in Shanghai. After claiming four successive front row slots the team starts from the second row for the first time in the year 2007. The team has started from the first two rows at nine of the previous ten events this season.
Nico Hülkenberg recorded the third fastest time of 1m35.562s behind the USA and New Zealand teams in the first of four qualifying segments around the Grand Prix circuit in Shanghai. In the second run the Germany circulated the 5.451 kilometre long circuit in 1m35.802s, which represented the third fastest time behind New Zealand and Switzerland. After two outings he therefore moved up to second overall in the interim standings. In its third attempt A1 Team Germany recorded the sixth fastest time of 1m35.923s and slipped down to fourth overall in the provisional standings. In the fourth and final outing Nico Hülkenberg set the fifth fastest time of 1m35.491s. As a result he qualified fourth overall.
Nicolas Hülkenberg: "As usual, I found the limit on my first run. Third place on new tyres is okay. We took used tyres for the second attempt and changed the set-up a little. On the third run I lost any chance of improvement when another car left the pit lane just as I started my qualifying lap and later when I had to follow two other cars. They disturbed my line of sight and I couldn't drive on the ideal line. My fourth run was also not perfect. However, anything is possible from the second row on Sunday. It's important that I survive the start and the car doesn't get damaged."
Team Great Britain
A sublime performance from Robbie Kerr in China today netted A1 Team Great Britain its first pole position of the season ahead of Round 10 of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport on Sunday, 15th April, the penultimate round of the nation versus nation championship before a return to home soil and the season finale at Brands Hatch, 27th-29th April.
With the British team scoring its maiden victory in Round 9's Feature race last month in Mexico City with Oliver Jarvis behind the wheel, Burbage's Robbie Kerr looks determined to follow suit having come so close in the past and his form at the Shanghai International Circuit has him clearly marked as the man to beat at the home of the Chinese Grand Prix.
Fastest in Friday's practice session, Kerr paced himself in Saturday morning's final session setting the sixth fastest lap time ahead of this afternoon's four qualifying runs, the results of the two fastest laps forming an aggregate time to determine the grid for Sunday morning's 20-minute Sprint race. Confident with his pace, Kerr set the fourth fastest qualifying run on his opening lap on a fresh set of tyres, a 1m35.717s. Sticking with the same rubber his next lap, a 1m35.921s was still the fifth fastest of the second qualifying session.
With two runs remaining Kerr stepped up the pace and fired in a blistering 1m35.38s lap time on new tyres to lead the field at Shanghai but it was still New Zealand's Johnny Reid who held provisional pole with just one shot left at the top spot. Robbie left it late but he failed to disappoint as he clinched pole position with a last lap effort of 1m34.756s, his final two runs combining to give Great Britain its first pole position in 25 races. New Zealand's Reid lines up alongside Kerr for the Sprint race.
"I'm really happy with the way qualifying went," stated Kerr. "The car got quicker throughout the session as we made a few changes to it overnight which unfortunately didn't work as expected, we then found ourselves re-engineering it as the session went on. I know where there's still a couple of tenths in myself and I'm confident that we'll be competitive tomorrow. We've just got to go out there and focus on the job in hand and bring the car home in a good points scoring position."
John Surtees, A1 Team Great Britain Team Principal, commented, "Following the successes of Mexico, we reached new heights today with the team's first pole in qualifying this season. Robbie really excelled himself, holding onto fourth to start and eventually coming together with the car after some adjustments were made to put in a really outstanding lap in the final session. It was a really positive piece of driving and lifted the whole team who were really excited by the whole performance."
Team India
A1 Team India driver and F1 test driver Narain Karthikeyan secured his country's best ever qualifying slot in the A1GP series today, at the Shanghai International Circuit in China. Karthikeyan put in another strong performance in final practice and then set his fastest time of the weekend to clinch fifth on the grid for tomorrow's Sprint race.
A1 Team India's final practice session went well, with the team confirming their quick pace, recording the fourth quickest time in all three practice sessions.
Karthikeyan picked up the pace further in A1GP's unique four segment qualifying session, setting his two fastest laps of the weekend on his third and fourth laps. These two fastest times were then combined to determine the team's fifth place on the grid.
Commenting on this afternoon's performance, Karthikeyan commented, "I'm pleased, it's the best ever qualifying result for India, but we still need to get the best out of the tyres and the car during qualifying. I think we have a much better race car than qualifying car."
Having driven an F1 car round the Shanghai circuit, Karthikeyan is struck by the comparison between the F1 and A1GP cars, "The A1GP car feels quite different to an F1 around here. The A1GP car is better when not driven so aggressively, and you have to carry much less speed into the corners."
Commenting on his qualifying performance, Karthikeyan added, "I messed up the first qualifying lap by getting the middle sector wrong, I was carrying too much speed and the car just didn't want to work. After that I adjusted my driving style, and went into the corners a bit slower, and the lap times picked up. It feels like you're actually going much slower, but it's faster on the clock, and that's the way you have to drive the A1GP car. I think we have a good car here, we need to be consistent and look after the tyres, especially in the Feature race."
The A1 Team India racer will be aiming to make up places in the Sprint race, "I think some people may be cautious in the Sprint race, as they will be thinking of their championship standings, but that's not the case for us. We will be going for it from race one. I have nothing to lose, I've joined the team in the middle of the season, so there is no point in being cautious; we want to get the best results possible in these last races."
A1 Team India seatholder Yohann Senta was pleased with the team's best ever qualifying result, saying, "There was a big mistake on second qualifying, but in any case we were on old tyres so it wouldn't have been one of our fastest times. The third lap was excellent, very clean and smooth, and Narain's fourth lap was also good, although he made a small mistake. It's the best ever qualifying result for us and overall in terms of race pace we have a very good set up. Narain has posted consistently good times in practice, so we should be strong over a race distance. We're feeling positive, and could be in with a chance of a podium tomorrow."
Team Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon continued with race preparations for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport races in Shanghai today. This morning all the teams took to the track for a final practice session and in the afternoon the qualifying session was held under cloudy skies and a cool track temperature. Allam Khodair, driving for the team this weekend will line up in 19th place on the ninth row of the grid for the start of tomorrow's Sprint race.
The team benefited from a clean, uninterrupted one hour of practice time at the Shanghai circuit this morning. Khodair used the session to work with the engineers and crew to develop the car setup and prepare for the afternoon session. Posting 19th fastest time after this period of running, the Lebanon crew readied the car for afternoon qualifying.
With four segments of qualifying, Team Lebanon completed flying lap runs in the first three 15 minute periods and after these Khodair had posted two lap times which aggregated to produce 16th quickest time. Unfortunately Khodair had oversteer on the fourth run and the team opted to abort the lap and limit the tyre wear, as the qualifying tyres are used for the races tomorrow.
Khodair said after the session "The car felt much, much better today and I think you can see that in our lap times this afternoon. It's better balanced, so the handling has improved and I feel much more comfortable with it generally. I think we've made a real step forward with the setup for this circuit, but we were unfortunate that this is not reflected in our qualifying position. I hope we'll be able to make further progress in the races."
Martin Stone, Racing Manager, A1 Team Lebanon said of the second day of running in Shanghai, "We missed a session of running yesterday afternoon, but Allam drove well this morning and improved on his performance. The qualifying today was highly competitive and Allam did a good job for us. He was able to post better times than quite a few of the more experienced teams such as Australia, Czech Republic, Ireland and Mexico, so it was disappointing not to have nailed the fourth segment lap. We are feeling optimistic though, as Allam has shown that he has a good pace and this is encouraging for tomorrow's races."
Team Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia continued race preparations for the tenth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Shanghai, China today, finishing eighth in qualifying, in a closely fought battle amongst the front-runners.
Morning practice was an uninterrupted one-hour of running in cool temperatures, but with plenty of heat on the track. The leader-board changed regularly as the front running teams all pushed to gain the maximum from their cars. Malaysia was in the thick of the rivalry, with Yoong starting the session just inside the top ten, moving up to fourth quickest by the midway point of the session and by the end of the session had improved to post second fastest time.
In the qualifying session which started at 14h15 local time today, Yoong was lying fifth in the first three segments, but being unable to improve on his time in the final one, he dropped to eighth fasted lap time overall to line up in this position for the Sprint race tomorrow.
Yoong said of qualifying, "This was not the qualifying position we had hoped for. We made a few changes to the car during the qualifying session as we were suffering with understeer yesterday but we ended up with oversteer today and we just have not been able to find the balance in the car. So I'm a bit disappointed tonight.
However, on a positive note, this is a great track for overtaking and we hope to do plenty of it tomorrow. I enjoy races like that and I think I'll enjoy tomorrow's races and I think we'll have a good car and be able to make up a few positions."
Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia commented, "We've been running comfortably in the top ten during the weekend, and we looked for a while as if we were on for a top five starting spot, but just slipped back.
It was a closely fought session with tremendous competition between the top teams of which we are one. Just before the final I session I mentioned to our Chief Engineer that any of the top ten teams could finish in almost any order today.
So eighth was ours. We are one of the favourites for a points finish, but we still have a bit of work to do. We have the package to do the job and hope that we can bring home the points for Malaysia tomorrow."
Team Netherlands
In the official A1GP qualifying for tomorrow's Sprintrace A1 Team Netherlands has had to settle for a fourteenth grid position. In the four runs Renger van der Zande, who competed in his second A1GP qualifying, set an aggregate time of 3'12.426 (1'36.457 + 1'35.969).
During the final free practice, A1 Team Netherlands was, just like earlier this weekend, inside the top ten. Renger van der Zande set a ninth fastest time, seven tenths from the front.
The first qualifying run resulted in a thirteenth place for the team. Van der Zande managed to improve in session 2 and climbed to twelfth place. But A1 Team Netherlands had to give up one place one run later and despite the fact that Renger managed to set his fastest lap of the weekend in the fourth and final run, the team dropped to fourteenth place.
With that grid position A1 Team Netherlands will have a fierce battle on it's hands to get the maximum result and best chance on points in the Feature race.
A1 Team Netherlands Rookie Renger van der Zande had counted on a better result beforehand; "Very disappointing. This we certainly did not expect. This weekend we do not have the pace yet to be able to battle with the front runners, but I feel we also do not belong in fourteenth position. I have not been able yet to set a really fast time in a single flying lap, I found out that this is something I have to get used to. In other racing disciplines you have got more laps to set your time, now it has to be in your very first flying lap. We made some changes in the second and third run, but that did not bring improvement. We reversed that for the final session and that worked somewhat, I also had a better run myself. We will have to see if we can move to the front tomorrow".
A1 Team Netherlands team manager Dave Stubbs; "This is very disappointing, I think that we were capable of qualifying inside the top eight, which is where we should be. But for some reason it did not happen today".
Team New Zealand
New Zealand driver Jonny Reid will be on the front row of the grid for tomorrow afternoon's opening Sprint Race in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Shanghai.
Reid will start from second on the grid in the penultimate round of the season, just being pipped for pole position by a scorching Great Britain effort in the last stanzas of qualifying at the 4.602km Shanghai International Circuit. The USA and Germany will be perched on the second row with Malaysia qualifying in 5th position.
Reid was stunned, but philosophical about having pole snatched from his grasp after being uber-consistent in practice and qualifying. "I don't know where he (GBR's Robbie Kerr) came from in setting that last lap time," Reid said. Ï'm happy given it's my first crack at the circuit and I'm on the front row, but I'm still disappointed we couldn't nail the top spot."
Reid is confident Black Beauty has the "race pace" to make an impact and he says he's putting the points scenarios out of his mind as he concentrates on being first across the line. "We have to be wary of Great Britain tucked in behind us on the points table, but we can't really worry about them or the championship leaders, Germany . We simply have to concentrate on our own goals and master what we're doing."
Reid is loving the high-tech circuit, but says they've been surprised by the wind prevalent at the track. Ït's quite blustery at times, which affects the gear ratios and the aerodynamic grip. But we're happy with the car and its set up and can't wait to rip into the racing."
Earlier in the day Reid followed up yesterday's second quickest time in the first official practice by setting the fastest time in the second official practice. Reid completed 21 laps and edged out Malaysia's Alex Yoong by 0.386 seconds. Switzerland , India and the USA rounded out the top 5 with Great Britain and France, New Zealand 's nearest challengers in the championship race, in 6th and 7th place.
The other pleasing aspect for A1 Team.NZL was that Black Beauty hit the fastest speed on the odometer. After a worrying lack of straight-line speed in the most recent round in Mexico a new engine seems to have propelled the Kiwis back on to pace.
Team Pakistan
Nur Ali took part in qualifying for the penultimate round of the current A1GP season today, at the Shanghai circuit in China. A1 Team Pakistan completed 17 laps in final practice, before setting the team's quickest time of the weekend in qualifying. Nur Ali will line up on the 11th row of the grid for tomorrow's Sprint race.
In the magnificent surroundings of the Shanghai International Circuit, the Pakistan car was first out on track for the first of four qualifying segments. Ali set his fastest time of the weekend on his third lap, with a 1.39.171. The A1 Team Pakistan driver backed this up with a final lap in the 1.39s. In A1GP's unique qualifying system, Ali's two fastest laps were aggregated to decide his place on the Sprint race grid. The team will therefore start from the 11th row tomorrow.
Commenting on the team's qualifying performance, Ali said, "The first two laps were a bit disappointing. I was braking a bit too early in a couple of corners. After some feedback from the team between the qualifying laps, I adjusted my style slightly, started to brake later and saw some improvement on my third and fourth flying laps. Now I'll go through data with my engineer and see if we need to make any changes to the car and where I can make improvements in my driving.
"Final practice this morning was a little frustrating, as the second gear broke, but the boys managed to fix it. Thankfully that happened in practice rather than this afternoon in qualifying or tomorrow in the race.
"I'm very excited about the race tomorrow, it's going to be a long race it's going to be fun and very competitive. We're down to the last two events now, so it's all out for a lot of teams and I'm hoping if I remain consistent, I may be able to benefit from any desperate moves ahead of me."
Team Manager Bobby Issazadhe added, "Today's qualifying session was a little frustrating, our first run was on new tyres, but Nur didn't manage a particularly consistent lap. Unfortunately the car was then randomly selected for scrutineering on its way back to the garage and the tyres went cold. This meant we had to send Nur out on another new set of tyres for his second flying lap, but he struggled to get the most out of the new rubber.
"After listening to the team's advice, Nur improved through some of the corners, and set his fastest times on his third and fourth laps, even through the car was on old tyres. We will be aiming to work with Nur and help him extract as much as possible from new tyres in the races tomorrow and in the future."
Team USA
A1 Team USA will start from third position Sunday in the A1GP - Worldcup of Motorsport Sprint Race at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Prior to qualifying, A1 Team USA prevailed against adversity in today's third practice session. The team was forced to make adjustments to the braking system twice during the session. Only for his last outing did driver Jonathan Summerton find himself able to push, raising the We The People car from 12th place to 5th with a single attempt. The brake woes prevented the team from following its practice plan, but enough lessons were learned to go confidently into qualifying.
That confidence was justified when Summerton posted a 1:35.390, the fastest lap of the day to that point, to head first qualifying by 0.063s. The We The People car was on provisional pole. Second qualifying is a tire gambit, and some teams elected to roll the dice and use new tires. Team USA went with used tires, yet still posted a respectable, and highly competitive 1:36.077 for P6 in second qualifying.
Now with new tires for the two remaining segments, A1 Team USA was ready to fight for the pole. Fastest in sector 1, and competitive around the whole lap with a 1:35.469, the 18-year-old rookie placed P3 in 3rd qualifying and was now second in combined results. With a final tuning of the setup and new tires again, Team USA was ready to go for the pole.
All the fast cars left pit lane just minutes before the checkered flag. It was a shootout. Summerton posted a 1:35.41, a great time. However, New Zealand held firm to take provisional pole for a few seconds. Team GBR then pulled a 1:34.756 out of a hat, leapfrogging to the pole position, and pushing the We The People car back to the second row.
Nonetheless, it was a good day's work. P3 is Team USA's best qualifying effort in over a year.
"The track has changed a lot since we arrived here" said Summerton. "I made a small mistake in every run. Maybe I could have found a few 10ths. Still, I'm really happy to be up front. I have a good car for the race tomorrow, and I hope to improve upon our third place finish in Mexico."
"I am really proud how the entire team is working well together. It's like a genuine boys' club-work hard towards a clear objective, and really like, enjoy, and respect each other while having some fun. Props to our guys and girl who handle the car so well," said A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger. "Tomorrow should be a great race, and I'm cautiously optimistic we will be on the podium again in Shanghai."
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