19/01/2008
NEWS STORY
Brazil
Sergio Jimenez will line up on the fifth and sixth rows of the grid for the sprint and feature races respectively at the Taupo circuit in New Zealand for round five of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport tomorrow. Sergio qualified for the races in tenth and 11th positions after struggling with balance issues throughout the session.
Following this morning's one-hour practice session, the team was hopeful of a top six position ahead of qualifying. Sergio completed 24 laps and finished the session eighth fastest, with things looking promising as he consistently improved his times throughout the hour.
However, when it came to qualifying for the sprint race, Sergio found himself struggling with the balance of the car on the bumpy Taupo track. He went out in the first segment on new tyres with less than a minute of the session remaining. He set a lap of 1:17.516 and was in provisional seventh. Unfortunately, in the second segment, despite once again running on new tyres and improving his earlier time by more than a second with a 1:16.408, Sergio slipped down the order to tenth as lap times tumbled in the dying seconds of the session.
Although the team worked on the balance for the first segment of feature race qualifying, Sergio still struggled, setting a time of 1:16.647 on old tyres, and headed into the final segment in provisional 14th. On fresh rubber once again, and finally with a more balanced car, Sergio was able to set his best lap of qualifying with a time of 1:16.024. However, in an extremely competitive session, his time saw him settle for 11th position.
Sergio Jimenez: "Once again we started qualifying with a car that was difficult to drive. It was very nervous and these balance problems really affected our qualifying. We improved the car slightly for feature race qualifying but it was not enough. We finally found something in the last session but it was too late by then, we just didn't find the balance in time. We have a car good enough to be in the top five or six but we always struggle with balance in qualifying. I'm pretty confident for the races tomorrow though. The car is good, we can go fast and I just hope that there are no incidents and we can have a strong finish."
Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "We lost time because the windy conditions affected the set-up and we had some balance problems. Sergio was very quick on the fast corners this morning, but lost speed on those corners this afternoon. He was not happy with the car because it was very nervous on the fast corners. We lost half a second on set-up and we could have been top five."
Canada
Robert Wickens successfully carried his front-running form from Friday's practice sessions into Saturday qualifying as the 18-year-old Toronto-native posted A1 Team Canada's best qualifying slot of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season courtesy of fourth on the grid for Round 5's Feature race, hosted at Taupo Motorsports Park in New Zealand tomorrow, Sunday 20th January.
Wickens earlier captured eighth on the grid for Sunday morning's shorter Sprint race, the Canadian charger now with four top-ten starts to his credit in just six races representing his country in the winter-based, nation versus nation open-wheel racing series. With Canada currently sitting 13th in the A1GP Nations Standings, the team is seeking a strong double points score tomorrow to improve its standing amongst the 22 competing nations with this weekend's Kiwi outing the half-way stage in the title fight.
Utilizing two new sets of tires for his two Sprint qualifying runs, Robert's second effort of 1m16.201s sealed eighth on the grid with home-favorite Jonny Reid snatching pole. Wickens improved his best lap time to 1m15.922s on old rubber for his first Feature run before going faster still and capturing fourth on the Feature grid on his last tour on new tires with a 1m15.588s lap around the 3.5km track.
"Canada's goal going into every weekend is to score points and improve our overall position," Wickens remarked post-qualifying. "I think we've set ourselves up well for this weekend. I need to get a good start in the Sprint and in the Feature we need to try and make it through to the finish. The team work really hard on their pit stops and unfortunately I haven't given them the chance to do one yet in a Feature race so I'm definitely going to try my hardest and aim for the podium!"
Simon Cayzer, Canada's Team Manager reflected, "I'm very happy! The balance of the car at the start of the session was reasonable but we were struggling for grip. We made some changes and worked with Robert to advance. We're that much closer to the front now and in good company, exactly where Canada needs to be. We have a good chance to fight for solid points tomorrow!"
France
After dominating practice on Friday and Saturday on the Taupo circuit in New Zealand, A1 Team France will start from pole for the Feature race and third for the Sprint event.
A few minutes before qualifying, a strong wind blew a lot of sand onto the track, completely modifying the grip. This unforeseen situation led to four unusual sessions, as the majority of teams waited until the very last moment to go out. At the start of practice the balance of the A1 Team France car was not optimal and Loïc Duval could do no better than third. The team reacted instantaneously. A new set-up and a revised strategy enabled Loïc to get back on the pace. The result was the fastest time in the last 2 sessions that gave him pole for the Feature race.
Two podium finishes look on the cards for the team, which will try not to make any mistakes during the rest of the weekend and fulfil its mission: namely, to close the gap to the championship leader.
Olivier Panis, Sporting Director: "The sandstorm that hit the circuit just before qualifying really put the cat among the pigeons, and all the teams that had been competitive in free practice paid the price for this unexpected turn of events. We managed to limit the damage and set the third-quickest time for the Sprint Race. Loïc bagged pole for the Feature Race after we revised the set-up and sent him out earlier in the final practice session on a cleaner track. Congratulations to the whole team, which reacted perfectly to the changing conditions. Tomorrow's aim is a couple of podium finishes, and also to close the gap to the championship leader."
Loïc Duval: "It's been a good day for A1 Team France. We showed our speed in the morning's free sessions, and we felt pretty optimistic about qualifying. Unfortunately, the wind and the sand upset our programme. It's a bit annoying, as in normal conditions we'd have bagged pole for both races. Today's results, though, are good and we can tackle tomorrow's two races with a fair chance of scoring a harvest of points. Switzerland, the championship leader, will start behind us twice. This should enable us to close the gap."
Germany
On his return to A1 Team Germany, Christian Vietoris achieved his personal best-ever qualifying positions for Willi Weber's A1 Team Germany in the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The 18 year-old driver from Gönnersdorf in Germany qualified for fourth position in the Sunday's sprint race and improved subsequently to second position for the feature race grid at the Taupo circuit in New Zealand.
With the 3.5 kilometre track being rather dirty all weekend owing to strong wind, most teams opted for late outings in the four segments of qualifying. In the first segment, Christian Vietoris finished second best (1m16.495s) with just France's Loïc Duval pipping him by 0.155s. In the second segment, late charges by New Zealand's Jonny Reid and South Africa's Adrian Zaugg meant that both France and Germany were relegated by two positions. Despite improving his time to 1m15.724s, Christian Vietoris had to be content with fourth place on the grid for the sprint race.
In the third outing, A1 Team Germany clinched third position (1m15.869s), with both New Zealand and South Africa being faster again. The final attempt turned out to be a thriller as Germany trailed France by merely 0.035s whilst the other teams failed to top these times in the dying seconds of the session.
In finishing fourth and second, Christian Vietoris equalled the best average qualifying performance of A1 Team Germany (third position) this season obtained by Michael Ammermüller last time out in China (resulting from his first and fifth places respectively).
Christian Vietoris: "Today, I had an unusual task in qualifying. As the wind was blowing so much dust on the track, the whole field only started in the last two or three minutes of each session. So it was important to find a gap and still maintain the high temperatures in the tyres in the respective out laps. This didn't work as expected in the sessions for the sprint race. I went out on new tyres both times, but the temperature was not perfect as I had to leave a gap to get a free lap. So I changed my approach for the feature race qualifying. We went out slightly earlier and the tyre temperatures were much better. We've improved continuously since the free practice sessions and we nearly clinched pole position. Despite having achieved my personal best qualifying performance of the season, I'm a bit disappointed as it was absolutely close at the end, with France pipping us by just 0.035s. With a slightly more aggressive approach, we might have been able to clinch pole position. Anyway, we are in a strong position for the feature race, but as the weather forecast predicts some rain, it could be quite a lottery on Sunday."
Great Britain
Robbie Kerr will line up on the seventh and fifth rows of the grid for A1 Team GBR for tomorrow's sprint and feature races at the Taupo Motorsport Park in New Zealand.
A1 Team GBR head into tomorrow's races at the Taupo Motorsport Park disappointed with its grid slots but confident that its race pace can prevail. After struggling with grip throughout qualifying and also suffering a technical problem which the team are now investigating, Robbie Kerr had to settle for 13th place in sprint qualifying. He improved for the feature race qualifying, bringing the GBR car home ninth fastest, setting himself up for a fifth row start.
Confidence was high in the team following Kerr's impressive performance in this morning's final one-hour practice session. Throughout the hour he consistently toppled his own best lap times, and finished the session second fastest, his best lap just one tenth of a second behind practice leaders Team France.
In qualifying for the sprint race, Team GBR opted for the same strategy as all of the other teams, going out late on the windy and dusty track to try to get a clean run. Unfortunately, Robbie came upon traffic on his outlap, preventing him from getting the new rubber up to optimum running temperature for his hot lap. He came upon further misfortune on his qualifying lap when he was blocked by Team India spinning in front. His lap time of 1:17.876 placed him in provisional 11th position. Once again running on new tyres in the second session, Robbie improved on his time by over a second, setting a lap of 1:16.731. However, the session was incredibly tight and, still struggling to get the best from the tyres, Team GBR slipped down the standings to 13th.
The team made significant set-up changes ahead of first qualifying for the feature race although, running on old tyres, it was difficult to see the benefit of the changes. Robbie set a lap of 1:16.485, placing him provisional 11th. In final qualifying, Robbie completed a better hot lap on his new tyres, but lost time in sector three when he clipped a kerb, running slightly wide. Nevertheless, he set his best lap with a time of 1:15.895 and moved up to ninth fastest, putting him on the fifth row of the grid for the feature race. Following qualifying Team GBR has begun investigations into a possible fuel pressure problem which affected Robbie during the session.
Robbie Kerr: "I'm obviously disappointed with qualifying having been reasonably competitive yesterday, very competitive this morning and setting competitive laps on old tyres. But the grip levels just weren't there during qualifying and we also have a technical problem which the team is going to look into. Then on the last lap, I pushed too hard which cost a couple of tenths. Unfortunately we weren't in a position to be in the front row this time."
Katie Clements, Team Principal: "We're obviously not where we want to be, particularly after a promising performance in practice this morning. It will be a struggle starting from 13th and 9th on the grid, but the team are confident that our race pace will be competitive, so we'll be aiming for some points."
Ireland
Adam Carroll will start tomorrow morning's Sprint race from 7th position for Belmayne A1 Team Ireland in round five of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in New Zealand.
With the temperature much colder than Friday's practice and wind blowing dust across the circuit, conditions were tricky out on track. With 22 nations competing on the 3.5km circuit, traffic was also an issue which meant putting the perfect lap together was even harder than usual across the four qualifying segments. In Sprint race qualifying Adam crossed the line in P2 with a 1m16.182s but as others got a cleaner lap he dropped to 7th by the chequered flag with New Zealand's Jonny Reid putting Black Beauty on pole in front of his home crowd.
In qualifying for the Feature race, traffic caused problems once again with Adam unable to get a clear lap after some quick changes ahead of Qualifying 4. He finished 13th after two frustrating runs leaving some work to do in tomorrow's race, but the team is confident that the pace is in the car and Adam is up to the challenge to drive the Celtic Tiger back to the front.
Adam Carroll: "All the work we did yesterday was good and we felt extremely happy. The car was really drivable but yesterday was twice as hot as today and it now feels like we're in a different country; the conditions have totally changed. What we ended up with yesterday just hasn't worked for us today, but we made a couple of changes in Qualifying 4 which worked and I then put in my best lap. We have a good race car for tomorrow and hopefully we can make up a few places. It's a 70-minute Feature race and we saw in China that people make mistakes and a lot can happen, so if we can stay out of trouble I hope to bring the car home in a good position."
Dan Walmsley, Race Engineer: "It's disappointing as we really felt that we would be competitive today. On our last run we got a little bit of traffic in Sector 1 which cost us our ultimate lap time but we still have some things to try for tomorrow and the team are extremely focused. We struggled for overall grip and didn't extract the performance out the car that we did yesterday. The track conditions have changed a lot and we made adjustments accordingly but there's still some work to be done. We made a few changes during the qualifying sessions and the team worked well to get them done in a short period of time. We're optimistic we will perform better tomorrow as we've already shown that we have a quick car, we now need to convert that into a result."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon continued preparations for the fifth round of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Taupo, New Zealand today. The team will line up in 17th place for tomorrow's Sprint race and 16th for the main Feature race.
With windy weather conditions kicking up plenty of dust, the field of A1GP drivers took to the track for a final practice session this morning. Alajajian and the Lebanon team were hot off the mark to gain as much track time as possible in preparation for the afternoon qualifying session. The demanding track, with 13 turns over the 3.5km lap distance is a test for driver and car. The tight corners have heavy G-forces and require top level driver fitness, and the narrow Taupo track features dusty runoffs, needs precise driving and a well balanced car to get the most from it. Alajajian drove consistently to finish 20th fastest after the hour and the team then started work on final preparations for qualifying.
The first two parts of the qualifying session set the Sprint race grid and the second two parts determine the order that the cars line up in for the Feature race. In the first of the team's flying laps Alajajian was caught out at turn nine, with a wheel off the track putting him into a spin. Undeterred, the team quickly made repairs to the car and were able to have it back out for the second segment, in which Alajajian posted 17th quickest time to line up in this position on the Sprint race grid. In the final two segments he drove another two consistent laps, and 16th fastest lap, to line up in this position for the Feature race.
Alajajian said of the day, "It was a tough session, with the high winds and a very dusty track which makes it very slippery. I messed up my first run but thankfully the guys did a great job to get me back out for the next lap. Of course I'd like us to be further up the grid, but we're showing more consistency and creeping forwards."
Trevor Bale, Team Manager for the Lebanon team adds, "Overall Chris has coped well in difficult circumstances. It's not an easy track to master, and the track conditions added an extra challenge, with little room for error, but he put in two solid laps and I think we're starting to see improvements that we need. This track doesn't offer much potential for overtaking, so we'll need to benefit from other drivers mistakes and stay on the track if we're to produce good finishes."
Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia made their final preparations for tomorrow's two races in Taupo today, the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The bright sunshine and high temperatures of opening day practice yesterday were replaced with strong winds and cooler temperatures that added to the excitement of qualifying for the large crowds attending this New Zealand event. A 9th place start for the Sprint race and 14th place for the main Feature race was the outcome of the qualifying session for A1 Team Malaysia this afternoon.
The morning practice was the Malaysian team's final hour of running ahead of the afternoon practice. The track demands high precision driving with the narrow band of asphalt edged by dusty runoffs and driver Alex Yoong used the session to fine-tune the car setup to cope with the 13 turns of this 3.5km circuit and perfect his racing lines for qualifying. The team worked on a programme of set up changes in their quest for optimising the car performance and had improved lap times over the course of the session. Finishing 16th after an hour, the team then began final preparations for qualifying.
The afternoon qualifying is split in to four segments with the best of two flying laps in the first two setting the grid for the Sprint race and the best of two flying laps from the second two determining their position for the main Feature race.
In the first segment Yoong posted 14th fastest time, and with an improvement on the second flying lap, he grabbed a top ten spot, lining up in ninth for the Sprint race.
The final two segments saw the majority of the field stay in their garages until late in the session, waiting for other cars to take to the circuit ahead of them and clean up a very dusty track. Malaysia was one of these teams, but as with all the others ran the risk of a busy track, and in the event this was one of the challenges faced by the team. After a difficult two laps Yoong finished with 14th fastest lap overall to line up in this position for the Feature race.
Yoong said after qualifying, "I'm disappointed that we didn't have two top ten starts. Our ninth for the Sprint race was okay and was on old tyres, so I thought we'd be on for another strong grid slot, but we just caught traffic and it compromised our laps each time. It is very tricky out on track, with the strong wind and a very dusty track, which makes it very slippery. We are certainly now in a good position for two points finishes tomorrow, but a podium is a taller challenge, especially at this track, which is nearly impossible to pass on. There could be quite a few cars falling foul of the conditions, so if we can keep it clean we should be able to benefit."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, adds, "With the top fifteen cars separated by only a second or so, we've two better start positions than at the last round, so we are now moving in the right direction. This track offers little opportunity to pass; however we're strong on race strategy and will look to use this to our advantage in the two races tomorrow. Our aim has to be points finishes and that is certainly an achievable goal for both races tomorrow."
New Zealand
New Zealand driver Jonny Reid has called on his countrymen to "pack the track" after a scintillating effort in qualifying for tomorrow's A1GP Taupo, Round 5 of the World Cup of Motorsport. Showing remarkable composure under pressure, Reid set a blistering pace in blustery conditions to propel Black Beauty on to pole position for the opening Sprint Race. He then backed up by qualifying 5 th in the Feature Race.
The 24-year-old is chuffed with the pole for the 20-minute dash and believes the 70-minute Feature Race, which includes two pit stops, provides ample time to make up ground.
Qualifying was a game of strategy as the strong winds swept dust on to the circuit and made it extremely slippery. Teams waited until the last minute to head out for their hot laps, hoping the cars out early would lay rubber on the track to give it more grip. With his radio link to the team garage on the blink Reid had no idea where he had qualified for the Sprint Race.
"It was a fantastic feeling to see everyone cheering in the grandstands," he said. "I had no comms and didn't know what the story was. I hoped I was on the front row. To find out it was pole for my home race, awesome. But the stands weren't quite full enough and I want it to be different tomorrow. There are tickets left and it would be great to pack the track."
Reid says he is "very confident" about winning the Sprint Race – "I have the home support and I'll be doing my best" – and the pressure to succeed on home concrete is not phasing him. It's a very tiring weekend. But I'm young, I'm fit and I'm going for it. I'm enjoying it, having fun and going for gold. I've just got to keep my focus and keep relaxed."
Pakistan
The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Taupo, New Zealand completed the second of the three days of the event, with final practice and qualifying for the two races tomorrow. A 22nd place start for the Sprint race and 21st place for the Feature race resulted from A1 Team Pakistan's efforts in the afternoon qualifying session.
A1 Team Pakistan resumed running this morning with high winds kicking up plenty of dust and buffeting the drivers on the Taupo track. The final hour of practice gave the team the chance to finetune the setup of the A1GP car ahead of the qualifying. An early red flag for the stranded Czech car brought all the cars back to the pits after just four laps of running. The interlude was used by the team to make a few setup changes to the Pakistan car. The car was moved and Pakistan, along with the other 21 nations returned to the track and Khan continued to gain track experience through the remainder of the hour. Finishing with 21st fastest lap time, the team then set to work to prepare the car for qualifying.
In the first two segments of qualifying Pakistan completed a flying lap in each of the two. The first of his quick laps gave him a provisional 13th place, and although he improved his time for the second segment, he dropped back down the order to 22nd and the Pakistan team will take this position for the grid of the Sprint race.
Khan said after qualifying, "I'm a bit disappointed as we didn't maximise our potential in the session. We struggled with traffic, and the dusty conditions. It's not an easy track to learn or to master, and the dust blowing across the track made each corner very unpredictable. For tomorrow we need to turn consistent laps and keep out of trouble, then we can be in with a chance of improving on our grid places."
John Allen, Team Manager, A1 Team Pakistan adds, "It wasn't as good as we expected today, with the dusty, slippery conditions challenging us. For a driver who is relatively inexperienced with these conditions, added to the traffic that we had and a technically difficult circuit, it is tough. I think we'll improve our pace and make progress; Adam has already learnt a lot from Danny, our driver coach and as we work together, the results will start to come through."
South Africa
A stunning lap at the very end of the second qualifying session saw Adrian Zaugg put South Africa and the distinctively liveried Vulindlela on the front row of the grid for tomorrow morning's 20-minute Sprint race here. Jonny Reid gladdened the hearts of his home fans by grabbing pole position by two tenths of a second. France (Loic Duval), with whom South Africa shares a technical partnership, starts from third on the grid.
The 21-year-old South African will line up Vulindlela in seventh place for the start of tomorrow afternoon's 70-minute Feature race, despite finishing just three tenths of a second behind France's Duval. The incredible competitiveness of the A1GP World Cup of Nations, in which the 22 competing nations are equipped with identical 3,4-litre V8 cars powered for the first time by a 30% biofuel mixture, is illustrated by the fact that the top 15 cars were separated by less than a second. The slowest time, recorded by Indonesia's rookie Satrio Hermanto in 22nd place, was just 2,8 sec off the best time.
"Qualifying went much better than practice, which we had anticipated given Adrian had not driven at Taupo before," said Mike Carroll, general manager of A1 Team South Africa. "He was stunningly fast again, as he has been in so many qualifying sessions this year, and we took our fifth front row position of the year out of 10 races - a fantastic performance.
"(Race engineer) Humphrey (Corbett) made some changes to the car after the final practice session before qualifying and they certainly proved to be bang on the money - the diff took the mechanics some time to change but proved well worth the effort.
"Adrian's feedback during qualifying was also great as he guided Humphrey on the tyre pressure changes which I think were also very important to the performance - in the first session we were sixth but after the changes for the second we were second behind only NZL.
"We kept second in the third session but then a couple of small mistakes - which happen when you really are pushing the limit - saw Adrian lose too much time in the fourth session. It's a pity as he was 0.15 sec faster up to that point and I think he was headed for pole position for the feature race. However, that's the nature of this game - you're on a tightrope and sometimes you fall off. Seventh is certainly a good enough grid position to get a podium finish out of the feature race.
"Anyone who watched qualifying on TV would have seen many drivers locking their inside front wheels into various of the tight corners - we will have to watch out for this tomorrow as one could easily end up with a badly flat spotted front tyre and that could hurt your race," Carroll added.
Zaugg was happy with his front row position for the sprint race, but disappointed not to be higher up the grid for the longer race. "This is my first time at Taupo. It's a bumpy and demanding circuit and the conditions in qualifying were windy and dusty. So best of the rest after local hero Jonny (Reid) is a good result. I'm confident that if we can complete our two mandatory pit stops in the feature race as well as we did in the last round in China, we will have a very good chance of finishing on the podium again."
Switzerland
Neel Jani, experienced a trouble-free final practice session on Saturday morning where A1 Team Switzerland finished fourth fastest, with a time of 1.15.590. Later Jani qualified in eleventh place for Sunday's sprint race and a stunning third place for the feature race.
The weather conditions were not as hot this morning as they were yesterday and the sky was overcast. The high temperatures of the past days had dropped by 10 degrees to around a pleasant 21 degrees but strong winds were gusting over the track. Despite spending the first half of the third official practice session confined to the garage with a technical problem, championship leader Switzerland's Neel Jani completed 24 laps and clocked a comfortable fourth fastest time of 1.15.590. In the afternoon, Neel finished 11th place starting position for the sprint race and will in third grid position for the feature race.
Under 2007-2008 regulations, qualifying consists of four 15-minute sessions with a five minute break between each one. The fastest lap time set by each team's nominated driver in the first two qualifying segments will determine the grid for the rolling start Sprint race, while the fastest times set in the final two segments will determine how the 22 cars will line up on the grid for the standing start feature race. Each driver is limited to one ‘flying lap' per 15-minute session.
Neel Jani commented, "By the time of the third practice, our tire problems from yesterday had being identified and I was able to fight. We had three trips to the gravel, which is quite unusual for us. But, between the strong winds and some set-up choices that did not work, we managed to get it together even if some corners have not worked. It is really easy to make mistakes on this track. There are heavy winds and it makes how much grip you find in the corners unpredictable.
I was determined to obtain another good result for the two qualifying sessions. I thought I was quicker but then Germany passed, New Zealand became second, and Ireland took third while France grabbed the pole and I will be 11th for the tolling start of the sprint race as I ran wide at the first turn.
I will be starting in the second row from third position for the feature race. It looks like we have found the right balance on this challenging track. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the long feature race will be interesting and challenging for everyone and that something good can come out of it even with our start positions.
Max Welti, team principal, A1 Team Switzerland commented: "Neel had a few problems with the setup in the third session. But we have identified the problem from yesterday. It was a faulty oval rim that disrupted our work at
track. We need a good start and no mistakes for both races on this challenging track in order to find a good pace for the two races and to finish in a good position."
USA
Jonathan Summerton qualified A1 Team USA in a season-best sixth position for the Sprint and 10th for the Feature on Saturday at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Taupo, New Zealand.
"We continue to make inroads in a very competitive series where every team has the same equipment," Summerton said. "We wanted to be higher on the grid for both races, but this is our best overall performance in qualifying this year with two top-10s and we're pleased about that. We had a good run in Sprint qualifying. The 'We the People' car was great in Feature qualifying, but Pakistan car went off in front of us and put dirt on the track. It cost us a few tenths (of a second) easily and those would have moved us up the grid. The car was capable of a top-three."
Summerton ran 1:16.036 in Sprint qualifying on the 2.17-mile circuit. The 19-year-old from Kissimmee, Fla., ran 1:15.898 in Feature qualifying. Summerton's previous best qualifying run was in the last round at Zhuhai, China, seventh for the Feature.
"We're especially happy to be closer to the front for the Sprint," Summerton said. "With only 20 minutes to race, you don't have much time to move up. The Feature is much longer (70 minutes) and has two mandatory pit stops. If you have a good, consistently fast car over a long run and good pit stops, you can gain plenty of positions.
"I'm confident we have a fast car for the races Sunday and with our starting spots, we can score some points."
Summerton was 11th at 1:15.999 in the practice prior to qualifying Saturday. He completed 30 laps. "Our progress is there in black and white on the timing sheets," A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger said. "We've been more competitive in each successive round. We need to continue to strive to improve and take that next step to top-five finishes."
To check out our Taupo Qualifying gallery, click here