A1 Team South Africa, with Adrian Zaugg at the wheel of Vulindlela, headed the time sheets at the end of the first of two days of official testing at Silverstone (England) today in preparation for the third season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

Not only was Zaugg quickest, but he beat the record for an A1GP car at Silverstone by two thousandths of a second on a day which saw 22 nations participating.

Nicolas Lapierre was second quickest for A1 Team France with Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis third and Ireland's Adam Carroll fourth.

"I'm very happy with the way things went today," said Zaugg. "We concentrated on the set-up and made good progress throughout the day. We should be able to improve some more tomorrow.

"My new race engineer (Humphrey Corbett) and I worked very well together. He is very experienced and clearly has a great deal of knowledge, but despite this he made me feel as if I was the one with all the experience. He gave me a lot of confidence and I feel very positive about tomorrow and the new season that lies ahead."

Mike Carroll, general manager of a1 Team South Africa, was equally upbeat: "This was the perfect start to our campaign in this year's third season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. We couldn't have asked for a better first test day ahead of the opening round in the Netherlands on September 30.

"Adrian and Humphrey look like they're quickly building a close relationship, which bodes well for the season ahead. The alliance with A1 Team France is also working well and we are confident we can keep up the good work tomorrow."

Wesleigh Orr, the team's new rookie, had his first official opportunity to drive Vulindlela (after a brief session at Snetterton circuit two weeks ago during the rookie test) and gave a good account of himself. "Wesleigh's still getting to know the car, but his lap times compared to the other rookies indicate that he's a fast learner," said Carroll.

"This is an important opportunity for me to get some seat time in the A1 car ahead of my first official rookie practice session in round two in the Czech Republic in October," said Orr. "I'm really enjoying myself and just trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can."