Brazil

After a successful rookie practice session and a promising start to afternoon practice, A1 Team Brasil's track time was unfortunately cut short when Bruno Junqueira hit the wall in Durban on the trick street circuit. Teams were in action for the first time today at the South African track for round seven of the championship.

Xandi Negrão made his A1GP come-back, taking part in this morning rookie practice. It was Xandi's second outing for Team Brasil, following his rookie debut in Brno, Czech Republic in October 2006. The 22-year-old put in an impressive performance, especially considering his inexperience in the car. He set the sixth fastest time in each of the two 25-minute sessions, and improved his times lap on lap.

Bruno then took over driving duties for this afternoon's one-hour practice. He knows the track as he raced for Team Brasil last year in Durban, finishing seventh in the feature race, and he was right on the pace today. Unfortunately, on turn ten of his sixth lap, while sitting fourth in the standings, he hit the left rear wheel on the concrete wall which then sent him into the opposite wall where he hit the front right corner.

It was a disappointment to Bruno and the team as they lost forty minutes of track time, however, Bruno will be back in the car for tomorrow morning's practice where he will make the most of the time available ahead of the afternoon's qualifying.

Bruno Junqueira: "There's never a good time, but this was definitely not the right time to crash the car. I passed a car on turn nine and then when I got to turn ten I slid into the wall, I don't think I was going too fast so I am just disappointed because we were looking very quick. I'm just going to look ahead to doing a much better job tomorrow."

Xandi Negrão: "The last time I drove the A1 car was 18 months ago and the car feels much better this time around. I kept improving lap by lap and I really enjoyed driving out there. It's a difficult track for sure, but I learnt it quickly and set some competitive times. I will help the team now however I can over the rest of the weekend."

Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "Xandi did a very good job after being out of the car for a very long time and we're really happy with his performance. Clemente Jr is still part of the team and has been doing a good job, but we wanted to give Xandi another chance. I'm frustrated about this afternoon because we really needed the laps but I've spoken to Bruno and it was just a mistake - he lost the back end. It's tough to recover, but the good news is that he knows the track and the car well and I am confident we can still be competitive and make the most of tomorrow."

Czech Republic

Seventeen years old Josef Kral experienced a demanding debut in the colours of the Czech A1GP team. He discovered how hard the walls around the street track at Durban are but he was able to improve lap times afterwards. Durban and its street tack located on the coast of the Indian Ocean offers great surroundings and a unique atmosphere but it is also probably the most demanding track of the A1GP season.

The track is quite narrow in some parts, hard walls are very close and bumps are not making it any easier for the drivers, they have to be focused also on the straights.

Kral, the youngest driver in the field, had a difficult task ahead - to cope with a massive difference in horsepower between the F BMW and A1GP that is almost 400HP and also to avoid possible mistakes because the walls have no mercy. The first rookie session went without problems and the Czech driver did 11 laps with the best one 1:26.088. The second part did not start well and contact with the wall in the first lap meant an early end for Kral.

Young Kral was able to put this unpleasant experience behind him and was fully focused on continuos improvements during the free practice. His confidence was growing and he was shaving tenth after tenth from his maximum. Together with Johny Reid was the busiest man of the session with 28 laps under his belt. The final 21st place is not important the main thing is that with lap 1:22,727 was in touch with competitors ahead. There will be time to analyze the telemetry data now and find place where he can gain the biggest chunk of time.