Adam Carroll today enjoyed a successful 65-lap test in A1 Team Ireland's all-new A1GP ‘Powered by Ferrari' car at Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk ahead of this weekend's opening round in Zandvoort.

The 25 year old Portadown driver was able to set the fastest time out of the six A1GP entries testing at the track, and was very impressed with the new car in its fresh green, blue and white livery. This was Carroll's first taste of the 600bhp Ferrari V8 engine, the highly sophisticated new car and the new Michelin tyres which A1GP has adopted.

"Everything went really well," said the former Honda F1 test driver. "The car was completely reliable, very consistent to drive and it is certainly quick – especially in the fast corners. It is going to be good to race it, and on the quicker circuits I think it's going to be very impressive. It was good to get the team working together at the track in the run up to this weekend, and we really couldn't have wished for a more straightforward day to test the car."

The Team Ireland crew is now heading to Zandvoort to begin preparations for Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions and Sunday's Sprint and Feature races. Today's test was the first outing for new Technical Director Gerry Hughes, who recently joined the team after almost a decade spent at the forefront of F1 engineering with Jaguar Racing, Jordan Grand Prix and Super Aguri F1.

"It was a successful outing, we ran through our test programme and overall I have to say we are very pleased with the way things went," said Hughes. "The car ran trouble-free all day and Adam did a good job, as we'd expect. It is still early days in terms of learning about all the systems on the car, but it behaved very well and we are in good shape for the weekend."