Australia
John Martin once released to do his installation lap was slow in the first sector and very fast in sectors 2 and 3 for Q1 of the Sprint Qualifying. Quite the opposite in Q2 where Martin was fast in sectors 1 and 3 but slow in sector 2 and once the times were combined the grid position of 19th was handed down to A1 Team Australia.
Better results followed with a provisional pole position for Martin in Q1 of the Feature Qualifying. After a crash from the Brazil car, the session ended early with red flags and the grid positions were given to the Q1 time allowing those who set a quicker lap in their session of Q2 to move ahead of A1 Team Australia. Monaco claimed their first pole because they set a faster time in the session before the crash, and that time stands.
Alan Jones A1 Team Australia Seatholder: "We had a very busy start to our day with an early Rookies 2 where Ash did well, followed by some pedal changes for John for his third practice session. In John's session there were fuel problems plus errors in the data from the push to pass. We fixed those and then experienced over steer. Our plan for the qualifying worked well giving John plenty of room in front to set a quick lap but he overdrove the car and we ended up in 19th. Not the best place to be when you need points in the Sprint race. Let's see if we can do well with our pitstop. We had a better result in Q1 of the Feature Race Qualifying with a first place time of 1:28.439. With six minutes to go in Q2 we sent John out with hopes of a top three grid position but the Brazilian car lost control and crashed. The session was red flagged and finished early. With five cars lucky enough to set a time and having John just start his flying lap, he had to slow to finish in 4th for the Feature grid'
John Martin: 'I made a big mistake in the Sprint qualifying driving the car too hard again and it cost me big-time. The track is a lot faster and once I had it right in the Feature Qualifying that provisional pole was awesome. But the shunt and red flags changed that real quick and we start tomorrow in fourth, a place I seem to own lately"
Brazil
Under the watchful eye of Ferrari's Felipe Massa, A1 Team Brazil's very own Felipe - Guimarães - today qualified in 14th and 8th positions respectively for tomorrow's Sprint and Feature races at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit. A1GP Gauteng in Johannesburg, South Africa is the fifth round of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.
For qualifying, the series have reintroduced the PowerBoost 'joker' concept, which allows the PowerBoost button to be used for one lap of the four available in qualifying (two for Sprint and two for Feature). This gives the drivers an extra 60bhp and so it is a gamble for the team to decide on its strategy of which qualifying they opt to use it in.
Felipe did not use the PowerBoost In qualifying for the Sprint race, and set his fastest time of 1:29.726 on the first of his two laps, taking 14th position at the end of the session, setting himself up on the seventh row for tomorrow morning's race. Felipe set a time of 1:28.878 in the first segment of Feature race qualifying, putting himself in provisional fifth place. He saved his PowerBoost lap until the end and pushing hard, after a very strong first sector, he lost the rear of the car going into the esses, crashing heavily backwards into the tyre wall. The accident put a stop to qualifying, however, with only three cars managing to better Felipe's first segment time, he will begin the afternoon race from the fourth row of the grid in eighth place.
The team was joined for qualifying by Brazilian Ferrari star, and 2008 F1 World Championship runner-up, Felipe Massa, who watched the sessions from the pitwall with Team Principal, and two-time F1 World Champion, Emerson Fittipaldi. It was Massa's first visit to an A1GP event and his first opportunity to see the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari cars in action. He also took the opportunity to drive a hot lap of Kyalami in the A1GP Ferrari 599 safety car. After qualifying Massa commented: "It's really interesting visiting A1GP, it's a nice organisation and I've enjoyed seeing the quality of the new car, it's really nice. It was a shame for Felipe in last qualifying, but this can happen. As drivers we are always on the limit and that is what he was doing."
Felipe Guimarães: "This is our best qualifying result in the feature race this season but we should have been in the top four. I am looking at the positives because we were fast throughout. The last lap was looking really good and I was very happy after the first sector. Then I just carried too much speed into the corner, lost the rear and that was it. We've got some hard work to fix the car but I will go out and do my best for the team tomorrow."
Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "Felipe was on the maximum power on the final lap, using PowerBoost. He was very quick on the first sector and we were looking to finish in a strong position with a good time, but unfortunately he lost the car on the quick esses. We are just thankful that he is not injured because we can always repair the car. We have a great team of people and we are eighth on the grid for the Feature race so I hope tomorrow will be a good day for us."
France
Today, A1 Team France took part in qualifying practice for the 2 races in the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Championship on the Kyalami circuit in the Gauteng province in South Africa.
In the morning, the team finished free practice in fifth place and its hopes were high when qualifying began. The first 2 segments went off well and Nicolas Prost set the seventh-quickest time without using his power boost. He will start from this place for the Sprint race.
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