Australia

The superb summer weather here at Brands Hatch has certainly motivated the fans to come along and witness the A1 drivers setting quicker lap times driving faster than ever before breaking lap records.
On average the cars are three seconds and ten kilometres per hour faster than their predecessors with an average speed of 186 kph and a straightline speed of 269 kph around this track at Brands.

In the early third practice session this morning John Martin moved his A1 Team Australia race car into 1:13.163 mid session completing 21 laps in total. Of the three timed sectors on the racetrack, Martin was sixth fastest in sector one to finish the session overall in 11th position with a 0.879/second gap to the fastest car of A1 Team Netherlands.

John Martin: "A few small errors cost me a couple of tenths and that's all you need to loose three or four places. The car is quick so we'll see how qualifying goes later today"

The weather cooled somewhat for the Sprint and Feature Qualifying sessions. Rob Arnott the team's chief engineer released Martin with a clear track and this paid dividends with a 4th place in qualifying one on a time of 1:13.088 being 0.733 of a second behind provisional pole sitter A1 Team Netherlands. A late release onto the track inside the last part of the ten minute session for Martin's qualifying two was another perfect strategy by the engineers. Unfortunately John Martin ran wide into Druids Bend and dropped his final grid position to 10th being 1.130 of a second behind pole sitter A1 Team Ireland.

In the first ten minute session of Feature race qualifying one, the team decided to send Martin out on used tyres without using the only allowed 'push to pass' button option for combined qualifying. This proved to be another good move as Martin lapped inside the top seven with others ahead of him using new tyres. His time of 1:12.581 placed 7th would be eclipsed in qualifying two.

Alan Jones, Rob Arnott, Danny King, Alan Docking and Adam Gotch discussed the best option to release Martin onto his final qualifying session for season four. With two minutes remaining Martin was on a flyer after using his push to pass when A1 Team Switzerland drove off the track on the hope of stalling an A1 Team Ireland assault to grab pole. With yellow flags shown Rob Arnott monitored Martin's track speed informing him of the yellows at turn two as Martin pushed the car hard and fast into a quicker time of 1:11.930 to finish in 7th position. At the end of the session the times were all provisional with a steward's enquiry to the Swiss incident. No penalty was given and the positions remained the same.

Alan Jones A1 Team Australia Seatholder: "That was a good combined effort from everyone in the team. Though John made some minor errors that cost him some places, we're well placed in both races to get points and as we are looking to take out the season's pitstop kings title so keep an eye on the crew"

John Martin: "I try every time to do a better lap, to try and do a perfect lap. It hasn't come as yet but I feel tomorrow we have a good chance to move up the grid for Sprint points and then target a podium to finish the season's Feature race. The car is good and the crew were cool in their decisions today"

Rob Arnott: "John is improving every lap, every session this season. He is pushing himself harder every time, and when he finally does that perfect lap, watch out, he'll take pole for sure. We managed to get the best out of the car and believe we've found some improvements for tomorrow to help John grab more points, hopefully in both races for the season finale here at Brands"

France

Today, A1 Team France continued its preparations on the Brands Hatch circuit for the seventh and final round of the 2008-09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Championship.

After studying the data collected yesterday, the team changed the car's set-up to improve its mechanical grip for free practice this morning. Nicolas Prost proved that it was a step in the right direction by setting the ninth-quickest time on worn tyres.

In qualifying, the team was satisfied with the balance of its chassis and decided to use its power boost in the fourth segment. Thus, it was beaten by some of its rivals who had decided to use theirs earlier. In these conditions Nicolas's twelfth time after the first 2 segments was encouraging, as the team knew it would be possible to go much quicker in the final 2 parts.

The best was yet to come. To avoid any red or yellow flags or traffic problems A1Team France decided to go out early in the last part of qualifying. It wa s the right choice. Nicolas was fourth after his flying lap and then dropped only one place to Team Ireland, which bagged pole.

Starting from fifth on the grid in the Feature race A1 Team France has achieved the first part of its aim this weekend. Thanks to an aggressive strategy and the consistency of its driver, it will be going for the rostrum tomorrow. Such a performance would be the ideal way to end the 2008-09 Championship on a high note.