07/10/2005
NEWS STORY
The close competition between A1 Teams proved for an exciting start to the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Germany as their positions continued to change throughout the two sessions.
A1 Team Great Britain recorded the fastest lap for the first official practice session with driver, Robbie Kerr saying: 'Obviously it went well in the first session as I was quickest but we have still got work to do. It was good that the time was fast enough to put us third overall at the end of the day. For session 2 we worked on getting a balance on older tyres. We ended up sixth fastest in the second session which isn't too bad but not where we want to be. We know what is making the difference now and so can move forward and tomorrow we are determined to stay at the top of the time sheets.'
The fastest lap in the second session was recorded by A1 Team France's Nicolas Lapierre. He commented: 'It has been a good day. This morning was difficult because the team has never been here and nor have I. This made it difficult to find some marks but the team did a really good job this afternoon. We had a small problem on the front wing so had to change it and also a problem with the brakes, but these were very small problems. So far so good, we have to keep pushing tomorrow morning and then we will go for qualifying.'
Recording the second fastest lap over all A1 Team Ireland's Ralph Firman, who will make his A1GP race debut this weekend, said: 'It was okay but on this circuit there are no quick corners, they are just very, very long corners and we are struggling with oversteer. It is nice to be back in a single seater although it felt a bit alien to start with. I am slowly getting back to being used to driving a single seater after not driving one properly for two years. I think everyone has now done more days testing than I have so now are ahead of us. It was a good start but there is more to come.'