07/10/2005
NEWS STORY
Ireland
Ralph Firman: We've worked hard today and made quite a few changes to the car in order to find the time and give me the confidence to produce the pace we wanted to find. The combination of long straights and tight in-field section takes a while to get used to but after the first practice session we were already moving in the right direction and further changes meant I was able to push harder towards the end and produce the time. The competition is very close but I think we achieved a lot today and just have to concentrate on getting it right for qualifying tomorrow.
Andy Miller, Technical Director: We made steady progress throughout the day and we are in a position to improve further overnight given what we have learned so far. We should be in a position to challenge tomorrow when it matters, and that's what we will focus on. We are not happy with the car's set-up as yet so there is a lot of time left to come, so that's what we'll be trying to do for the morning,
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: With Ralph having missed the opening round of the series he's had to work quite hard today to get used to the car again, learn the track and ultimately produce a good step forward in terms of performance. The technical team is sure there is more time to come from the car and so tomorrow morning's third practice session will be important as I think qualifying will be extremely competitive as usual. Great to see A1 Team Ireland in 'P2' today, so a good start to the weekend.
New Zealand
Jonny Reid: "It is totally different to the tighter Brand's Hatch. It's very technical and challenging. Because it's wider there's plenty of potential for overtaking, but it's certainly bumpier than I expected in the infield and I was slipping around a bit early on.
"But I'm a lot more confident after this afternoon's session and feel like I'm coming to grips with it. I've got some good brake markers and I'm relatively happy with where I'm at given there's still time to learn before Sunday.
"It will pay to be up with the leaders because there could be carnage at the first corner where it narrows after the wide straight."
Canada
Sean McIntosh: The car was quite good – we started to make little changes but I had to learn the circuit a bit too. It was a good start to the weekend. It was quite similar to the Playstation but some of the corners you can't cut so much. It's a bit slower than I thought. Quite a few little sections are second gear so it's more technical than some of the other sectors because they're slow and you can't make up the time.
Between sessions we made a few adjustments and picked up about a half second in lap time and now it's quite close. It's the slow speed parts that we're working on. With one lap qualifying it's harder but we'll try in the morning practice and then hope to be somewhere in the top ten in qualifying. I think we're capable of that.
Great Britain
Robbie Kerr: "Obviously it went well in the first session being quickest but we've still got work to do. It's good that the time was fast enough to put us third. For session two we worked on getting a balance on older tyres. We ended up sixth fastest which isn't too bad but not where we want to be but we know what's making the differences now and can move forward."
Brazil
Nelson Piquet Jr: "Today has been okay, not ideal, but I'm not too worried. This is my first time driving on the circuit, and it's quite difficult, so I've spent today learning the track and working with the team to find a good set-up for tomorrow. The first session went quite well and we were quick. In the second practice I spent a lot of time bedding in the brakes, and then lost a bit of time with a problem with the battery, so I haven't done as many laps as I would have liked. We've got another hour tomorrow morning though, and I am pretty confident that we will do well in the one-lap qualifying."
Emerson Fittipaldi: "We had a great weekend at Brands Hatch, but this weekend we start again, and have to make improvements and raise our game. All the teams are learning and improving all the time, and we must do the same. Eurospeedway is a new track for Nelson and it is important for him to get as much track time as possible, because a lot of the drivers have raced here before and have more experience - they are the guys that have been faster than us today. We are still learning about the car, which was quite good in the first practice, but a little bit nervous this afternoon while we were trying to set up the brakes. I am confident and optimistic, and we have time in the morning to improve things before qualifying."
Indonesia
Ananda Mikola: "In the first session we weren't really pushing and in the second session, we were running in fourth position for most of the time. I think we lost a couple of spots because other teams put new tyres on and put in flying laps at the end. We didn't put on new tyres, so I'm especially pleased to be so quick. I hope to be able to qualify inside the top ten.
"I have driven at this circuit, but it was over two years ago. I expect that has helped me a little, but more than that I think it is that I am gaining more experience in the car and we are getting to grips with the setups we need for the circuit. It's quite a tricky track, so we had to work hard developing the optimum set up of the car. It's good to be back in the A1 race car and we'll continue to work hard to improve on our times and be competitive for the race."
Commercial Director, Russell Christopher: "It's been an excellent start to the weekend and I'm pleased to see that Ananda has been right up there on the pace all day. He's gaining more and more confidence in the car and this is reflected in his times today. I hope we can translate this in to a good qualifying position tomorrow."
Germany
Timo Scheider: "This is really a good start. We worked on tuning the ride-height, the damper set-up and the anti-roll bars during first practice and improved constantly.
"We decided to run a longer final drive, which immediately proved to be very effective. Furthermore we set our best time at the end of the session, which gives me plenty of confidence since we showed that the direction we took is correct."
Malaysia
Alex Yoong: "It's our first time here and it's quite a tricky track, so we had to work hard developing the optimum set up of the car. It's good to be back in the A1 race car, and it's been interesting to come to a new track for me. We'll continue to work hard to improve on our times and be competitive for the race.
"We'll review the data with the engineers and have a better understanding of what we need to do and the direction in which we're heading. Practice sessions are for exactly what the name suggests - practicing, so we weren't out on track today simply to try and set the fastest times. However, 17th is not what we had expected. It shows the importance and value of having run on this track before, something neither Fairuz nor I have done. We have some ideas from our running today with respect to changes we will make to the car setup and so, with that and our increasing experience here, we are cautiously optimistic that we will improve quite a bit tomorrow."
Fairuz Fauzy: "After Alex's time in the car this morning we reviewed the data and made some setup changes, but they didn't really improve it. It's quite a technical track, with a mix of fast and slow corners, so it will take some time to get the car to our liking."