08/10/2005
NEWS STORY
Despite starting from tenth on the grid for the A1 Grand Prix at the EuroSpeedway, A1 Team Netherlands is pleased about the progress that has been made since the first race at Brands Hatch. In the three free practice sessions of Friday and today Jos Verstappen put the Dutch team well inside the top ten. For today the team had expected to qualify around a seventh position. After the first two 15-minute sessions the team was on schedule with a fifth place, but in the third session Verstappen went off the track exiting corner 9, hitting a foam advertising board which luckily only caused minor damage to the car. The last session saw Jos set his fastest time of the day with a 1:33.659, which made A1 Team Netherlands move up from 12th to 10th.
Jos Verstappen: "We did expect to do a little better. I made a mistake in the third run, which was too bad, otherwise we would have been seventh or eighth on the grid. That's where we should be at the moment. But we have to continue to work hard and give everything and than we will get to where we want to be. For now this is the maximum we were able to achieve. There is progression compared to Brands Hatch. But we still have to push as hard as possible."
Jan Lammers: "Jos went wide coming out of turn 9, we don't know why yet, but with that we lost the third run. Our maximum today would have been seventh or eighth, so in that respect we lost two or three places. So we still have some seven places to think about. Starting from tenth off course is not ideal, you always want to start from pole, but this is what we have to work with for now. But I am pleased with the progression we made as a team, we are four places up compared to Brands Hatch. As far as the race is concerned, there should be some possibilities there to improve. Jos has absolutely proven that he is a great starter and racer."