04/11/2005
NEWS STORY
Brazil
After a few days of exploring Sydney and taking part in promotional events including a day at Bondi Beach learning how to surf with five-times surfing world champion, Layne Beachley, Nelson Piquet Jr finally got the race weekend off to a start for Team Brasil today at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Australia.
Nelson drove two one-hour official practice sessions for the team at the Eastern Creek Raceway, and got the weekend off to a great start by recording the fastest time of the day, which was also the lap record, with a time of 1:19.266.
After experiencing very hot weather at the circuit yesterday, teams arrived to much cooler temperatures today, and the first official free practice session began in overcast conditions. It rained a little during the session, meaning the fastest lap times were set at the beginning of the hour. Nelson completed 18 laps during the practice, finishing the session on top with a fastest lap time of 1:19.266, more than a second quicker than second-placed Team Mexico, and three seconds quicker than the previous lap record.
Team Brasil was once again consistenty fast in the second session, completing a further 27 laps and finishing the hour in second position, just two tenths behind the Team France entry of Nicholas Lapierre. Lap times were down from the first hour, and the fastest time set by Team France was two seconds off Nelson’s fastest time in the earlier session.
Nelson Piquet Jr: "It was a good lap. The car seemed very good and I did a good lap with no traffic. We did a qualifying simulation and just went for it and it was good. Eastern Creek is quite a good circuit, and it’s not that easy. It’s quite abrasive on the tyres so we have to make sure we get a good set-up for the races so we can make the tyres last throughout the races. Some of the corners are a bit dangerous as there is not a lot of space and not much run-off so it’s quite tough which is the kind I like."
Emerson Fittipaldi: "It has been a good day for us. Nelson was quick from the beginning and was consistently quick in both sessions. We tried some different things on the car and the team tried to adapt the car to the track. I am very happy with the speed we have and the way the team are working. We have learnt about the car and the track and tomorrow we should be fast again. In the morning we will do some fine tuning on the car in the final free practice ready for qualifying."
Germany
A1 Team Germany arrived at the season's first flyaway race at the 3.93 kilometre Eastern Creek circuit in Australia after the equipment had completed the trip half-way around the world in the back of one of three Boeing 747 cargo planes. Adrian Sutil, nominated to compete the entire race-weekend for A1 Team Germany, made steady progress throughout the two practice sessions to finish his day"s work in 8th place overall, lapping the circuit in 1.21,984 minutes.
In the opening one-hour session, the German driver initially bedded in brake pads for Sunday's race and therefore completed only nine laps in the dry before rain set-in. For the second sixty minute session the gearing was changed to suit the challenging circuit. Together with the A1 Team Germany engineers, the 22-year old improved the car's set-up throughout the second session.
"Learning a new circuit is a challenge I've always relished," said the young A1 Team Germany driver from Graefelfing near Munich. "And this one is no different, particularly as the track is driven anti-clockwise. The tricky combination of both fast and slow corners and elevation changes made the set-up difficult. However, A1 Team Germany and I worked methodically through our test programme, working on tuning the dampers and finding the ideal ride-height to get a good aerodynamic balance."
"The track is really amazing; I would say it's a mini Nürburgring Nordschleife! All the A1 Grand Prix cars get light over one of the crests which makes great spectating. I'm optimistic about our chances here and I'm looking forward to qualifying on new tyres. It should be a real challenge", said the 22-year old German.
New Zealand
The odd spot of rain and red flags caused plenty of frustration in practice at Eastern Creek for Sunday's A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Australia.
Intermittent drizzle caused hold-ups, but also created plenty of spills as New Zealand driver Jonny Reid retained his place among the frontrunners by having the 5 th quickest time in the first practice session and the 6th fastest in the second session.
A1 Team.NZL chief executive Bob McMurray was left feeling bemused by a day that never seemed to get out of third gear.
"The drizzle meant the first session was a complete waste of time," McMurray said. "It wasn't wet enough for dry tyres, but it wasn't dry enough for the wets. It was a bit frustrating."
Before the drizzle came, the first session did see Brazilian Nelson Piquet jnr record the fastest lap ever on the 3.9km track west of Sydney . He was more than 1.1. seconds ahead of his closest rival today.
The second session was notable for two major crashes that caused the red flags to come out and stop practice. Ten minutes was added to the end of the session to try and make up for the 15 minutes lost.
Reid stayed among the pacesetters all day, despite a shaky start where he had a slow spin on his first lap out on the circuit.
After concern about the strength of the new engine put in for the last round in Portugal, McMurray says today was important for gathering comparative data. A decision on which engine to use for race day on Sunday won't be made until all today's data has been evaluated and discussions have taken place with the engine manufacturer.
South Africa
Brazil, with Nelson Piquet Jr at the wheel, emerged after two 60-minute official practice sessions today with the fastest time of the day. His best lap, in the quicker first session when the 24 competing cars were on new tyres, was 1m 19,266s, 1,16s better than Mexico's Salvador Duran and 1,36s ahead of France's Nicolas Lapierre.
South Africa's 'Vulindlela', with Stephen Simpson at the wheel, was 12th quickest with a best time of 1m 22,3s, 3,05s behind Brazil. Simpson closed the gap to the front runners in the slower second session, finishing in 17th place and 1,74s behind France, who posted the best lap ahead of Brazil and Switzerland (Neel Jani).
Stephen Simpson: "We tried a few options during today's practice sessions and we made quite a bit of progress during the day. We're closer to the pace but we still need to improve our overall position. This is not an easy circuit. It's quite bumpy in places, particularly in the high-speed turn one (described by 1980 F1 world champion and Australia team seat holder Alan Jones as a 'big b***s corner, taken flat at over 280 km/h in an A1GP car). It's abrasive so set-up is very important to conserve the tyres for full race distance
India
Friday morning was dry and sunny when A1 Team India arrived at the Eastern Creek International Raceway in Sydney, Australia. The first practice session started with a cloudy sky but a dry circuit, but within 15 minutes of the session starting, there was a spattering of rain. Many of the teams waited, hoping the rain would stop, but it continued to drizzle right up to the end of the session. Armaan Ebrahim had to do the installation laps again as A1 Team India are using the new engine and gearbox from the 2nd car. In addition the new brake discs had to be bed in as they were slightly damaged in the last race.
By the time A1 Team India were ready to go quicker, the skies opened up and it started raining. Armaan put in a quick time in the wet and was within a second of the top runners like Brazil and France.
Practice 2 started off quite well and as the lap times started to drop, Armaan had to pull into the pits with a punctured front tyre. The team was not expecting this and the 2nd set of slick tyres were not heated as the tyre warmers were being used for the wet tyres in case it rained again. It took Armaan 4 laps to get the correct level of heat into the tyres and he then put in some really quick times as compared to the rest who were out on track at the same time. The gap to the top drivers has now narrowed down to only 1.5 seconds from 2.7 seconds off at the previous race in Estoril, Portugal. He finished the session in 15th place.
Malaysia
Varying weather conditions put A1 Team Malaysia through its paces today in the opening practice sessions of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Australia, with driver Alex Yoong getting to grips with his A1 race car during the course of the day.
In the opening session Yoong finished 17th fastest and in the afternoon he improved 10 places to finish 7th quickest in the second session.
Yoong had to contend with intermittent rain in the first practice session which challenged the team to find the right car set-up as the conditions changed. In the second session, on a dry track, the young Malaysian showed his skill in quickly getting to grips with the car, as he upped his pace and ran comfortably within the top ten throughout the session. At the end of the one hour practice, Yoong finished seventh fastest.
He reviewed his day saying, "Our time this morning wasn't reflective of our performance as we missed out on running in the dry when other teams set their quickest lap. I'm happy with our performance this afternoon. We tried a lot of new things and I think we've learnt something about the car. We weren't going for times today; we were just trying various things on the car and we didn't put on new rubber. I'm optimistic for tomorrow. I think we can qualify in the top ten, and might even improve on that and sneak in o the top five."
Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, added, "We left Europe with strong results and have moved to the other side of the world where we hope to continue with this form. It didn't take Alex much time to get on the pace and I think his experience of driving here last year, although in a V8 Supercar, has proved to be of value to us. We're aiming to maintain this consistency, looking to move into the top five in qualifying tomorrow afternoon."
Czech Republic
Team Czech Republic used both nominated drivers during the first day of running at Eastern Creek, Australia. Jan Charouz did the first session Tomas Enge took over in the second one. The whole team was learning all the day, as it is a new track for them.
A1 Grand Prix left Europe after the first three races and the World Cup of Motorsport moved to Australia for round four. Eastern Creek International raceway near Sydney greeted all participants with cloudy skies and the work in the first free practice was disturbed by rain. The Czech team started with Jan Charouz behind the wheel and eighteen years old driver was able to do just six flying laps before first drops. Charouz did total 17 laps during the session and finished 22nd.
The second free practice offered better conditions and Tomas Enge took the wheel of the Czech car. Panther Racing IRL driver tried to learn the track quickly and put the Czech car to the Top 10 even though it was his first session at Eastern Creek. Enge was one of the busiest drivers with 26 laps the best one put him to the 9th pace.
Tomas Enge: "The track itself is quite quick, which is nice, but it is also quite bumpy, which is not nice. The car handling is quite difficult it is not only our problem it seems that all cars are quite nervous. The main aim for the last practice will be to sort this problem out."
Jan Charouz: "I was quite unlucky because I had done just few laps and then the rain started. We tried to do some laps in the wet but all in all we did not get many useful data from the session due to changing conditions."
Portugal
Today has begun the first practice session for the drivers of A1 Grand Prix of Nations. The weather was instable and both rain and sun have been present in the Australian circuit of Eastern Creek. The A1 Team Portugal's driver, Álvaro Parente, started the first practice session testing a new set of brake pads, finishing in eighth position, among the twenty-four drivers. At 4 pm the second session has started, in which Álvaro Parente and the Portuguese team continued to work in the set up of the car. The Portuguese driver has finished the day in eleventh.
Álvaro Parente: "We're still learning the quickest way to run in this circuit and for that the team is working to achieve a better set up. I'm expecting that for tomorrow the problems can be solved, allowing me to fight for a good place in the starting grid".
Luís Vicente: "Today we've found some problems in the car that pull us down in the end of the free practice sessions. The team is working hard for tomorrow's qualifying sessions, so I'm expecting a better performance for saturday."
The weather forecast announces hard rain for Saturday and Sunday, so everything is pointing for wet conditions during the qualifying sessions in Eastern Creek.
Ireland
Ireland's Michael Devaney spent today's practice sessions at Eastern Creek learning the track and developing the set-up of the car ahead of tomorrow's practice and qualifying sessions. The A1 Team Ireland driver's hopes of using the opening practice session to learn the track quickly were ended by rain. In dry conditions the second session was more productive and Michael was able to steadily improve his time, although there is still much work to do in order to close on the front runners. Michael was 14th fastest in both sessions, setting times of 1:22.428 and 1:22.174 respectively.
Michael Devaney: "We've made some reasonable steps today but are not yet quick enough in the middle sector which is where we'll be concentrating for tomorrow. The track is quite technical and very bumpy in places, so it takes a while to dial the car into it and understand the quickest way around here. I didn't have any particular problems but we could have done without that first session being interrupted by rain. Hopefully we can find another good step or two in time for tomorrow."
Andy Miller, Technical Director: "We are close but not close enough in terms of time at the moment. We have got good data and information from today so we've learned quite a lot. I think we'll improve tomorrow and get closer to where we deserve to be but there's quite a bit of work to be done."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "Circuit knowledge is obviously important and for those who have raced or tested here before, particularly recently, there is an advantage. Michael's made good progress today but we aren't quick enough. Although there is one second to the very quickest cars there is quite a large group just in front of us covered by a couple of tenths. At the very least we'll be trying to get in among them tomorrow."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon returned to the track today for the fourth round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series, moving from the Northern to Southern Hemisphere for this event, the A1 Grand Prix of Nations. Basil Shaaban, one of the two A1 Team Lebanon drivers, was selected to drive this weekend. He posted 20th and 22nd fastest lap times in the first and second practice sessions respectively.
The first practice session in Australia took place on a wet track with intermittent rain challenging the drivers to find the best set up for the variable conditions. Shaaban used the session to build up his knowledge of the track and the limits of the A1 racing car. In the second session, Shaaban was back out on the tight, twisty Eastern Creek circuit, with the weather clearing and the track virtually dry but numerous red flags hampered his progress.
Shaaban reviewed his day saying, "It's a challenging track and the changing weather added to this, with the car feeling and behaving differently each lap that I completed, particularly in the morning. I think we can find a few places by making some more set up changes, but the one unknown factor is the weather, and this will also need to be taken into account in our planning for tomorrow."
Martin Stone, Racing Director: "Basil lacks the experience of many of his fellow competitors and he needs as much time in the car as possible to learn the circuit. This is made a little more difficult when the track conditions change throughout the day, as happened for these two sessions. We have more track time tomorrow morning and hope that we can improve on our session times. We didn't put on new tyres this afternoon, while some teams did, so the lap times are not necessarily a representation of our performance relative to other teams."
Pakistan
The mixed weather did not dampen the spirits of A1 Team Pakistan and driver Adam Khan during the first of the three free practice sessions held at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations in Eastern Creek, Australia.
Recording a lap time of 1:22.623 (171.2 kph) in the first free practice session put A1 Team Pakistan 16th of the twenty-four nations taking part. An unlucky spin ten minutes into the eventful second session brought an early end to the practice for Adam Khan. Having completed only three laps he set a time of 1'23.127, putting him 19th fastest. The third and final practice session takes place on Saturday morning prior to official qualifying, which commences at 14:15hrs (local time).
From the Pit Lane Adam commented: "It was unfortunate to miss out on the majority of the second session after coming off the track but the laps we put in have really given me confidence in the set up of the car. Before the off we were 5th fastest and it's a position that I am confident I can achieve tomorrow. I went into the first bend flat out and lost the rear end two-thirds of the way through. I was just regaining control when I reached the grass, sucking me out onto the gravel that propelled me into a long spin and then out of the session. Fortunately the damage to the car is minimal and the practice laps I completed have given me a good feel of the track and I am confident about tomorrow's qualifying."
Japan
Eastern Creek Raceway, Sydney, Australia. 21 years old Hayanari Shimoda who, having finished a successful year in the American Le Mans Series, will now drive the A1 Team Japan car and was out on track today for the first two practice sessions of the fourth round of the A1 Grand Prix series.
Hayanari Shimoda: "It was my first time in the A1 racing car and I've been driving sportscars recently, so it's very different for me, so today I had to get used to this new car. It's a very unique circuit, there are not many individual corners, but lots of series of corners which flow into each other. I like the track. I haven't driven a single seater for 8 months and it's very different than the sportscar, so it will take a while for me to get up to speed, but I'm looking forward to getting some more practice time tomorrow morning, before qualifying in the afternoon.
Malcolm Swetnam (Team Manager, A1 Team Japan): "Hayanari was learning about a new track and a new car for the first time today, a very different car than he's been driving all year, in terms of weight, downforce and power. He's done a good job. He had a brief spin early in the morning on his fifth lap, but he's been moving forward and his times have been improving. For tomorrow, hopefully we can keep improving. I'm not going to make any predictions on where we're going to qualify this time, because we started running on old tyres, so we don't really know where we are."
USA
In his first ever practice session in the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, new A1 Team USA driver Bryan Herta showed the racing skill that tied for the most pole positions than any other driver in this year's Indy Racing League by finishing the day with a best practice time of 1.22.084, placing him 12th best for the Friday session, his first ever driving an A1 Grand Prix car.
Although it was a new experience for Herta, he immediately felt at ease on the track at Eastern Creek in Australia. "I am happy that we finished in the top half of the practice session today," said Herta. "The goal was to start getting familiar with the car, the track and our team. It was literally my first ever session in this car and first time on this track, so my focus was just getting comfortable. I am looking forward to opening it up a little bit more tomorrow during qualifying."
Team owner Rick Weidinger was very happy with the way that Herta drove on a track, that at times, was very wet. "Bryan showed traits today, such as poise and maturity, which tell you exactly why he has been so successful in motor racing. We're happy to have him on board and I am sure he will get even better tomorrow after another day in the car."
Using more than one driver per team is a common trait of the new A1 Grand Prix of Nations, with 17 of 25 teams involved in the series using more than one driver. The new series has been developed with the focus squarely on nation teams, rather than driver or engine manufacturer. It is that focus on team and teamwork that Weidinger has been trying to build for A1 Team USA and he feels confident that today's practice session further demonstrated that focus.
"Today was all about getting Bryan comfortable and familiar with the car," said Weidinger. "As he gets more time behind the wheel, I am sure we will just get better and better as a team. I am looking forward to how we perform Saturday and Sunday."
Netherlands
A1 Team Netherlands has had a very encouraging start of the A1Grand Prix of Nations Australia at Eastern Creek. In the two free practice sessions of today Jos Verstappen set a sixth and fourth fastest time, with lap times of 1:21.526 and 1:21.882 Verstappen showed a consistent performance throughout the whole free practice.
Verstappen never drove at Eastern Creek before, but learned this new circuit quickly. In total the A1 Team Netherlands driver completed 27 laps. With the fourth place in the second session A1 Team Netherlands scores its best result in free practice of this season.
Jos Verstappen; "The circuit is quite nice, but very bumpy. There is a huge bump between turn three and four. Also the asphalt is very slippery, that's a bit of a shame. But the track is quite challenging, especially the first corner. That one you take flat out and you can make a difference there. After a few laps the car began to suffer from a bit of oversteer. At the moment we are working to get that under control, because it's a very big factor during the race. In general I'm pleased with the result, but everybody is very close. Tomorrow will be very exciting."
A1 Team Netherlands team principal Jan Lammers also was pleased with the team's result of the first day at Eastern Creek.
Jan Lammers; "We seem to be on course reasonably well. Especially in the beginning Jos was in the top of the time sheets straight away and that is quite encouraging for qualifying tomorrow, but then we have to be there in the very first lap. Everybody used their tyres to the absolute maximum today, so at the end the lap times were quite a bit slower than in the first session. The Friday always is a bit hard to judge, because you don't know how much fuel others are running for practice. It's still a bit premature, but despite that I think that we have got a reasonable shot at the podium here for both races."