31/08/2006
NEWS STORY
A1 Team Canada continued preparations for the new season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, which starts in Holland on 1st October, in today's second pre-season test held at Silverstone Circuit in England. Vancouver's Sean McIntosh was again back in action accompanied by A1GP rookie James Hinchcliffe from Toronto, A1 Team Canada ending the day sixth fastest in the afternoon session.
Having set the fastest time in yesterday afternoon's session, Hinchcliffe (19) was first out on track this morning concentrating on spending longer in the car to replicate race conditions rather than out-right pace. The Champ Car Atlantic Series race winner acquitted himself well in just his third stint behind the wheel of A1 Team Canada's 500bhp A1GP car.
Sean McIntosh (21) handled the majority of this afternoon's session on the 2.294-mile International Circuit. Currently a front-runner in the World Series by Renault, McIntosh, already an A1GP winner, continued to work on the team's test program including set-up runs on both old and new tires. Hinchcliffe returned to the car for a late run complete with pit-stop practices to wrap the test.
James Hinchcliffe: "The biggest thing for me was to continue to integrate myself with both the car and the team and I think I did a good job with that. Yesterday's focus was more on speed and qualifying pace which obviously went pretty well. Today's objective was to work on some longer runs. My first few laps were to get a good base set-up on the car then they sent me out with full fuel and old tires to have a really good run to see how everything handled in those conditions. We practiced pit-stop as well to work towards everyone being as prepared as possible for when the season starts at Zandvoort. Overall I think the team's happy with what we accomplished over the past couple of days."
Sean McIntosh: "I was out on older tires initially this afternoon to see what kind of feeling they'd give off respective to the handling of the car and set-up. On top of that I was just dialing back into driving this car having been used to racing the World Series by Renault car during the regular season. As always it would have been nicer to have spent longer in the car but it was good to get back to it in preparation for the new season. It was good to get a run on new tires during my driving stint and see where we can improve to get the maximum from them!"