23/02/2007
NEWS STORY
France - 1st
The eighth round of the 2006-07 A1GP takes place at Durban (South Africa) this weekend and A1 Team France's Loic Duval was on the pace from the very start,
finishing fastest in every session on Friday.
Duval clocked the fastest time during the first part of the rookie session (1.20.490) after completing 10 laps. In the second part of the session, Loic Duval clocked an even faster 1.19.836 before the red flag caused by A1GP Team Singapore's crash brought an end to the eventful rookie session.
Duval went faster still in the afternoon's official practice session. The conditions on the track had improved despite a number of red flags and the French car finished in 1.18.620, ahead of Ireland's Richard Lyons (1.19.179) and Germany's Nico Hülkenberg (1.19.360).
Loic Duval commented: "I first saw the track on Thursday afternoon with my engineers. I was pleased to be so quick during the rookie session. I made a had a slight contact with the wall as I was exploring the limits, but it was nothing serious. The car had a minor transmission problem that prevented me driving many laps, but it did not end up being a major problem. In the afternoon session, it went well again for us and I was fastest although I had a contact with Australia. I had thought that he would have seen me in his mirrors. Fortunately it was only a slight contact and there was not significant damage to my car. Even if I completed only 15 laps today, it is really enjoyable to drive here. I am fascinated with the flags hanging out of every window, the life around the track and the
passion of the fans. The track is good fun to drive and it just keeps getting quicker and quicker."
Eric Boullier, Managing Director, A1 Team France commented: "Loic is really good at learning new tracks as we could see today. We managed to get some good preparation done have a solid set-up for the rest of the weekend. If it remains dry, like we hope, we are well into our working schedule."
Ireland - 2nd
A1 Team Ireland's Richard Lyons today set the 2nd fastest time in practice for Sunday's A1GP of South Africa, the 27 year old from Hillsborough confident that there is more to come from the car after challenging France for the top slot and pushing championship leader Nico Hulkenberg of Germany down to third.
Team Ireland's day started steadily with Lyons experiencing his first ever practice session on a street circuit, setting the 6th fastest time in the first part of Rookie Testing and running 2nd in the second part until stopping to make changes to the car's set up. In official practice Lyons made the most of his car's performance over the bumpy but spectacular Durban track to set the 2nd quickest time on his first flying lap.
Richard Lyons: "It was a slightly scrappy lap but it worked out fine and there's more speed to come. The track is very bumpy in places so we are having to run the car to cope with that, but I think we've started off pretty well here and just need to keep working for tomorrow when it matters in qualifying. The track is good fun to drive but mentally demanding because it requires complete concentration to stay away from the walls and get the most performance out of the car."
Gary Anderson, Technical Director: "The track here is bumpier that I expected so we have to run the car quite soft to cope with the conditions. We know what we want to do with the set-up and Richard will also find more time as the track conditions improve and he gains more experience around here."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "It's been a good start to the weekend but we have to remain focused getting the result we want in qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday. Once again the organizers here in Durban have done a fantastic job with this track – probably one of the best street circuits in the world, and certainly one of the best locations."
Germany - 3rd
Several problems hindered the first day of practice for round eight of the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport in South Africa. The Willi Weber managed A1 Team Germany recorded third fastest time around the Durban street circuit with nominated driver Nico Hülkenberg, after the second free practice had to be aborted after 30 of the scheduled 60 minutes.
A1 Team Germany had to sit-out the "Rookie Session" – the first free practice on Friday for newcomers – for the first time during the 2006/2007 season because previous "Rookie" driver Christian Vietoris can not start in South Africa due to a clash of dates. Nominated driver Nico Hülkenberg, who no longer fulfils the requirements for newcomers, could only make his first exploratory laps of the 3.28 kilometre during second free practice.
Zytek, the series' engine supplier, installed a new 520 hp V8 engine in the back of A1 Team Germany's monoposto after the original unit had reached the maximum permitted mileage. Nico Hülkenberg made a single check-lap to start the session. "Then the engine technicians checked everything was working correctly", reported the 19-year old race driver from Emmerich in Germany. "Afterwards I completed another three laps before returning to the pits to have everything checked again." The "star of tomorrow" went finally on the attack with the A1 GP car on his third outing. He achieved third fastest time with 1:19.350 minutes in the 23 nation field.
"The session was stopped just as we were about to start work on the car set-up because the track surface was breaking up behind one of the chicanes", reported Hülkenberg. "Loïc Duval and Richard Lyons, who drive for the France and Ireland teams and are ahead of me on the time sheets, both ran in the ‘Rookie Session' and know the circuit a little better as a result. With this in mind our lap time is absolutely okay."
The street circuit that lies within sight of the Indian Ocean on the outskirts of Durban suits Nico Hülkenberg down to the ground. "In general I love street circuits", says the German. "Durban is an incredible circuit on which I really feel at home. It is a genuine drivers' circuit with several very bumpy sections. In the penultimate corner we reach 230 kph in fifth gear – you need to screw yourself up for it."
Netherlands - 5th
In the Rookie session and the first official practice of the A1GP Durban A1 Team Netherlands laid a good foundation for the rest of the weekend. On the narrow street circuit the team finished sixth in the Rookie session and fifth in the official free practice.
Under perfect weather conditions it was Renger van der Zande who this morning started things for A1 Team Netherlands. In the two times 25 minutes session the A1 Team Netherlands Rookie managed to set a ninth and sixth fastest time, with a fastest lap of 1'20.966. Van der Zande didn't take to much risk in driving during the Rookie session which was stopped a couple of times with the red flag after crashes of various other drivers.
After that it was Jeroen Bleekemolen's turn. Especially in the first two sections of the circuit he was very fast. The one hour session finished after 30 minutes though, after some damage to the track was discovered at the chicane. In the fourteen laps the A1 Team Netherlands driver drove he managed to set a fastest time of 1'19.441.
Jeroen Bleekemolen; "It went quite well, we are quite competitive. I was sort of counting on that, but first you have to see if that will actually happen. We were there amongst the top runners, especially in sectors 1 and 2 we were amongst the fastest, in sector 2 we were even quickest. We ran on tyres that did have some mileage in them, so it is looking quite good. In the third sector we still have to find some time, but I think that that will happen as well. Yesterday I already said that we came here to win and I still see no reason why we shouldn't be able to do that".
Jan Lammers; "So far, so good. You see that Jeroen is running superbly in the first two sectors and up to four fifth of the circuit we are quickest or inside the top three. We only have to work on the last bit and we are busy doing that at the moment. Tomorrow the first part has to be done, one a circuit where overtaking is near impossible qualifying will be very important. We are well underway and are competitive. For Renger it was really his first time on a street circuit and he did not take to much risk. We thank him for that. He has been productive in every way and has kick started the weekend for us with times which were inside the top six. The combination of data, driver feedback and wear and temperature patterns is very useful information for us. He has driven fast enough to make that perfectly visible for us and was very sensible in his approach. This afternoon that gave Jeroen the opportunity to take over from there. If we can continue like this all through the weekend we should be able to win Sunday afternoon".
Renger van der Zande; "I was aiming for more today, but that just did not happen. For me this was the first time on a street circuit, so I mainly used the opening session to get some feel and build up confidence. In the second segment I was setting constant and faster lap times, but we were still a bit behind the quickest teams. I do think though that we will be able to close that gap though".
India - 8th
The eighth round of the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport began to day, in hot and humid conditions on the sun soaked streets of Durban, South Africa. Narain Karthikeyan continued to push India to the forefront of international motorsport, setting the second fastest time in morning practice.
Having arrived in Durban direct from testing with the Williams F1 team in Valencia, Karthikeyan was on the pace straight away, with only current A1GP champions France able to beat his fastest time.
A1 Team India was intending to use the second session to make a number of set up changes, in an effort to top the time sheets. However, the team were unable to capitalise from these changes after the final practice session was curtailed to just 30 minutes of the allotted one hour, due to track surface problems.
Commenting on his day at the Durban circuit, Karthikeyan commented, "The track seems good, I think we went a bit far with some of the set up changes this afternoon, so we need to come back a bit on that. But I'm confident for tomorrow; we know what we need to do to go faster. We always aim to be in the top six, if not higher, so that's what I'm expecting tomorrow."
Speaking about the local support from the Indian community, Karthikeyan added, "Durban has a huge Indian community and I suppose this is as near as we'll get at the moment to a home race! I hope there will be lots of Indian flags in the grandstand this weekend."
A1 Team India Seatholder, Yohann Setna said, "In the morning Narain was P2, which is pretty good start. In the afternoon we made a couple of changes to the car, but we seemed to go backwards a bit. We changed the car back to a set- up similar to the morning, but then the session ended half an hour early, so we didn't get the chance to improve.
"The track is very bumpy, which is proving to be the main problem at the moment and Narain is sometimes struggling to put the power down. As I said, we changed the set-up to allow for that, but then the car began to suffer from a bit of understeer in the entry to the corners and while Narain was trying to compensate, the back end of the car became unstable. We were just working on that, and making the car more stable when the session was red flagged. Narain has shown he definitely has the pace, so I'm looking forward to seeing how we do tomorrow."
South Africa - 10th
South Africa's Adrian Zaugg endured a frustrating day after only arriving at the circuit minutes before the start of the session following an 18-hour overnight journey from France where the Red Bull Junior Team driver was involved in a GP2 test.
The 20-year-old, who was making his first appearance on a South African circuit, was forced into the pits on his very first lap after a driveshaft broke. This was repaired in time for the second half of the two-part session, but he was only able to complete one flying lap – in a respectable time of 1 min 21,68 sec – before he misjudged his braking and touched the wall, damaging the rear suspension. He took no further part in the session.
He was able to settle down a bit in the afternoon session after his long and tiring journey from France and managed 13 laps before the session ended, finishing in 10th place with a best time of 1 min 19,88 sec, 1,26 sec behind France's Duval.
"It was unfortunate that I had such a short rookie session," said Zaugg. "The mechanical failure is one of those things that happen in motor racing and the second problem was entirely my fault. I misjudged my braking and made contact with the wall.
"I managed to get in a few laps in the afternoon practice before it was ended early and I'm happy so far. The circuit is good. It's a bit bumpy, but that's normal for a street circuit. I have had some experience on street circuits and this is one of the best.
On how he handles the pressure of all the people who want to talk to him at his ‘home' race, he said: "Yes, there are a lot of people around me and arriving five minutes before the first practice session was due to start was not ideal. But once you get into the car there's no pressure. You just concentrate on doing your job.
"I always believe the team and I can run at the front. We'll have a better idea after tomorrow's third practice how well we can expect to go in the afternoon's qualifying."
Zaugg's two-day official GP2 test at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, in preparation for this year's GP2 championship which he is contesting for the British Arden team alongside Brazilian team-mate Bruno Senna, was his first time in Vulindlela since the Malaysian A1GP in November last year. He was forced to take a break from racing to undergo surgery to correct a problem with his forearms.
"My arms have recovered well from the surgery and I experienced no problems during the two-day GP2 test. I am fit and ready to resume my motor racing career," he said.
Brazil - 11th
A1 Team Brasil began round eight of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today at the Durban street circuit in South Africa, but the team's running was cut short, firstly due to a mechanical failure on the car during this morning's rookie session, and then this afternoon when second practice was red-flagged and not re-started after officials discovered that the track was breaking up, which caused safety concerns.
Team Brasil showed off a brand new livery today, alongside a new driver line-up for the Durban race, with both rookie Luiz Razia and race driver Bruno Junqueira driving the A1 car for the first time.
Luiz began the rookie practice, but was only able to put in one timed lap before he suffered a bearing failure on the front right wheel. Unfortunately the problem was not able to be rectified in the short amount of time remaining and Luiz was forced to sit out the rest of the session.
Bruno took over driving duties for this afternoon's free practice sessions, and quickly got to grips with the car and the track, posting a P3 time on his first outing. Unfortunately, half-way through the hour the session had to be red-flagged and was not re-started because the track had begun to break up on the apex of some of the corners. Unfortunately, it was Team Brasil that brought this problem to the attention of the officials when Bruno hit a patch of this section of the track, which sent him into the wall, leading to a nose-cone change.
Teams will have one further hour of practice tomorrow morning, before the afternoon's qualifying session.
Bruno Junqueira: "It's a different experience driving this car from what I'm used to because there is less power and downforce. It's like going back to the old times, with the car sliding a lot, but I'm happy that we were competitive straight away. I was P3 on my first run but on the second outing I experienced some problems with the track breaking up and I drove over that and damaged the car a bit. So in one way I am quite happy because we were fast on our first outing and were right on the pace, but in another way I am not happy that we could not keep running because the session was cut short. I think the track problem will be easy to fix, so let's just see what we can do tomorrow."
Luiz Razia (Rookie Driver): "I only got one timed lap in which is a shame, but that's racing so these things happen."
New Zealand - 13th
The New Zealand team has set the 13th fastest time in a disrupted first Official Practice session for Round 8 of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in South Africa.
Kiwi driver Matt Halliday, behind the wheel of Black Beauty for the first time in five rounds, set his quickest time in lap 10 of the 14 laps he completed on the Durban waterfront street circuit.
Halliday spent the first half an hour settling back into the car, but didn't have the opportunity to build on his initial outing. The third quarter of the session was red flagged and the final quarter called off altogether as a part of the track broke up and needed repairing.
Loic Duval of France, who set the fastest times in the two Rookie Sessions earlier in the day, also emerged on top during the disjointed Official Practice session.
Ireland was second fastest, more than half a second behind the French, with Germany, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands rounding out a strong initial showing from the European nations.
Halliday was 1.312 seconds behind the Frenchman as less than a second separated the drivers from 2nd through to 14th place.
"It was a shame the session was cut short," Halliday said. "But it was good to get back in the car and we know where we can improve, so we're not too badly placed going into the weekend."
Halliday will have another one-hour practice session tomorrow before taking part in Qualifying to determine grid positions for Monday morning's points-scoring races.
Malaysia - 14th
The opening day of practice at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Durban, South Africa, gave A1 Team Malaysia only thirty minutes of practice time, but with Alex Yoong running 14th quickest the team is confident that they have the pace for a good qualifying position.
A1 Team Malaysia had opted not to participate in the morning practice session allocated to reserve and young drivers and were prepared for an intensive programme of development in the afternoon hour of practice time. After around half an hour of running a small area of broken tarmac on the temporary street track created a safety issue which forced an early finish for the session.
Yoong had been using the first part of the session to reacquaint himself with the track, after racing here a year ago, but had not been driving for a competitive lap time.
He said after the session, "We didn't really have much time today, which was unfortunate. We had a full programme of car setup changes that we wanted to try, but we just didn't have the time to get through it with so little time. But we're quite confident that we're in the ballpark with the car and I feel quite happy that we'll be quick tomorrow. As long as we get a full quota of dry running tomorrow morning, we'll have a better idea of our qualifying pace, and I'm happy that we can have a strong result tomorrow."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, commented, "We're disappointed that we didn't have the full hour of running this afternoon, and it threw our strategy for today. However we are very comfortable with the set up of the car today after only 29 minutes or so of running and whilst the team hasn't had much chance to collect data and analyse the setup requirements for this track in this weekend's conditions, we're confident that we have the team that can rise to the challenge of these circumstances.
We have another hour of running tomorrow morning and as long as there are not too many red flag stoppage periods, there's no reason why we can't be fully prepared for qualifying. Let's see what happens tomorrow."
Canada - 19th
A1 Team Canada hit the streets of Durban, South Africa Friday as practice commenced ahead of Sunday's eighth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. Quebec's Kevin Lacroix made his A1GP debut running in the morning's Rookie-Only session followed in the car by Toronto's James Hinchcliffe in the shortened afternoon session.
Driving an open-wheel race car for the first time in several months, Lacroix quickly dialed himself in to the team's 550bhp, V8-powered A1GP car while tackling the demands of the tight, twisting 3.28km street course at the same time. Logging a total of 26 laps during his two 25-minute runs, the 17-year-old from Saint-Eustache ended the Rookie-Only session 14th fastest with a best lap of 1m21.943s – the team pleased with Kevin's approach and feedback throughout his first competitive outing.
"I really enjoyed my time in the car," stated Lacroix. "Having not driven for a while it felt good to get back into a race car and my confidence was growing with each lap. I'm happy with my lap times considering this was only my second time in an A1GP car and first time at the track. I can't wait to get another shot in Mexico next month."
With Hinchcliffe set to compete in Sunday's Sprint and Feature races, the 20-year-old Champ Car Atlantic standout strapped himself in for the afternoon's official practice session with the same objective as Lacroix, to learn the layout and work on set-up. Unfortunately James' progress was halted when the session was stopped halfway through when parts of the track surface began to break up at Turn 7 – track officials ending the day's on-track activities to make the necessary repairs.
"I was super impressed with the layout of the circuit," Hinchcliffe commented. "There's a really nice mix of tight turns and fast straights. We started off with our set-up from Beijing earlier in the season as that worked well there but this is a different animal so we were forced to start making some changes. We lost out on track time with the session ending early so there's lots to do tomorrow."
Lebanon - 20th
A1 Team Lebanon arrived in the coastal city of Durban this week, ahead of the eighth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. Allam Khodair is making his first appearance for the Lebanese team and was given his first taste of the powerful A1GP car on the temporary street circuit that hosts the event. Alex Khateeb and Khalil Beschir have also travelled to South Africa as reserve drivers, with Basil Shaaban currently in the Middle East.
Arriving in Durban on Wednesday, Khodair prepared himself for his A1 Team Lebanon debut the following day. This included walking the length of the track to familiarise himself with its configuration and characteristics, and completing a seat fitting to be comfortable in the car.
Today, the team used the first two 25-minutes Rookie sessions to settle Khodair into the car. In the first part he used the laps to learn the circuit from the cockpit and start to understand the handling of the A1GP car. A number of red flag stoppage periods due to other drivers' mistakes interrupted the session several times, but Khodair kept to the track and by its conclusion had posted 16th fastest time, lowering his time by two seconds from his first to last lap.
In the afternoon practice hour, each team's nominated race driver took to the track, with Khodair the least experienced of the field. He continued to learn the handling of the car and started to develop its set up with the Lebanon engineers and crew, but he was only able to complete 14 laps before track surface problems at one of the chicanes created for the street race. This limited the afternoon session to only 30 minutes, but within this time the A1 Team Lebanon driver was able to improve his lap time by over a second.
Khodair will have a further hour of practice tomorrow morning before the official qualifying session in the afternoon, which will set the grid positions for the Sprint race.
The A1 Team Lebanon driver said after the session, "I had to get used to everything – the track, the car, the gears, the braking and braking points – so there was a lot to learn in a short space of time this morning. I didn't want to risk anything, so I was driving a little conservatively. We then made some changes, the car felt better and I was able to gain more confidence from this. I know there are places on the track where I can gain time, but I wanted to keep within my limits and wait until tomorrow before pushing harder. I'm happy with our progress today and looking forward to being back in the car tomorrow."
Martin Dixon, A1 Team Lebanon Team Manager added, "Allam has settled in well today. We had an intensive programme of preparation work and we've managed to complete it, even though there was limited track time in all the sessions today with other drivers making mistakes and stopping the sessions for cars to be recovered and debris cleared. It's always difficult for drivers to build up a rhythm in these situations, so Allam has coped well. We'll be looking to improve on our performance tomorrow."
Great Britain - 21st
Throttle problems blighted A1 Team Great Britain's progress in South Africa Friday as the team prepared for Sunday's eighth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, hosted on the streets of Durban on a specially designed 2.04-mile temporary circuit.
Cambridgeshire's Oliver Jarvis was first on track for the British team, the 23-year-old undertaking driving duties in the Rookie-Only Session. The 2005 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year was forced to take a conservative approach following an engine change earlier in the week, Jarvis wracking up a total of 24 laps in the session posting the ninth fastest time with a 1m21.443s.
Jarvis handed over to Kerr for the afternoon's official practice outing but the Burbage racer's hopes of quality track time ahead of Sunday's Sprint and Feature races were thwarted by recurring throttle problems, the Brit logging just nine laps in the process. The day ended early for the entire A1GP field as the session was red flagged halfway through due to a kerbing issue at Turn 7.
Robbie Kerr: "Hopefully we haven't lost too much ground due to the session being red flagged but we were done for the day anyway as we had to retire the car to investigate the throttle problem. Ultimately we don't know how the car's going to behave here now as the problems with the car began almost as soon as the session started. We're definitely on the back foot a little but can take heart from how competitive we were here last year. We just have to see what we can get the car to do tomorrow in practice before we have to qualify in the afternoon."
Oliver Jarvis: "Well I didn't get as many laps in as I'd have liked but we still fulfilled the usual team duties during the course of the session. We ran a new engine so I had to break that in along with new discs and so on while learning the track at the same time. It's a great circuit in a fantastic setting! I thought the potential was definitely there with the car but unfortunately Robbie couldn't build on it in the afternoon thanks to the mechanical issues."
Pakistan - 22nd
The green and white car of A1 Team Pakistan was back on track today, for the eighth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The A1GP Durban, South Africa is the jewel in the crown of the Series, a street circuit providing exciting and dramatic racing in front of enthusiastic crowds. Having missed last year's event, Nur Ali made his South African debut this morning, and made good progress to improve three seconds in the last practice session of the day.
One of two street circuits on the A1GP 2006/07 calendar, the Durban circuit proved to be no less merciful today than last year, with several drivers spinning and making contact with the walls. The two practice sessions were punctuated by several red flag periods, which interrupted A1 Team Pakistan's development and set up programme.
Nur Ali commented, "It's certainly a challenge but not as difficult as Beijing. The track is very bumpy, although again not as bumpy as Beijing. The one thing that could be an issue is the number of blind corners. A lot of cars have been spinning today and the track is so narrow that it will be difficult to avoid a car that has spun out or had an accident. Pit to car radio is particularly important here as the team are able to warn me of any incidents on the track ahead of me.
"I think we will need to play it smart this weekend and be consistent. There have been lots of red flags already today, and I think if we stay out of trouble we could get some points here. I know that I can improve further and lower my lap times so I'm feeling really positive about the weekend."
Team Manager Bobby Issazadhe added, "Nur made steady progress today. This is a very difficult circuit, it is extremely narrow in places and there's no room for error. We weren't able to put in a very long stint on track, as there were so many red flag periods. However, although he had a few spins while finding the limit, Nur managed to keep the car out of the wall, unlike many drivers, and we go into practice tomorrow with a pristine car and the opportunity to improve further."
While the track action may be over, A1 Team Pakistan spends the hours after the practice session analysing data and practicing the team's pit stop. A key part of Sunday's action, the pit stop is an obligatory aspect in the 70 – minute Feature race and can save or lose the team vital seconds on track.
To check out our Durban Friday gallery, click here