24/02/2007
NEWS STORY
Germany - Pole
Willi Weber's A1 Team Germany remains unbeaten in the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport: The team starts round eight from pole position in South Africa after Nico Hülkenberg claimed the fastest time in qualifying for the third time in succession. The 19-year old "star of tomorrow" from Emmerich claimed first place on the grid at the races in New Zealand in January and Australia in February before rounding off each weekend by winning all four races.
Nico Hülkenberg immediately set himself atop the time sheets with a lap of 1m18.241s in the first of the four qualifying segments around the Durban circuit. His second run time of 1m18.430s saw him trailing the New Zealander Matt Halliday by 0.249s. However, the sum of both times left the German in front. In the third outing Nico Hülkenberg navigated the street circuit in 1m17.884s. This time was 0.153s slower than the New Zealand team which duly assumed provisional pole position with a combined advantage of 0.213s. A1 Team Germany fought back in the final segment: Nico Hülkenberg posted the fastest time of the entire weekend with his lap of 1m17.520s. As a result he claimed pole position, New Zealand lines up 0.147s behind and France 0.181s in third.
Nicolas Hülkenberg: "I'm delighted about claiming pole position for the third time in qualifying. The first run was difficult, because I had to find the limit on new tyres for the first time – but I headed the time sheet anyway. Despite not being able to select third gear once I was only two tenths slower in the second outing. My third attempt wasn't bad but most of the teams lost time because of the red flag and then everybody was on track at the same time, so it was very difficult to keep the new tyres up to temperature. In the fourth run I set fastest time again with new tyres, but it was still a nail-biting finish. There was another red flag after which France and Switzerland could have bounced back, but we had just enough of an advantage."
New Zealand - 2nd
New Zealand has qualified in second position for tonight's opening Sprint Race in Round 8 of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Durban.
In an action-packed qualifying filled with accidents and red flags Kiwi driver Matt Halliday drove impressively, setting his two fastest times in the 3 rd and 4th runs of the four qualifying segments around the 3.28km street circuit. It is the fifth time in eight rounds this season that Black Beauty will be on the front row of the grid. Halliday will be surrounded by European nations with championship leaders Germany qualifying on pole, subject to a protest from France*, with the French 3 rd on the grid, Switzerland 4th and the Netherlands 5th.
A1 Team.NZL's head of engineering David Sears says Halliday's effort was world-class. "Matt was very impressive and he drove incredibly well on this unforgiving circuit," Sears said. "It's dead easy to crash here, but Matt's concentrated hard and his style looks well suited to street racing."
Halliday said he was a bit apprehensive about his first qualifying attempt since Round One at Zandvoort in the Netherlands, but he is happy with the result. "It was tough to start A1GP this year having missed all the testing and just turning up at Zandvoort where I wasn't quite prepared enough," Halliday said. "Jonny (Reid) has done a good job, but I know what I can do and I didn't get the chance because he was doing a good job. I just needed to wait, but it was unfortunate as I didn't expect to wait for five months to get back into the car. I think this shows everyone I can do the job. It was frustrating to just miss the pole but we shall make sure we fight tomorrow."
The four 15-minute qualifying segments featured plenty of spills and three red flags. With just over four minutes to go in the second session, Singapore's Christian Murchison spun clipping the wall and causing a red flag. The segment was stopped while the car was retrieved causing Indonesia, France, South Africa, Italy and Portugal to miss the chance at clocking a time as the session was not re-started.
As segment three began, A1 Team China was the first to leave the pit lane but a spin at turn four put them out of contention and caused another red flag. The session re-started with just under nine minutes to go and all teams, with the exception of China who had caused the incident, were allowed to begin the segment again.
A third red flag delayed the final qualifying segment with half the field having already set their final lap time and A1 Team Germany having secured pole. As this was caused by a marshalling error the clock was stopped so the session could run its full 15 minutes to allow the rest of the field to set a time.
France - 3rd
Following a trouble-free final practice session on Saturday morning where A1 Team France finished second fastest with a time of 1.18.506 behind A1GP Germany Nico Hülkenberg with a time of 1.18.050, Loic Duval put his car in third place on the grid and second line to start the sprint race. Duval looked in strong shape under the blue sky in the qualifying session.
Loic explains his day and the qualifying session: "The weather was gorgeous this morning as I took the car to the track. I felt comfortable in the car and on the track and well prepared for the afternoon qualifying session.
"In the afternoon, my first lap was fourth fastest with 1.18.620 behind Germany Nico Hülkenberg, Switzerland Neel Jani and Indonesia Ananda Mikola. Then, I got a bit unlucky after the red flag caused by Singapore Christian Murchison's car and I could not set a second time as the third session had already started. I did the third outing after the red flag once the traffic was a bit better. I scored 1.17.919. Later in the fourth part of qualifying I did a clear lap and scored 1.17.666 that protected my third place for the start of the sprint race".
Loic Duval qualified third overall with an aggregate result of his two best times 2.35.585. The French driver set his personal best times in his third and fourth runs with times of 1.17.919 and 1.17.666. Duval was unfortunately unable to score a time during the second outing after an incident on the track. Data collected today will now be analysed carefully by the team in order to improve the car's balance for tomorrow's sprint and feature races.
Loic continues: "I am a bit disappointed because I was hoping to set my first pole position. But considering that a red flag prevented me to score a time in the second outing, I managed to get a good position for qualifying. It is important to start as much in the front as possible on this street track as passing cars is difficult. With a strong strategy I hope to secure good results for the team and the championship The race will be long and tough as always in a city races that are always difficult."
The team is now working to prepare a good race strategy and fine-tune the car's balance for tomorrow's races.
Jean-Paul Driot, Team Principal, A1 France added: "Loic Duval experienced his first qualifying session today on this Durban track in South Africa under difficult conditions with a number of red flags hampering successively his potential achievements."
Netherlands - 5th
A1 Team Netherlands will start the A1GP Sprintrace in Durban tomorrow from fifth on the grid. In an exciting qualifying Jeroen Bleekemolen set an aggregate time of 2'36.379 (1'17.936 +1'18.500).
This morning A1 Team Netherlands finished in seventh in the final free practice session, which had been extended by 10 minutes because of the cut short session yesterday. Bleekemolen was unlucky to encounter traffic on his laps with new tyres and suffered a flat tyre near the end of the session.
That flat tyre caused A1 Team Netherlands to have only two sets of new tyres for the four qualifying runs, instead of three. In the first segment the team only managed to finish in thirteenth, but in runs two and three the team quickly climbed to a fifth grid position. The qualifying was stopped a number of times with red flags. This was also the case in the fourth session, just as Bleekemolen set his fastest time and moved up to fourth. After a long break A1 Team Netherlands just managed to drive itself in front of A1 Team Netherlands, ending up in third. A1 Team Germany took the pole after a close battle with A1 Team New Zealand.
Jeroen Bleekemolen; "At least we are in the top five. We had some disadvantage from the fact that we only had two sets of new tyres, because of that flat tyre. If that had not happened, we might have been one or two places more up front. We are again competitive. In the race itself anything can happen, that you know. I am at least pleased that we have got a good pace. In sector three we still have to find some time though. It was very busy on the track, you encounter traffic almost all the time. You have to try to time well. In the first run we were totally off and from then on the team sent me out at the right moment, that was perfect. It is also one of the most important things. The little sprint with Portugal was fun, I just wanted to set my time first, because then you have a smaller chance of a red flag and no chance of encountering traffic. Also it was some practice for tomorrow".
Jan Lammers; "It is super to be in a country where A1GP reaches it's full potential and is very well appreciated. For it's own pr Durban is very happy to host such a race here. The whole climate and atmosphere of this event is just very much fun. Looking at our performance, we off are a bit disappointed not to be in front. At least we are competitive. After the little disappointment of not being on the front row you also realize that you are inside the top five. So, we can still fight for the top spots in the race tomorrow. We are pleased that we still have got a chance. If these are our bad weekends, we are happy with this".
Ireland - 7th
Ireland achieved its best qualifying result of the season so far in Durban, South Africa, with Richard Lyons 7th on aggregate and 4th fastest overall on individual lap times. The Team Ireland driver was 2nd fastest in Friday practice and 5th fastest this morning, however an accident just before the end of final practice saw the green car hit the barriers.
The Team Ireland mechanics had to use the two hour break between practice and qualifying to replace the front and rear suspension on the left hand side of the car, plus the front wing, completing the rebuild just in time for qualifying. Lyons' first qualifying lap on new tyres was completely ruined by traffic, slow cars effectively blocking his path in two places, but he recovered to set his best laps on his final two runs, dipping into the 1:17s bracket.
Richard Lyons: "I am actually disappointed with 7th because we have shown we can run in the top 6 here all weekend. My first qualifying run was ruined by traffic, my second was on used tyres and then on the third run we had a red flag so had to abort the lap and try again on the same tyres. Anyhow, it was good to get into the 1:17's as that was the pace at the front. Tomorrow's going to be a tough race – there are so many incidents here that it's going to be a question of survival."
Gary Anderson, Technical Director; "The session was a bit of a lottery with slow traffic and red flags which tripped us up, but in the end Richard pulled together a couple of good laps. We are 0.03s behind fifth place which, on aggregate times, is nothing, and Richard's best sector times would have put him fastest overall on 1m17.4s, so we are pretty happy with progress to date."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal; "This has been a good day's work, and especially given how hard the mechanics had to work between practice and qualifying to rebuild the car. They are a fantastic bunch of guys. Richard's been on or close to the pace all weekend and the fact that he feels 7th was again below expectation says everything you need to know about the mood in the team."
South Africa - 9th
Adrian Zaugg was unfortunate not to have qualified higher up the grid (a top four position was very much on the cards) after being denied an opportunity to record a time in the second of the four 15-minute segments that make up the exciting A1GP qualifying format, and having his timed lap in the third session compromised by the mistake of another competitor.
The 20-year-old South African started the official qualifying session with a highly committed lap of 1 min 18,66 sec in Vulindlela to put himself in fifth place behind Germany, Switzerland, Indonesia and France.
The second qualifying segment ended prematurely after A1 Team Singapore (Christian Murchison) hit the wall with three minutes remaining and South Africa was one of seven teams that were unable to complete a timed lap as a result.
Zaugg and the SABC Sport/Telkom/Aon backed Vulindela were on course for a fast lap in segment three when Portugal locked up brakes in front of them, causing the South African to brake prematurely and compromise his lap time. His lap time of 1 min 18,74 sec was probably half a second slower than it might have been.
Another highly committed quick lap in the fourth and final qualifying segment, which was just half a second off Germany's best, was enough to put A1 Team South Africa in the top 10.
"We were unfortunate to be out on the circuit on our quick lap when the second session was red-flagged," said Zaugg. "This put the team under extra pressure for session three and we were prevented by the heavy traffic in this session from putting in a lap in the low 1 min 18 sec range.
"We were on track for a sub 1 min 18 sec lap in the final session, but I got Vulindlela into a bit of a slide coming out of the final corner and selected the wrong gear, losing at least three tenths of a second.
"It will be tough tomorrow from row five on the grid, but the car is good and we'll be strong contenders."
Great Britain - 11th
Mechanical issues continued to blight A1 Team Great Britain's progress in South Africa ahead of Round 8 of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. Saturday's event-filled qualifying session, run on Durban's 2.04-mile temporary street course, saw Robbie Kerr hustle the British entry to eleventh fastest on the timesheets courtesy of a concentrated effort on his final two runs, gearbox problems preventing Kerr from emulating his front-row start from the previous A1GP round at the stunning beachside track.
With Friday's practice session disrupted by a recurring throttle problem, the British team had hoped to put their mechanical woes behind them having fixed the issue prior to this morning's final practice run. Unfortunately for Kerr, with one problem solved another appeared, this time gearbox issues affecting the downshift on the car.
Forced to miss the first of his four timed qualifying laps as the team worked hard along with Zytek and Xtrac to resolve the issue, Kerr was finally released on-track in time to take the second session. On the back foot from the off, a spin at the chicane meant Robbie's third and fourth runs would have to be trouble-free to set a decent aggregate time to determine his grid slot for Sunday's Sprint race.
Setting the tenth and eleventh fastest laps times in the final two sessions, Kerr's aggregate time of 2m37.095s places A1 Team Great Britain just outside the top-ten starters for the 20-minute Sprint race, Robbie lining up on the sixth row of the grid in eleventh with A1 Team USA alongside. Germany secured pole with title rivals, New Zealand, accompanying them on the front-row.
"Naturally I'm disappointed with today's outcome," reflected Kerr. "We've just been troubled by lots of little issues since we got here and unfortunately we're just not there with the car. When I finally got going in I just wanted to make sure I did a steady job but I'll be aiming for the front tomorrow."
James Robinson, the British team's Chief Engineer shared Robbie's frustrations. "We've obviously got some gremlins in the system which is really limiting our abilities to get the best from the car. We're looking into the gearbox problems and hope to have the situation solved ahead of tomorrow's races."
USA - 12th
After yet another red-flag-filled day, A1 Team USA again emerged unscathed and geared up for what promises to be a thrilling race in the streets of Durban on Sunday.
Team USA progressed through a tremendous number of changes throughout the day--once again scanning the aerodynamic and mechanical landscape, looking for the sweet spot of the We The People car. In the morning's practice session, Driver Jonathan Summerton worked diligently through the changes, posting great times in Sectors 1, 2, and 3, but never putting all three sectors together for a blinding lap. At the end of the session, Team USA was in 13th place.
"Clearly Jonathan was at the very top of the charts in each individual sector of the street circuit. His only challenge now is to put all the sectors together in one great lap", said A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger following P3.
For the qualifying session, Team USA went early in Q1 to be sure of a clear track and jumped strongly to the top of the time sheets. Summerton sat in P1 for a while, but started to slide as the later runners attacked, eventually finishing P11.
The second qualifying segment was run on used tires, yielding less grip, and making a fast time more difficult. Summerton, however, pushed hard throughout the segment, setting a 1:18.779-5th fastest of Q2. Following a 1:18.646 in Q3, Team USA sat 8th overall on combined times and after the team made final setup adjustments for the all-important Q4, Summerton delivered with his best lap of 1:18.542 for P9 in the final segment. This put Team USA in the 12th spot in the qualifying round.
"This morning's session was productive. We had some problems, tested a few things, and got it all worked out in the end," said Summerton. "As far as qualifying, I was happy that I improved in every segment. It was hard to adjust to the one single lap qualifying. You always feel like you left a little on the table. I think we have a good car for the race tomorrow. There are plenty of chances to pass around here, and I'm really looking forward to it."
"This was Jonathan's first qualifying session in the We The People car. Securing 12th place on the grid for the sprint race is an good start," said Weidinger. "We will go to work tomorrow with the major objective of moving up the grid, and securing championship points. Last year in Durban, only nine cars finished the Feature Race. Our focus on Sunday will be to race smart and finish first."
Malaysia - 17th
The South African round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport continued today on the streets of Durban, with the temporary circuit snaking along the shoreline and around the Sun Coast Casino. A1 Team Malaysia struggled to find their form today, posting only 17th fastest aggregated lap times in qualifying, to line up in this position for the Sprint race.
With only 30 minutes practice time yesterday, Malaysia needed to use morning practice to continue development of its car for the afternoon qualifying. With a full hour of running Yoong was able to complete 33 laps of the Durban track and gain further data to review prior to qualifying. Posting 10th quickest lap in the morning, the team felt prepared for the tough challenge of the afternoon Sprint grid-setting session.
In qualifying A1 Team Malaysia had three sets of new tyres at their disposal and was aiming to use these to put in a series of quick laps during the four segments of qualifying and, aggregated, the two quickest of these were used to determine the Team's grid position.
On their first run the team was ninth quickest and after the second segment had improved to fifth spot. In the third segment an early red flag stoppage reduced the amount of time available for a flying lap and, with the majority of the teams needing track time, it was a busy session with the drivers all fighting for a clean, quick lap. The Malaysian team also suffered with this and was lying 14th before the final segment. A red flag in this segment delayed the final flying lap run, and when finally able to complete it, finished 17th quickest overall, the team's grid slot for the Sprint race tomorrow.
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, added, "Our performance today was below our expectations. Even if Alex hadn't had a brush with the wall, we weren't where we are used to being and at this stage we don't really know the reason why. We'll spend the rest of the evening looking at the data. Realistically for tomorrow, we must try and keep ourselves clean in the first race and push for position in the second."
Yoong reflected on the day saying, "I am disappointed. Usually we move forward during qualifying and today that just wasn't the case. Unfortunately I also hit the wall in Q4 which cost us about 5 or 6 positions."
Brazil - 18th
Flying the flag today for all the A1GP competing nations was A1 Team Brasil when Bruno Junqueira completed this afternoon's qualifying session in the A1 spare car, sporting a livery covered in all the flags of the series. Bruno had to use the car after an accident in this morning's final practice. It was not possible to repair the Team Brasil car in time for qualifying so organisers permitted the squad to use the spare car.
The final practice this morning was extended to allow extra time for drivers to get to grips with the circuit after yesterday's session was cut short due to surface problems with the track. Bruno suffered several mechanical problems throughout the 70 minutes, including a part flying off inside the cockpit, and brake issues. However, he steadily improved his times throughout the session, and with minutes remaining he posted a time of 1:19.357, putting him up into ninth place. Feeling more comfortable in the car, Bruno pushed hard on his last few laps, but with just a minute remaining he pushed a bit too hard through the chicane, hitting the kerb, which sent him into the wall.
It was evident from the damage that it would not be possible to repair for qualifying, which was less than two hours later, so A1GP officials permitted the use of the spare car. This provided Bruno with a whole new set of problems for the four-part qualifying, as the pedals could not be repositioned in time, and he was barely able to reach them. It also meant no time to apply any useful set-up the car.
Even with all of these problems, Bruno put in an impressive performance, improving his lap times with each segment, and sitting in ninth place overall at the half-way point. He set even faster times of 1:18.985 and 1:18.724 in the third and fourth sectors respectively but, as has often been proven with the unique qualifying system that A1 uses, times are so close and competitive that Bruno still only finished in 18th position, despite his solid performance. He will therefore begin tomorrow's sprint race, which begins at 11am local time, from the ninth row of the grid.
Bruno Junqueira: "In practice this morning we had problems with the brakes and a piece falling off the car, but on my last outing I started picking up speed. But the tyres were very old, and with two laps to go I was pushing hard and just went a little bit wide. I could see I wasn't going to make the corner so I thought about going straight, but I knew I would break the front wing, so I tried to make the corner but hit the kerb hard and it put me out. I ended up crashing, which is a real shame because we were doing some good times. I was up to ninth on old tyres, so the car was getting better. So in qualifying I just jumped into this other car with no idea how it was going to feel. The pedals were too far away, the set-up wasn't good, the gears were all wrong and the engine seemed down on power. We didn't have any time to do any set-up on the car, it was only finished during the first segment, so I just went out. I improved on each run and after the second outing we were ninth. But this is a different qualifying format and you just seem to go down the order, even with improving your times, and we ended up 18th so it's a bit frustrating. We were pretty close, just a second off the leader on both of our best laps, so it's a shame we couldn't go at least into the top ten. It's not going to be an easy race tomorrow, but I hope I have a clean sprint race and can go forward to do a good feature race."
Fernando Paiva, Team Principal: "Bruno's doing a stellar job for us, and we didn't expect anything less. Unfortunately we had repeated mechanical problems this morning, which put him in a position that he wanted to push at the end and he made a mistake. But I'll take that anytime over a slow performance. In qualifying he had a car in which he could barely reach the pedals, although we have to thank the series operation for giving us the opportunity to take part in qualifying with this car, so we actually think he did a great job under the circumstances."
Lebanon - 19th
The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Durban, resumed today with final practice and qualifying for the races tomorrow, with A1 Team Lebanon lining up on the grid and ready to take on the challenge of the street circuit along the shores of the city. With air temperatures soaring to 30°C and 74% humidity, the team finished 19th quickest today in qualifying.
In morning practice Allam Khodair, the new driver for A1 Team Lebanon this weekend, returned to the track after his first two sessions behind the wheel of the A1GP car yesterday. He used the hour session to continue gaining experience of the A1GP car and the intricacies of the tight street circuit that hosts the Durban A1GP races. After the hour of running, Khodair had posted 16th quickest lap of the 23 cars competing this weekend.
The afternoon session, with the unique A1GP style of qualifying, uses the fastest two lap times from a maximum of four ‘hot' laps, with each run taken within a 15 minute time period. Two new sets of tyres were available for qualifying and Khodair was able to use these to best advantage for his two quickest runs, knocking another 0.7 seconds off his best time.
Khodair said after the session, "I'm pleased that I've completed my first A1GP qualifying without incident, particularly as this track is very tight and as we've seen, there were quite a few cars that lost their nose at some point in the day. I think there were sections of the track that I could be better, but with only a limited number of laps and wanting to make sure I kept the car in one piece, I don't think I've found the limits yet. Overall it's been an enjoyable, challenging experience."
Martin Stone, Racing Manager, A1 Team Lebanon reviewed the day saying, "Khodair drove well today. He had been in the car for less than two hours before the qualifying session this afternoon, yet he was able to put in four solid, clean laps for us. He has shown a mature approach to his first outing in A1GP, keeping within his limits on this very unforgiving track and pushing harder as he grew in confidence with the handling of the car. The Feature race produced only nine finishers last year, so we know that we still have our biggest challenge ahead of us."
Canada - 20th
A1 Team Canada endured a disappointing day in Durban Saturday as James Hinchcliffe qualified 20th for Round 8 of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, hosted Sunday at the South African city's specifically designed 3.28km street circuit.
Down on track time following the red-flagging and subsequent cancelling of Friday afternoon's official practice session with 30-minutes remaining, the Canadian team struggled to capture recent form in Saturday morning's final practice outing, Hinchcliffe languishing uncharacteristically down at the lower end of the timesheets.
Things failed to improve for the 20-year-old Toronto racer, with eight top-ten A1GP starts to his credit this season, when the afternoon's qualifying session kicked off. 15th fastest in the first of his four timed runs, the fastest two setting his aggregate lap time to determine his Sprint race grid slot, James' second lap, on used rubber, was hampered by a gear selection problem.
With a series of red flags interrupting the flow of the session, James then posted a 1m19.771s lap, his fastest of the session to that point but only good for 19th on the timesheets as lap times continued to tumble. Frustratingly another red flag forced James to sit at the end of pitlane awaiting his fourth and final run, the intervening period cooling his tire temperatures. Despite a faster lap of 1m18.922s when he was finally unleashed, Hinchcliffe was left to rue what might have been having made a slight mistake at Turn 10, losing seven tenths of a second in the process – potentially costing a top-15 start.
"Well fingers crossed hopefully we can find something in the car overnight that will allow us to compete tomorrow," stated Hinchcliffe. "For sure I'm going to have to dig deep and as a team we have a lot of work to do to if we hope to get something from the weekend. Overtaking's tough on street courses but the Feature race could give us a chance to sneak back into the points."
India - 21st
Narain Karthikeyan was back on track today, for qualifying in the A1GP Durban, South Africa. The F1 driver was hindered by a series of incidents which seriously compromised the Chennai born racer's qualifying session. Despite demonstrating front running pace in practice, when he was never out of the top ten, A1 Team India will start tomorrow's Sprint race from the 11th row of the grid, after an incident early on in qualifying.
In a unique qualifying system, the A1GP drivers complete four flying laps over four qualifying segments. The team's two best laps are aggregated to produce an overall qualifying position. While pushing hard on his first flying lap, Karthikeyan hit a kerb, tearing off his front wing as several other drivers had done over the course of the weekend.
The team worked hard to ensure that the A1 Team India car back out on track, but unfortunately the car had been badly damaged in the accident and Karthikeyan struggled to maintain the pace he had demonstrated early in the weekend. An accident involving A1 Team Singapore also prevented India from setting a time in the second qualifying segment, leaving Karthikeyan with just two flying laps available to him.
Although frustrated about his performance in qualifying, Karthikeyan is hopeful of his team's chances tomorrow. "It was a disappointing qualifying session, I have nobody to blame but myself. I hit the kerb, the car went up in the air, and when it came back down it just broke the front end. The same kerb has caught a lot of people out, but unfortunately it caught me out in qualifying!! The team tried to do the best they could to repair the car, and I caused them a lot of stress, but unfortunately it just didn't feel right when I went back out on track. We're not sure what it is at the moment, maybe something to do with the steering, but the team are working on that now.
"It was a frustrating day, I knew we had the pace to be in the top eight, maybe not the top three, but we could have been quite high up on the grid. It's a very good circuit for a street circuit. There's a good mix of corners, some very fast sections and some slow sections, it compares well to circuits such as Monaco and Macau. I'm looking forward to an interesting race tomorrow."
A1 Team India seatholder, Yohann Setna, "Unfortunately Narain made a mistake which then compounded itself with some problems with the car and several red flag periods. He was pushing very, very hard and hit the kerb, but that sometimes happens. Even though we fixed what was readily visible, Narain still seems to be having a severe problem with the handling of the car, it's very, very bad. I think it probably took one and half seconds off our pace. The team are going to strip it down tonight and make sure everything is okay for tomorrow.
"I think at the start of the Sprint race, he will just go for it. There's no point in being over cautions for 15th place or something similar. He's got nothing to lose from that point on the grid."
Pakistan - 22nd
The A1GP Durban, South Africa continued today, as the pressure and the temperature soared on South Africa's golden coast. Nur Ali took to the track alongside nations from around the globe, to represent Pakistan in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. After competing in the four segment qualifying session, A1 Team Pakistan will start tomorrow's Sprint race from the 12th row of the grid.
A1 Team Pakistan were on track this morning for the final practice session before qualifying, giving the team a final chance to work on set up. Although the A1GP cars have yet to race in anger in Durban, many drivers made unforced errors making contact with the unforgiving concrete walls. Again, today's sessions were delayed with numerous red flag periods.
The trend continued throughout qualifying with the second and third qualifying segments disrupted by red flag periods. While many teams were unable to set a time in the second segment, A1 Team Pakistan were one of the first out on track and were thankfully unaffected by the incident.
The A1GP Durban, South Africa is quickly emerging as the most physically demanding race of the season. Track temperatures today reached 43°C, air temperature 30°C and humidity an uncomfortable 75 per cent. Wearing fireproof undergarments, fireproof double layer race suit, gloves, balaclava and helmet, and race boots, drivers can loose up to 3.5 litres of body fluid per race. With many of the sessions extended and delayed this weekend, Nur Ali and the other A1GP drivers are having to endure the high temperatures for longer than usual.
Speaking about conditions in the car, Ali commented, "It was a very difficult session today, the good thing is that we kept it clean and kept it out of the wall. We had a few issues with the car, we tried a couple of new sets of tyres and our times didn't approve that much. Yesterday the car felt better; today it was hit and miss. We came in so many times during practice this morning to make set-up changes, but unfortunately it didn't quite seem to work.
"It's clear from the practice and qualifying today that there will be a lot of incidents in the races, so if we keep it clean and out of trouble, we stand a good chance of making up some places and getting the best possible result for Pakistan".
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