29/08/2007
NEWS STORY
A1 Team Netherlands has finished the official A1GP test at the Silverstone circuit in eighth place. That result did not fully reflect the potential of the team, just like on the first day.
With warm and sunny conditions the 22 nations started their second day of testing today. Jeroen Bleekemolen went out first and set a ninth fastest time in the first session, with 1.11.091. Just like yesterday Bleekemolen had bad luck with a red flag when he was out on new tyres, forcing him to abandon his flying lap.
Just before the break it was Arie Luyendyk jr's turn, but he had to come in to the pits straight away after another red flag, which immediately caused the end of the session.
Straight after the break Arie jr was able to cover more distance during his one hour stint. The final hour of testing was reserved for Bleekemolen, but now traffic on track spoiled a flying lap on his last set of new tyres. He did manage to improve on his own time, but a top five finish was out of reach.
Arie Luyendyk jr; "This is a cool series to compete in, very professional and with a lot of good drivers. It is going to be a lot of fun this season. We were able to try out many things and have got a better view of what is working and what's not. And that is what testing is all about. I am not entirely happy with my own performance. I have to get used to the car more and adapt my style of driving. You cannot turn into the corner very hard with this car, it has to be more fluent. Just before the break the car felt better, after that I suffered more from oversteer."
Jeroen Bleekemolen; "We managed to do a lot. We had hoped to be more near the front runners, but we are not far off. Just like yesterday we had some bad luck on new tyres, it did not work completely twice. In terms of pace we are reasonable, but we still have to find the final bit. We have to keep working like this, it is getting better and better. Anyway it has been good that we were able to try out many things. That's what this test is for, it is not the objective to be on top, although you always want to be there. At the moment we are in the back of the top 10, but with our pace we should really be inside the top five. Not very bad, but we still have to improve."
Jan Lammers; "Sometimes you hear people complaining about traffick during a hot lap. Here in A1 there are 22 cars driving that are also very reliable. When Jeroen went out on new tyres this afternoon there were 16 cars out on track. The chance of encountering traffic then is very big. Unfortunately that is what happened. We are now eighth in the sheets. I don't think that this is representative for our real potential and you are in an area where two or three tenths can easily get you into fourth. As far as the performance of the car, Jeroen and of course Arie jr are concerned I am very happy. We were not able to show that completely, we will have to save this for September 30."