10/10/2007
NEWS STORY
Team Malaysia, one of the 22 nations competing in the World Cup of Motorsport, head to Brno race track in the Czech Republic this weekend for the second round of the 2007/08 season. After the team's difficulties at the opening race in Zandvoort, The Netherlands, the team hopes to have the same dominating form they had at the Brno circuit last season, where the team won both the Sprint and the Feature races in stunning and commanding style.
The Masaryk Automotodrom Brno circuit is the most famous racing circuit in the Czech Republic. It is 5.4 km in length with 14 turns, and this twisty, undulating track is a favourite of motorbike and car racers. Driver Alex Yoong, will once again be on track for Team Malaysia at Brno, with rookie driver Aaron Lim taking up Friday testing duties ahead of the race on Sunday. Yoong, who drove the team to victory during last season's races, will be aiming for a repeat of the two wins, pole position and fastest lap they achieved in Brno last year.
The Zandvoort weekend ended in an uncharacteristic no points finish for the Malaysian team. Whilst battling hard in the feature race, driver Alex Yoong pulled into the pitlane with mechanical issues, which turned out to be terminal for the car. Having crossed the line in 16th in the Sprint, the retirement in the Feature was a disappointing end to a potential points scoring weekend for the team.
Driver Alex Yoong commented: "Last year we finished Zandvoort with zero points too. So we go to Brno to try and do the same job that we did last year and come back with a decent haul of points to kick start our championship.
"Zandvoort was a tough weekend, we had issues with getting our tyres up to temperature during the qualifying and we only realised what the problem was close to the end of the session. Hopefully as we move onto Brno we can put last weekend behind us and get a good result there. Brno is a beautiful smooth circuit and it was very good to us last year as we managed to win both races and get fastest lap. Hopefully it will be kind to us again this season. We are all look forward to going back there again."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive A1 Team Malaysia commented: "Zandvoort was a not a great start to our season, where from qualifying things were against us. However, we're a strong team and we will do our very best to bounce back at Brno, where we had our best race weekend last year. It will not be an easy task to repeat, particularly with the quality of the competition, but we will try. There is a field of very talented drivers in A1GP competing against us, so the racing will be close and tough. We will do our very best to challenge for a strong points finish."