23/11/2007
NEWS STORY
Brazil
A1 Team Brasil kicked off the third round of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in a positive fashion today at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Sergio Jimenez, driving at the track for the first time, finished second fastest in each of this morning's rookie practices, behind A1GP double-race winner Oliver Jarvis, and followed that up with a strong seventh position in this afternoon's one-hour session.
The main aim of this morning's first 25-minute rookie practice for Sergio was to learn the tricky 5.54km Sepang circuit, and he proved a quick learner as he topped the timesheets half way through the session. Team GBR's Jarvis was the only driver able to improve on Sergio's time and, with the final three minutes of the session cancelled due to a red-flag, the Team Brasil driver did not have time to respond.
Sergio continued his strong form in the second segment of the rookie practice, setting consistently fast times, and once again sitting at the top of the table for much of the session. In a repeat of the first segment, Jarvis once again set a faster time and the field was brought in three minutes early due to another red flag.
In this afternoon's one-hour practice, which saw all of the weekend's race drivers take to the track, Team Brasil tried out several set-up options and set his fastest lap time of 1:50.753 towards the end of the hour, finishing up seventh quickest.
Sergio Jimenez: "We started very well in the rookie session and we used it so that I could learn the track. The car was okay but the tyres were old so it was just normal really. In the second session this afternoon we started with new tyres but we had a lot of oversteer so I couldn't do a good time. After that we kept improving, but the best lap was at the end of the session on old tyres. I think we've found a good way to go but we need to work more to catch the guys ahead so we'll work on that for the morning."
Fernando Paiva, Team Principal: "Sergio did a very good job this morning in getting to know the circuit having never been here before. Of course he did what all the boys do now and played on the video games beforehand, but he did a great job with the real thing. This afternoon we tested a few different things and gradually went back to what has been working for us and did a good time at the end of practice. It was a little shy of where we could have been on newer tyres so it was pretty decent altogether. We're looking for a much improved position tomorrow."
Canada
A shortage of practice laps in Malaysia this morning failed to prevent A1 Team Canada rookie Robert Wickens from cracking the top-ten in this afternoon's official practice session at the Sepang International Circuit prior to Round 3 of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport on Sunday, 25th November.
Wickens, who becomes only the fourth driver to race for A1 Team Canada in the nation versus nation series this weekend, had his practice time cut short in the morning's ‘Rookie-Only' session at the 5.54km circuit thanks to a problematic steering rack. Limited to ten laps, the 18-year-old from Toronto posted the 12th fastest time of the session with a 1m54.695s lap from 20 nations fielding rookies.
This afternoon's hour-long session, with all 22 competing nations participating, proved to be more productive for Canada with Wickens, the 2006 Formula BMW USA Champion, comfortably running inside the top-ten throughout. His best lap time, a 1m50.909s, ended the session eighth quickest with the team looking to maintain that form into Saturday's qualifying sessions, Canada having yet to start a race this season higher than tenth on the grid.
"Today's been pretty good," reflected Wickens after his first outing on the Sepang track. "We had a problem with the steering rack in the rookie session which basically meant I couldn't turn the car so we lost a lot of track time. The team rebounded really well though and I'm extremely satisfied to have been running in the top-ten the whole of this afternoon's session.
He continued, "We made improvements to the car in the limited time we had and despite going out on fresh tires at the start of the session I did my fastest lap on the second to last lap of the session which shows the improvements we've made. I'm really looking forward to Saturday's practice and qualifying."
A1 Team Canada Team Manager, Simon Cayzer, commented; "We had some problems this morning which cost us some time but the second practice session went well. We have some more fine tuning to do but overall we're relatively happy with our set-up start. Robert did a good job today despite being quite new to the car and having never driven the circuit before, he seems quite a cool, calm customer!"
France
A1 Team France set the third-quickest time in Friday's practice on the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. At the end of the day's only session Loïc Duval got to within 0.6s of the quickest time, but his attempts to beat the stopwatch were upset by a yellow flag at the end of practice.
The team reckons it has found a number of useful set-up adjustments and is quietly confident for the next two days. Its aim is to finish on the podium in this weekend's two races and to close the gap in the overall classification.
Olivier Panis, Sporting Director: "It's been a good day for A1 Team France, which found its footing straight away setting promising times that bode well for the rest of the weekend. Sepang is a very demanding track with a wide variety of corners with very different characteristics. It's often difficult to find the right set-up, but we're on the right track as Loïc's time showed in all sectors on his last run. Without the yellow flags at the end of the session, we would have been on the same pace as the fastest time of the day."
Loïc Duval, driver: "I'm pretty satisfied with my first day. I know Sepang having raced GTs on it, but I have to say that the circuit looks very different when you're in a single-seater. Technically speaking, Nicolas Prost's absence forced us to miss the rookie session. It had a small impact on our programme as I had to spend time bedding in the brake pads with new tyres. We've also got a new engine this weekend and adjusting it took three laps.
However, our performance is very promising and it improved throughout practice. Before my last run we made a major modification to the car's set-up. I was not able to confirm the overall improvement in general balance due to the yellow flags at the end of the session, but we've definitely made a step forward as confirmed by the data acquisition systems. I think I can make a little progress too, so we're feeling confident for tomorrow."
Germany
Michael Ammermüller made a good debut for Willi Weber's A1 Team Germany. On the third weekend of the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport season in Malaysia, the 21-year old racing driver from Pocking close to Passau steered the German team's powerful 520 hp race car to sixth place in second free practice on Friday.
Ammermüller returned to the cockpit of the A1GP race car after more than one year since his only test in August 2006. Unlike many of his competitors, who had competed in Malaysia last year, the newcomer had to start by learning the 5.543 kilometre Sepang circuit. Complicating matters even further was the fact that the racer from Lower Bavaria hardly turned a wheel during the "Rookie Test" reserved exclusively for newcomers. "The engine died on the first lap," diagnosed Ammermüller after a few hundred metres. The aluminium V8 power unit only ran as reliably as accustomed after the Zytek engineers had changed the entire electronic system.
Despite losing the 50 minute practice session in the morning, the young talent was able to demonstrate his abilities immediately in second free practice: He posted the sixth fastest time with a lap of 1m50.641s and was only 34 hundredths-of-a-second slower than championship leader New Zealand in fourth place. "I'm pleased with this result since it is more than we could have hoped for after the ‘Rookie Test'," explained Michael Ammermüller. "After all, I had to get used to the behaviour of the car again on new tyres. We improved the set-up quite a lot in the first 60 minutes."
The "star of tomorrow" enjoyed the challenge of the new-to-him circuit close to Kuala Lumpur. "It's really an interesting track," said an impressed Ammermüller. "So many fast corners are a lot of fun. It'll be interesting to see how the two races on this track develop."
Great Britain
Oliver Jarvis set the standard today topping all the timesheets in the hot and humid conditions ahead of round three of the A1GP season at the Sepang International Circuit this weekend.
Team GBR was straight on the pace today with both team and driver happy with the car set up and therefore spending most the morning session focusing on data acquisition and bedding in brakes. Oliver's blistering time of 1:52.013 was 0.744s quicker than anyone else as he took part in his final rookie sessions. After this weekend Oliver will have completed more than six races for A1 Team GB making him ineligible to take part in any further rookie tests.
He continued his strong form this afternoon setting the quickest time on lap six, which he improved in the dying moments of the hour, clocking a 1:49.459 on lap 20.
Oliver Jarvis: "Participating in the rookie session this morning of course helped to some extent, but the fact that we set the quickest lap at the end of the day shows that we were improving throughout the day. Our pace, particularly at the end of the afternoon session was excellent, though I'm a little disappointed that we didn't set a quicker lap time earlier on in the afternoon session with the new tyres as of course in qualifying it's all about that one lap. It's certainly hot and humid here which will be difficult for all the drivers, but we train hard so hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a problem. We've now got to keep working hard as for sure other teams will improve overnight and it's up to us not to rest on our laurels and keep working at it."
Katie Clements, Team Principal: "Quickest in each session today is the best start we could have hoped for. We're really happy with the progress we've made and confident that we can achieve a good result this weekend. Last event we had a puncture in the Feature Race which hampered our progress, but we've already shown this year that Team GB is a team capable of winning and we're hoping we can add to that win tally this weekend."
Ireland
Belmayne A1 Team Ireland had a difficult start to the weekend finishing tenth and twelfth respectively in today's practice sessions in very hot and humid conditions.
After an off interrupted his opening rookie session this morning, Adam bounced back, having learnt the tricky 5.54km Sepang International Circuit quickly to be able to work with the team to help make improvements to the car throughout the day. During the afternoon session Adam's lap times were gradually dropping despite being on worn tyres and with a few more changes scheduled before the final session tomorrow morning the team were feeling positive ahead of qualifying.
Adam Carroll: "We've have just spent today continuing with our test programme. I had a few problems with my seat which made it quite uncomfortable to drive so I'm a bit disappointed. It's the first time I've driven here though and I had problems with traffic when I went out this afternoon which meant we also couldn't get the best out of the fresh tyres. I was putting in some fairly consistent times though and we'll be back tomorrow with some further changes."
Dan Walmsley, Race Engineer: "We are a little way off the pace we'd like to be today and have a few things to find in the set up. Adam has got on top of the circuit but there's still time to find in the middle sector. The problem with the longer sessions is that as the car improves the tyres go off but we have some things to try tomorrow and so we're feeling positive."
Mark Kershaw, Team Owner: "We're not where we want to be today but we'll be getting our heads down overnight and make sure we can get Adam comfortable in the car so we can continue moving forward on Saturday."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon had one of the toughest practice days of the season, in the opening day of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Sepang, Malaysia. Mechanical woes limited the team's track time to less than half of the allotted time in both the rookie session and afternoon practice.
Chris Alajajian has been selected to drive for the Lebanese team this weekend and, after arriving in Malaysia last week, with team mate Khalil Beschir, has been acclimatising to the hot and humid conditions in preparation for Sunday's two races.
The team were ready to take to the track at the beginning of the first part of the rookie session, two 25 minutes of running reserved for young drivers and developing nations, and Alajajian began his initial preparations for the weekend. Alajajian was struggling for pace as he began to gain experience of the track, and as the session progressed, he became more uncomfortable with the car. Returning to the pit garage in the closing stages, the technical crew quickly began to inspect the car, revealing mechanical problems which had been the root cause of the team's problems.
The repairs required were lengthy and Alajajian was forced to sit out the second 25 minutes session while the A1 Team Lebanon crew set to work to ensure that they were able to participate in the afternoon. They had hoped to be able to return to the track for the end of the rookie session, but the repairs needed took longer than had been hoped and they were unable to continue in the morning.
Alajajian began the afternoon session cautiously, aiming to build his pace through the session. At the start he needed to limit his runs to two single laps in order that the technical team could check that all the systems and mechanical parts were working correctly. This, once again, curtailed track time for the Lebanese team, but they were able to join the track midway through the session. Alajajian set to work to start developing the performance of the car and despite his lack of laps, by the conclusion of the session he had posted 18th fastest time.
The young Australian-Lebanese driver said at the end of the day, "It was very frustrating for us all today. All we want to do is be out on this great Sepang track, gaining experience of it, learning its characteristics and developing the package, but we just didn't have the time we needed. The Lebanon team boys did a great job to do the repairs and make sure we had some running and I made the best use of it that I could, but it was just too little to make any significant progress."
Marcus Koch, Chief Engineer, A1 Team Lebanon added, "It was disappointing for us today. We had hoped to have a full day of practice and with Chris now having experience of an A1GP weekend, we had a detailed plan and plenty to get through today, but it didn't happen. We're on the back foot now and that increases the challenge for us, but we'll work hard and pull together to make progress tomorrow."
Malaysia
The opening day of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Sepang, Malaysia began with two rookie sessions and the first official practice session, and Aaron Lim and Alex Yoong representing their nation at the home event of the season for A1 Team Malaysia.
Lim is a young rookie driver who has the privilege of representing his nation in the A1GP Series, gaining valuable experience of the powerful A1GP car and benefiting from working with a highly professional team. In the first part of the rookie session Lim undertook the standard procedures at the start of a race weekend, with bedding in of the brakes and systems checks. He ran consistently well to finish sixth quickest. In the second part of the session he dropped to 15th, but as always in these sessions it is the role of the rookie to assist the team and not necessarily push hard to the limits of the car.
Lim said of his run today, "It's quite special to be driving in front of the home crowd and I really enjoyed experiencing the Sepang track in the A1GP car today. It's a track that suits the A1GP car with its fast, flowing corners and it was a pleasure to drive here. I hope that I have been able to make a positive contribution to the fortunes of our team this weekend, as it would be great to deliver a strong result for our fans."
Yoong took over the driving duties for the afternoon and after running 19 laps had produced the 17th fastest time. The data showed that the car was quick, with Malaysia recording sixth highest top speed, but the overall lap time did not reflect the pace in the car.
Yoong says, "I don't think today's quickest lap was really representative of our capabilities, and it was really the middle sector of the lap where we were losing time. We have another session tomorrow and overnight we'll review all the data to make further progress. We made a couple of changes today and these improved the car, so we'll be looking to find more in it tomorrow and need to get into the top ten in final practice.
"The track, having been resurfaced since our last visit, has lots more grip, so it's very different from the one that we drove in last year's race. I enjoyed being out there today, it feels good to be at home."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, reviewed the day saying, "This is the start of a very busy weekend for us. With all our new sponsor announcements, many guests visiting the team and the thousands of fans we're expecting, it is the biggest event of the season for us and we are very proud to be representing Malaysia here at home.
"Both Aaron and Alex are excellent ambassadors for A1 Team Malaysia. We're pleased to be able to provide a unique driving experience for Aaron and assist him in his career through his efforts for us. Alex knows that he has Malaysia watching, and I know he, as with all our team, will be doing their best to bring pride to the nation."
Mexico
Mexican diver Michel Jourdain Jr. drove for the first time at the 5.54-Km. (3.44-mile) Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, which hosts Round 3 of the A1GP The World Cup of Motorsports from November 23-25. Jourdain Jr. expects to collect his first points in the international series during his second participation in the championship.
Today's free practise sessions were held under hot and humid conditions. In the first practice, the Mexican Team was seventh in the first segment of the session and ninth in the second one. Being ninth overall in the rookie session, while in the last practise they were 20th.
"We are already at Sepang, in Malaysia. I feel much better, mainly physically in comparison how I felt at Brno. I've worked very hard in the physical part.," Jourdain Jr. said.
"In the rookie practise I was seventh and ninth. In the second practise when I was driving on fresh tyres I had a misunderstanding with another driver on the third lap. Then, trying to avoid him I've spun. I think the new tyres were damaged there a little bit. We ended up being 20th, but I think that we have a lot of room to improve. I think that I know where we can improve our performance and my goal this weekend is to collect points," he said.
"I feel the car is pretty good. Now I think that I need more laps and to adapt to this track," the Mexican driver said.
Netherlands
The prospects for A1 Team Netherlands for the rest of the A1GP at Sepang are, despite the fact it did not quite show in the tables today, good.
In the Rookie sessions this morning and the free practice session of the afternoon Arie Luyendyk jr and Jeroen Bleekemolen only managed to set a respectively fourteenth and tenth fastest time. This time though there is more then the result alone. Just as Bleekemolen was on his way to his fastest lap and a spot inside of the top six there was a yellow flag and he had to drive the second sector of the circuit two seconds slower then normal, otherwise he would get penalized.
Arie Luyendyk jr went out on track this morning for the two times 25 minute Rookie sessions. With this he made his debut on the 5.54 km long circuit. For most of the two sessions Arie mainly focussed on bedding in two new sets of brakes, leaving very little time for a couple of flying laps. His fastest lap time was 1'55.267. Great Britain, with Oliver Jarvis, was the fastest in this session. It was difficult for the A1 Team Netherlands Rookie to find a solid rhythm on this new circuit today; "The track is really nice and it's an honour to drive here. I really like this circuit. Unfortunately we had to bed in two sets of brakes, so that took a lot of our practice time. Both sessions were cut short as well. Fourteenth is not the greatest result, but I am positive about it though. Every time I drive the car I go a little bit quicker and am more confident. Hopefully we'll make another step forward when China comes around. It's harder learning a new track while bedding in the brakes. It takes four or five laps and if you have to do that twice in two 25 minute sessions it takes up almost all time. When the brakes are bedded you only got two flying laps to set a fast laptime. And on a new circuit setting a competitive lap time inside two laps is much more difficult. I found it quite difficult to get a rhythm going today."
Jeroen Bleekemolen went out in the afternoon for his first practice. He was not able to compete in front straight away, but together with the team was able to make steps forward all through the 60 minute session. Furthermore no less then eight drivers had already gone out this morning so they were able to really push on new tyres straight away. At the start of the session there was a short red flag, but after this the rest of practice went unhindered. The only thing was a yellow flag at the end, but his was just as Bleekemolen was underway to improve his lap time. In the end the fastest lap time of Bleekemolen was 1'51.006. Again Oliver Jarvis was fastest for Great Britain. Despite the tenth fastest time Bleekemolen is pleased about today; "At the start it did not go too well, we had some problems. But we really made quite some progress. We started off with a gap which we managed to close for the largest part already. We have done a lot and things went better every time. In the end we were unlucky that we were not able to set a good lap time because of the yellow flag. We are heading in the right direction and I hope that we can continue this. We also gathered a lot of information and we will start tomorrow with what we think is the best set up, then we will see where we are."
Jan Lammers also feels that a lot of progress has been made; "Actually it went quite well, we have made a lot of progression during practice. All the changes we made were steps forward. It was too bad though that just when we wanted to see the result of this on the timing screens the yellow flag was waved in the mid sector. We were fifth in the first and final sector and I think that we could have been in fifth or sixth in the mid sector as well. We did not see it on the stopwatch or in the results. At the moment we are potentially in fifth or sixth. We will build on that and should be able to compete at least inside the top six this weekend and then the amount of luck with pit stops and backmarkers comes into play, as was shown in the previous race. We still have to grow some more during the weekend, but I am very confident about this."
New Zealand
New Zealand A1GP driver Jonny Reid has clocked the 4th fastest time in the first official practice for this weekend's third round of the World Cup of Motorsport in the Malaysia.
Reid was 0.861 seconds behind pace-setting Brit Oliver Jarvis, who bettered Reid's old lap record in three successive sessions, starting with the two rookie hit-outs. Switzerland was the second fastest in the first open session with France completing the European trifecta. The 24-year-old Reid had survived a spin early in the session when he said he was "a little bit optimistic" on new tyres.
"You have to push early on, but the new tarmac has a bit more grip than last year, lap times are a bit quicker, I floored it on fresh rubber and it caught me out," Reid said. "Overall it is pretty cool to be P4. We improved the car a lot during the day and I'm confident for qualifying."
Reid said the conditions were stifling, with the ambient temperature reaching 35 degrees and the track temperature hitting 50 degrees. "The radiators are right by your hips and they're reaching 105 degrees. There's no wind, you're strapped in sweltering in your flame-proof suit and it's just like the hottest sauna you've ever, ever been in."
Earlier in the day 17-year-old Wanganui Collegiate student Earl Bamber had an impressive debut in Black Beauty, setting the 5th fastest time across the two 25-minute Rookie Sessions. Bamber used the first session to get used to the unfamiliar A1GP car, the most powerful he has ever driven, and then put the foot down on a circuit where he has completed 1500 laps in racing, testing and conducting driver training.
The four drivers ahead of Bamber all scorched under the A1GP lap record set by Reid last year, with Bamber's time of 1:53:682 just a third of a second off Reid's year-long record.
Pakistan
Adam Khan was back on track at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia today, as A1 Team Pakistan took part in the third event of this season's A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. A regular on the A1GP calendar, this weekend marks A1GP's third visit to Sepang and is also the first race of the season where Khan has previous track experience.
Having completed more than six races, Khan was forced to sit out the first two rookies sessions today and had to wait until the afternoon to make his first appearance on track.
Suffering from a lack of straight line speed that also hampered Pakistan's progress in Brno, the team discovered a lack of engine power in the one hour practice session. One of the longest circuits on the A1GP calendar, Sepang features several long straights which accentuated the team's engine problem. With the engine in the A1 Team Pakistan car reaching the end of its mileage life, the team will change the engine before tomorrow's final practice session.
Speaking about his return to Sepang, Khan said, "It was good to be back on a track familiar to me today, Sepang is a fantastic facility and it's great to be racing on an F1 circuit. The conditions were very difficult inside the car, it was very hot and humid and I think the Feature race on Sunday will test a lot of drivers.
"We weren't as quick as we'd hoped today. We're working with a new engineer this weekend, so it's taking a little time to get used to working together, but so far it's going well and I feel we're going to make a lot of progress over the weekend. There are a few sections of the circuit where I definitely feel I can make up time; there is definitely more time left in both the car and myself."
Making his first appearance with the team, A1 Team Pakistan engineer Andy Miller added, "Adam did well today. He listened to all the guidance we gave him and was able to provide good feedback that enabled us to make some set up changes to the car. I think there is plenty of progress to be made over the weekend and certain changes that we will look at before final practice tomorrow.
"We seemed to be having a problem with the engine during the session, Adam was complaining of a lack of straight line speed which was confirmed later by the data. With the engine due to be replaced soon anyway, we will put a new engine in for final practice tomorrow, which should have a positive effect on the lap times."
South Africa
A1 Team South Africa took 11th place in both this morning's rookie and developing nations free practice (out of 20 participants) and the first open free practice (out of 22 participating nations) for the third round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Wesleigh Orr, making only his second appearance in South Africa's distinctively liveried Vulindlela A1GP car following his rookie driver debut at Brno in the Czech Republic in October, completed a total of 14 laps during the two-part one-hour session and recorded a best time of 1 min 54,385 sec for the 5,54-km Sepang International Circuit. This was 2,372 sec off the fastest lap set by A1 Team Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis.
"We ran a lot of fuel in Vulindlela during Wesleigh's rookie session, to try and find a solution to the problems we had with a heavy fuel load at Brno. This probably cost him a second off Jarvis, so we were impressed with his performance," said Mike Carroll, the team's general manager.
"It was great to get back behind the wheel," said the 19-year-old Orr. "It's frustrating only being able to drive the A1GP car for just an hour at each race weekend, but each lap is a lap closer to getting the best out of the car and making a useful contribution to the team."
Adrian Zaugg, who turned 21 earlier this month, struggled under braking and this is where he felt he lost most of the 1,551 sec he gave away to the fastest lap of the one-hour afternoon session, credited to Great Britain's Jarvis at 1 min 49,459 sec.
Carroll: "Switzerland (Neel Jani) and France (Loic Duval), with whom we share technical data through our technical partners, Connor Racing, were second and third respectively this afternoon, so we should be competitive tomorrow if we can sort the car's balance under braking."
Zaugg: "We made progress during the session and will continue to work hard at making further improvements in tomorrow's second free practice. I'm confident we will be in good shape to put together a good performance with new tyres in the qualifying sessions."
Switzerland
The weather conditions were extremely hot for Rahel Frey's first outing at Sepang International Circuit at 11 sharp for the start of the first official practice session that was dedicated to the "rookie" drivers.
Since she arrived in Malaysia, Rahel Frey had a full PR program or her slate allowing her to acclimatize and discover the city of Kuala Lumpur. However, trainer Helmut Fink insisted on a disciplined and intensive high temperature training program for both drivers.
In the rookie session, Rahel Frey, the second female driver of A1 Team Switzerland was able to learn the track and then put in consistent times finishing with a lap time of 1.58.848 at the end of the first part of the first practice. Engineer James Robinson had a heavy technical program for Rahel to deal with two precise technical evaluations at the same time: an engine installation and bedding brakes. A red flag caused by Team UK interrupted the session. In the second part of the session, that restarted at 11.35, Rahel completed a best time of 1.55.102 on her sixth lap.
Rahel Frey: "What a good experience. The session was a lot of work but I hope I prepared the car well for Neel and it was very interesting. Everything went per plan except the number of yellow and red flags deployed. The rhythm of the session was greatly disturbed following an accident between Mexico and New Zealand causing us to lose the best laps for our new tyres. The heat surprised me a lot but we were well prepared which is a very important component of this competition."
Preparations for qualifying and the continued in the official practice with Neel Jani in view of the qualifying and races on Saturday and Sunday.
Neel Jani said: "The Sepang track is as spectacular as per my memories of it. I did not really notice too much the difference despite resurfacing. The tyres have held up amazingly well. It really feels good driving. We had a good session and tried a lot of different technical solutions for the car. My goal is to improve tomorrow from P2 to P1."
Max Welti: "Rahel Frey did a fantastic job and I am pleased with the work that she has achieved today. She drove well which is never easy when you do not know a track. But her driving skills have shown themselves well. The result of the official free practice with a second position for Neel Jani and a time of 1.49.911 validate the changes made by the team. This is a good indication for the rest of the weekend."
USA
A1 TEAM USA's Jonathan Summerton spent Friday re-acclimating himself to the equipment and learning the track in practice for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport event at Sepang International Circuit.
Summerton was 14th fastest in the one-hour session at 1:51.304 and ran the most laps with 23 on the 3.44-mile, 15-turn circuit. The 19-year-old from Kissimmee, Fla., had not driven the "We the People" car since testing at Silverstone on Aug. 29 and had never driven at Sepang.
"If we had put a decent lap together and the yellow flags had come out at the end of the session, then there was a lot more pace available," Summerton said. "We can go quicker.
"I said to the guys, 'I wasn't worried about where we were today, whether we were second or 20th.' This race will be a learning experience again. I'm sure if I'm picked for Zhuhai (the next round), we'll be fighting for a podium and, hopefully, for points."
"Jonathan and the team did a good job of working together again today," A1 TEAM USA owner Rick Weidinger said. "We ran a good amount of laps without trouble and we should be able to use that effort to take us to the next level in qualifying. We definitely want to be in the top 10 for both the Sprint and Feature races and would like to be in the top five."
A1 TEAM USA's Charlie Kimball, of Camarillo, Calif., was sixth in the all-rookie practice that began the event Friday. He ran a fast lap of 1:53.783 in the second of two 25-minute sessions. Kimball ran a total of 10 laps.
"It was great being in the 'We the People' car," Kimball said. "We made a big jump in the second session (after running 1:57.323 in the first) and got the car closer to what Jonathan needed."
To check out our Sepang practice gallery, click here