15/12/2007
NEWS STORY
A1 Team France stormed to the top of the time sheets in the third and final official practice session at Zhuhai International Circuit this morning in cool and breezy weather conditions, ahead of what promises to be a thrilling and incredibly close qualifying session in China this afternoon.
Loic Duval, who had limited track time yesterday due to spinning off in the afternoon and not being eligible to participate in the rookie session, knocked Canada off the top spot half way though the hour long session with a best lap of 1m24.315s around the 4.3km circuit.
The French racer was closely followed by USA's Jonathan Summerton who put in a stunning late charge to clock the second fastest time, ahead of China's CongFu Cheng who ended the morning third quickest, much to the delight of the local fans.
Having dominated the first half of the session, Canada's Robert Wickens finished fourth fastest while championship leader Switzerland's Neel Jani and German rookie Michael Ammermüller set the fifth and sixth fastest times respectively.
Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis was classified seventh while Jeroen Bleekemolen set the eighth quickest lap time of the morning in the Dutch car. New Zealand's Jonny Reid and Brazil's Sergio Jimenez ended the morning ninth and 10th quickest respectively. It was an incredibly close session with just 1.8 seconds separating the entire field.
All 22 teams now have to decide on their set ups before qualifying for the Sprint and Feature races starts at 14.15 this afternoon. Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a five minute break between each one. The fastest lap time set by each team's nominated driver in the first two qualifying segments will determine the grid for the rolling start Sprint race, while the fastest times set in the final two segments will determine how the 22 cars will line up on the grid for the standing start Feature race. Each driver is limited to one ‘flying lap' per 15 minute session.
To check out our Zhuhai Saturday gallery, click here