01/02/2008
NEWS STORY
Brazil
A1 Team Brasil has moved from meeting a World Cup winner to getting the next round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport underway in under 24 hours. Race driver Sergio Jimenez met up with Juninho, a member of the Brazilian 2002 FIFA World Cup winning team, before moving to the Eastern Creek circuit in Australia with team-mate Clemente Jr for the first official practice day of round six of the championship.
Juninho and his Sydney FC team-mate Patrick will be attending the Australian round of the championship as a guest of Team Brasil on Sunday, and took the opportunity at A1GP's welcome event 'Ignition' to meet up with the team's lead driver ahead of the weekend. Following the meeting Sergio met up with the team's rookie driver Clemente Jr to get the action underway with Friday's practice sessions.
Clemente was first up in the morning for the two 25-minute rookie driver sessions. The first of the two segments was held on a damp track after steady morning rainfall, and Clemente took out the A1 Team Brasil car using a full wet set-up. His aim was to learn the technical 2.4mile track and, although the track began to dry towards the end of the segment, Clemente remained on wets until the end. The team then fitted new brakes for Clemente to bed for the afternoon session and, despite a dry track, the team opted to remain with a wet car set-up due to the limited time between sessions.
Sergio then took over driving duties for the afternoon one-hour practice. Eastern Creek is another new track for Sergio and he set off to learn the circuit on new rubber, as per the regulations. This meant that drivers who already had experience of the circuit could use their advantage to set competitive lap times early on. Later on in the session Sergio moved onto the planned set-up programme and the team was pleased with the results of the session. The team will participate in the final one-hour practice tomorrow morning before moving onto qualifying for Sunday's sprint and feature races.
Sergio Jimenez: "It's a really good track here at Eastern Creek; really challenging and fast and the first corner is very nice, full throttle at 260kph. There are some bumps in the middle that we have to be careful with but I'm really enjoying it. When we started practice we had a little bit of oversteer and some understeer but we managed to improve that. The key here though is that the best of the tyres is when they are new because the track is so abrasive and I was learning the track on my new tyres. Most people ahead of me knew the track and set their fastest laps at the beginning so, despite the position, I'm happy with the start to the weekend and we should be able to do well tomorrow."
Clemente Faria Jr: "I had a very good practice session today, the car felt good and I did everything the team asked me to do. I spent the first session learning the track and it's actually quite a difficult track with blind corners and it's very bumpy in places. It's also a very fast circuit and I've really enjoyed the session and am happy with my improvement since the last race."
Gary Davies, Race Engineer: "After learning the track well in the first session and setting a good time, Clemente then went on to do a very good job for us in the second session, bedding in the brakes for Sergio. When we got to second practice, it was a new track for Sergio as well. He learnt it very quickly but did not get to use brand new tyres like the quicker guys who already knew the track, which explains the position. The pace was very good though and we are expecting to be in the top six tomorrow morning."
Canada
Robert Wickens maintained A1 Team Canada's 'nation on the rise' status in the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport as he set the second fastest lap time in Friday practice ahead of Round 6 at Australia's Eastern Creek International Raceway on Sunday 3rd February.
Back in action following his runner-up podium finish two weeks ago in Round 5's New Zealand Feature race, Wickens continued to earmark himself as one of A1GP's leading rookies by planting Canada, who sit 12th in the Nations Standings, at the sharp end of the timesheets once again. With all 22 nations running in Friday afternoon's practice session, the 18-year-old from Toronto's best lap time of 1m18.941s was only bettered by France's Loic Duval and by just over two tenths of a second around the 3.93km Sydney track.
Friday morning's 'Rookie-Only' session presented the field with mixed conditions, the track initially wet but gradually drying as the session progressed. Pleased to sample the circuit in both the wet and the dry, Robert's fastest lap time in the morning was a 1m21.955s placing him eighth overall.
"I think we showed today that we have good pace in both wet and dry conditions," stated Wickens candidly. "I had good pace in the wet in the 'Rookie-Only' session, the balance of the car was really strong and I was probably pushing a lot harder than some of the others early on. I put in a really good lap on my first timed lap in the afternoon's practice session which was able to stand. P2's a great result for the team. We continued to make steps in the right direction but as our tires degraded we couldn't improve the times. There's work to be done but our race pace is a solid top-five!"
Reflecting on a productive first day in Australia, Simon Cayzer, A1 Team Canada's Team Manager commented; "We're at the sharp end again today, successfully carrying on the momentum from Taupo. The rookie session was quite difficult because the conditions were changing so we had to change to run on wet and dry tires. We're happy with our wet set-up. It's good that it was a drying track as that helps us with strategy for the race. We've got to work to do on our race pace which we'll concentrate on tomorrow and hopefully from today we'll have a good qualifying car!"
Czech Republic
Both Jarek Janis and Tomas Enge were in action for the Czech team at Eastern Creek on Friday. Enge was 15th in the afternoon's practice. Jarek Janis had the same duty like at Taupo and just shook dawn the car in the first rookie session at Eastern Creek and did not take part in the second one.
Tomas Enge had flown to Australia straight from Florida where he raced in the famous Daytona 24 hours race. It was his turn to do the free practice. The experienced Czech was one of the busiest drivers around with 28 laps under his belt. The best one 1:20.621 put the Czech team to 15th place.
Tomas Enge: "The balance of the car was nice but the grip was not there. Tyres were sliding like if I drove a WRC car on snow. That's the thing we have to work on. The car otherwise ran reliably during the session."
Germany
At the sixth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Eastern Creek in Australia Willi Weber's A1 Team Germany gave a chance to another rookie: Michael Klein has started for the team for the first time. However, several minor setbacks prevented the team from making progress on Friday. While these problems can easily be solved by Saturday, they did keep the team from joining the front runners in the second Free Practice session.
Newcomer Michael Klein experienced a steep learning curve. The German, who completed his first kilometres for A1 Team Germany, improved significantly within the two rookie sessions. The 20-year-old from Aalen finished the first session in twelfth place with a lap time of 1m34.473s and a gap of 5.991 seconds to the front. "My main goal was to get used to the car," said Klein. "As the track was still wet in some places, I didn't take any risks." In the second part of the rookie session he improved in the 18-strong field to ninth place. With his time of 1m22.252s, he reduced his gap to the front runners to 1.722 seconds. "I'm very happy that Willi Weber gave me this opportunity," said Michael Klein.
Michael Ammermüller took over the cockpit in the second Free Practice session. The racer from Pocking in Bavaria finished 14th, setting a time of 1m20.562s. "However, this does not reflect our potential at all," said the winner of the sprint race in China, which had been staged as the fourth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. "Under the regulations we had to use our new tyres right at the beginning of the second Free Practice. As Michael Klein had driven the previous session and this circuit is completely new to me, I wasn't able to make optimum use of the tyres straight away. The nine quickest drivers have set their respective best times on the first four laps. Then we lost a bit of time when a few loose bolts at the newly installed rear suspensions had to be re-tightened."
When Michael Ammermüller returned to the track he only managed to get in two laps. "Unfortunately, we ran out of fuel," said the Bavarian. "We checked everything – the problem is very easy to solve. We simply made a mistake that we won't be making again. All of our small problems are easy to solve. I'm sure we'll be looking a lot better in Qualifying on Saturday."
Great Britain
Round six of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway today, with teams participating in two practice sessions at the Eastern Creek circuit, near Sydney in Australia. In action for A1 Team GBR were James Winslow, who drove in this morning's rookie practice session, and Robbie Kerr, who took over driving duties for this afternoon, and who will remain in the car for the rest of the weekend.
Fresh from finishing at the top of the timesheets in this morning's first practice for the Australian F3 round which will support this weekend's A1GP race, James Winslow took to the track once again for the rookie practice session. After heavy morning rainfall, the session began on a damp track with the Team GBR car using a wet set-up. Towards the end of the first 25- minute segment the track began to dry out, although the team opted to remain on wet tyres as James only ran limited laps due to radio problems. With a dry track for the second segment, James went out on track with new slick tyres and, after running second fastest for much of the time behind home team Australia, he eventually finished third fastest. He set his fastest time of 1:21.521 on the final of his 20 laps.
Robbie then stepped into the car this afternoon on his third visit to the Australian track. After scoring a second place podium in season one and showing very competitive form last year, Robbie was once again straight on the pace in today's practice. Weather conditions remained dry and the team was able to work through its planned programme ahead of tomorrow morning's final practice and qualifying. Robbie finished the session third fastest with a lap time of 1:18.996, three tenths of a second behind session leaders, Team France.
Robbie Kerr: "We were competitive throughout the session and happy with where we're at with the car. We tried lots of different set-ups and could immediately feel the differences, whether the changes were negative or positive, so we have a good idea of what we need to achieve tomorrow. Obviously we have to see what happens in practice tomorrow morning but at the moment we're fairly confident going into qualifying."
James Winslow: "I really enjoyed getting back into the A1GP car again. Compared to the F3 car, it has a lot more power and grip so the lines change and it's a different driving style. Obviously I would have liked to finish in P1 where we were to begin with, but I'm happy with P3. It's again been an honour to drive for GBR, and I'm pleased to have done my bit for the team to hopefully give Robbie a good car on Sunday."
Katie Clements, Team Principal: "We've been very happy with both James and Robbie's performances today and the team has been on the pace, setting competitive lap times in both practice sessions. After such a good start and our previous form at Eastern Creek, we're pretty confident for tomorrow and looking forward to a strong qualifying performance."
Ireland
Irish rookie, Niall Quinn, got his chance to get behind the wheel at Eastern Creek, Australia this morning with regular pilot Adam Carroll out this afternoon in what proved a difficult practice session for Belmayne A1 Team Ireland.
As the A1GP weekend got underway in Sydney a downpour of rain before the rookie session meant it was baptism of fire for Ireland's newest recruit. Niall Quinn finally got behind the wheel of the Irish car this morning after a much anticipated wait.
Dublin-born Niall is used to the 140 bhp of a Formula BMW machine and today made the big jump up stepping into the cockpit of the 500 bhp A1GP car. Adding to that a wet track, it meant extra caution was needed as the 19 year-old bedded in brakes alongside familiarising himself with both the track and the car.
By the end of the second 25-minute session a dry line had emerged and Niall was able to have some final runs on slick tyres before the chequered flag came out. His lap times were dropping each time round with him eventually clocking a 1m 24.436s by the end.
This afternoon proved difficult for Adam Carroll as the team couldn't make any progress due to, what was later discovered to be, some structural damage to the car.
Niall Quinn: "At the beginning in the wet it was quite hard to adapt to the car as the extra power was a bit new to me but as I went on I got more and more comfortable. When I got the slicks on for the last four laps I really got to push and lap times were coming down a second a lap I was pretty happy. I really enjoyed it as it's a really nice car to drive. After about five laps it didn't feel too fast anymore, but I think everything else will feel really slow from now on!"
Adam Carroll: "We shouldn't be that low down the standings this afternoon as the team are much better than that and we are always aiming to be in the top ten so there is clearly something wrong. There was just a real misbalance in the car today and lack of grip. We have another test session in the morning so if we can get the car right over night we will be fine for qualifying."
Dan Walmsley, Race Engineer: "We set out with a few objectives in the rookie session, we wanted to break Niall into the car gently and not ask him to do too much too soon and he did everything we asked of him. At the end of the session when we put the slicks on he was taking his time down really nicely and it's a pity we didn't have more laps. He's done a fantastic job in getting us set up for the weekend, has given us some very good information and helped us get through our brake bedding program. He acquitted himself well and showed a great deal of maturity. I'm very impressed with him and I hope we can look forward to working with him in the future.
"This afternoon was a very difficult session as we struggled with pace and overall grip. We started making some quite significant changes to overcome it, but whatever we threw at it didn't really lead us to a positive conclusion. Having looked at the chassis of the car we've established there is a crack in tub which we believe is compromising the performance of the chassis and so we're now looking at changing it for tomorrow to hopefully secure some better results. We ran a known good set up of ours but we were still three seconds off the pace and with a driver of Adam's caliber and a team that prepares as well as we do we're disappointed but at the same time quite happy that we have found what we believe to be the problem. The team will be working very hard into the night to turn our fortunes around for tomorrow."
Lebanon
The 22 nations competing in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Sydney, Australia took to the track today in the opening day of the event, the third visit to Eastern Creek Raceway for the Series. A1 Team Lebanon started with the team's best rookie performance since the morning session was introduced at the beginning of last season with second fastest time overall. In the afternoon Alajajian finished fifth quickest, his best practice session performance of the season so far.
Alajajian's track knowledge was evident immediately he took to the circuit for the morning rookie sessions. Divided into two 25 minutes segments, this practice time is specifically for young drivers and developing nations; countries such as Lebanon with limited motorsport heritage. In the first of the two segments, the 21-year-old was ninth fastest, improving to be second quickest in the final part of the session, and second fastest overall.
Alajajian remained in the car for the afternoon session, continuing to prepare for the two races on Sunday. After the first 15 minutes of track action a red flag interrupted the flow of running, but the team were quickly back out when practice resumed. A flat spotted tyre hindered the team from making performance gains, but the session was used to collect valuable data and review various setup options. Fifth fastest time for this session was a welcome reward for the team's efforts today.
At the end of the day Alajajian said, "I know this track well, having raced here more than any other circuit, and I think this really helped us today. It means that we could accelerate our development programme, concentrating on set up changes to improve our performance right from the start, as I already know the track layout. We didn't get the best from the car this afternoon and I think we need to work on our pace if we're to stay within the top ten, but that's definitely our goal for tomorrow."
Marcus Koch, Chief Engineer, A1 Team Lebanon, adds, "We have definitely had an advantage for the start of our race weekend with Chris already knowing this track well. This has also given him the confidence to push hard and focus on car setup right from the first session. We now need to build on this and maintain our performance level as the more experienced drivers start to develop their cars."
Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia began the sixth round of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport competition in Sydney, Australia today. Fairuz Fauzy returned to the driving seat to represent his nation alongside 21 other countries from around the globe. Ending the afternoon practice session 19th quickest, the team is confident of improvement as the weekend progresses.
The 25-year-old Malaysian was eligible to run in the morning 'rookie' session, which allowed him to have maximum track time this weekend. Fauzy was quickly on the pace of the rookies when he took to the circuit along with 17 other drivers. After a bout of rain in the morning the track had started to dry, but all the teams started the session on wet tyres until it was dry enough for the drivers to switch to slick tyres. With many of the drivers in this session having less experience than the Malaysian driver, he was able to run comfortably in the top ten, finishing seventh quickest in the first of the two segments and fourth quickest in the second segment, producing a fourth quickest time overall.
The afternoon session was interrupted by a red flag after 15 minutes, while Fauzy had just started to work on set up changes with the Malaysian Team's engineers and crew. The nations returned to the track after a stricken China car had been removed from the run off area, and A1 Team Malaysia continued with its preparations for Sunday's races.
Fauzy said of his first day of running in the A1 Team Malaysia car: "It was good to be back in the car today and I was pleased to run high up the order in the rookie session, In the afternoon we didn't make the most of our new tyres as the red flag came out on my quick lap. Throughout the whole session the car was consistent and our pace was okay, but we need to look at ways to make the tyres last longer. We didn't run any more new tyres today, so that's a job for tomorrow.
"The professionalism and high standards of this team are also to be commended. I'm enjoying working with an engineer of the calibre of Greg (Wheeler) and we've quickly established a good working relationship, which is making it easier to settle back in to the team. I'm a quick learner and my target is to have a top ten lap time in qualifying tomorrow."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia said of the opening day's practice in Sydney, "Fairuz has been working closely with the engineering staff and crew to reacquaint himself with the team. Over the course of the day he's been improving his lap times and building confidence in the car as he becomes more and more comfortable with it. Our focus is on that at the moment and we'll see the team move up the grid as we progress through the weekend."
Netherlands
After the first day at Eastern Creek there is still room for improvement at A1 Team Netherlands. In the Rookie sessions the conditions were challenging for Arie Luyendyk jr and on a drying track he was not able to improve his result of Taupo.
Jeroen Bleekemolen set a sixth fastest time in the first free practice. During qualifying tomorrow there is a premiere of a new and innovative item during the A1GP qualifying. A1 Team Netherlands will broadcast, also during the races, the team's radio communication complete and uncensored through their Dutch TV-partner RTL. This will be broadcasted on the Dutch free-to-air TV station RTL7.
The day started off with wet track conditions during the Rookie session. This meant that Arie Luyendyk jr. went out on track on wet weather tyres in the first 25 minutes. For the first few laps he had to bed in discs and pads and also run some installation laps with the team's new engine. After he went thru this he was able to put in a few flying laps on the fast flowing circuit. On the increasing drying track the grip level increased more and more and times improved every time out. With the new set-up A1 Team Netherlands was not able to run amongst the front runners, a lack of grip played a crucial part in this. In the end Luyendyk jr had to settle for sixteenth with a fastest lap time of 1'23.028. Australia took advantage of racing on home ground and set the fastest time.
Arie Luyendyk jr; " Eastern Creek was a pleasure to drive and the conditions made it very challenging. Going into the session we started with a full wet set-up and had to adapt as the two sessions progressed. In the first practice the weather conditions were wet and we went out on new rains that had very little grip in the first few laps. My lap was 11th best as some of the drivers ended the session on dry tires improving their times. I was happy with the first practice considering the challenging conditions. I definitely know we would have improved if we switched to dry tires in time to complete a flying lap. The second session saw the track nearly dry and everyone set out on dry tires. The track increased in grip level and for most of the session I was still in 11th place. The set-up we used was different from anything we have ran this year and I believed we suffered when it came to traction coming out of the slow corners and turn in over steer to the mid to high speed corners. It's quite a shame that I was not able to come in and make an additional set-up change because the track kept improving and I wanted to come in with just a few minutes to go. On the last lap I was held up by Portugal and was not able to take advantage of the ever-increasing grip level. It was a shame we didn't progress as much as the other teams. Overall the car was not as easy to drive as in Taupo but hopefully the team can take information away from the rookie sessions to better the car for the rest of the weekend.
Jeroen Bleekemolen was able to run his free practice sessions under complete dry conditions, although the threat of rain remained. A1 Team Netherlands started off inside the top ten, but was not able to improve much from then on. With the new set-up there was gain on one crucial point, the speed through the first corner. This could not compensate the loss due to the lack of grip in the slow corners though. Bleekemolen finished the one hour session in sixth, with a fastest lap of 1'19.669. With that time he was almost one second behind France, which set the fastest time in this practice.
Jeroen Bleekemolen; "We started the session quite well with a sixth fastest time right at the start, despite the fact that the car did not feel very good. We were suffering from lack of grip, especially in the slower corners. A positive thing is the progress we made in turn 1. Last year we were not able to take that one flat, now we were able to do this on every lap. We have to start working on improving the car significantly for tomorrow. We will also use the info we get from Australia, which whom we cooperate in this. They set the pace in the Rookie session and were right behind us in free practice. Maybe we can learn from them a bit. For now we are coming up short, especially compared to France which was also fast on used tyres. During the session we tried quite a lot of different things and made some drastic changes. Tomorrow during the final free practice on used tyres we will find out if this pays off."
Tomorrow there is the first ever broadcast of the A1 Team Netherlands team radio. This is of course quite a familiar item in motor sports, but never before was the communication between driver, engineers and the rest of the team broadcasted uncensored.
A1 Team Netherlands General Manager Robert Hoevers; "For the first time in motor sports we are going to release all the radio communication of A1 Team Netherlands to RTL7. This is a typical example of the innovation that is only possible within A1GP and A1 Team Netherlands. Of course there have been bits of radio communication broadcasted by race teams before, but they were heavily censored. Teams have a button which they can use to select if something can be released or not (most of the time it's no). We are going to completely release the radio communication and are very aware that this will make us vulnerable. We do know however that many are very curious about the backstage activities, information and communication and to further improve the openness of A1GP and the connection with the TV-audience we have decided to completely open this up. Hopefully it will give the viewer a better insight into the complex situations, contemplations and decisions that Jeroen, Arie and the team have to deal with. The radio is really the most 'intimate' part of the team, only the core of the team has got a radio and absolutely no-one is able to listen in, up to now that is. Now we will give hundreds of thousands of viewers a virtual headphone and I can tell you that this will be quite exciting, both for us ("guys, do not swear (too much) on the radio, Holland is listening") and for the viewers. Personally, I think it is really cool that my friends in the Netherlands will get a good feeling of what's really happening within the team."
New Zealand
New Zealand's Jonny Reid is one of four drivers who have stormed under the previous A1GP lap record at Eastern Creek, Sydney during opening practice for this weekend's 6th Round of the World Cup of Motorsport.
Frenchman Loic Duval shaved almost half a second off the fastest lap set by Germany's Nico Hülkenberg on the way to winning both races last season. Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand also dipped under the previous record as less than two seconds separated the top 15 of the 22 nations.
New Zealand team manager John Sears said there has been no track change, so the quicker times are down to teams wringing every last sliver of speed out of their cars. "Everyone has moved up a gear or two this season and we are consistently seeing the bar set higher and higher," Sears said. "I'm sure there will be even quicker times to come as the track rubbers up (and provides more grip) over the weekend."
Sears is confident Black Beauty can stay on the pace and perform well in tomorrow afternoon's Qualifying. "Jonny is pleased with the car and how it has progressed already this weekend," Sears said. "Initially there was some understeer, but it improved as the session went on. Although we're leading the series it has felt like we've been playing catch-up most weekends for one reason or another. We feel like we've got on the front foot early for a change and Jonny is looking forward to putting new tyres on and giving qualifying a decent shake."
Earlier in the day Earl Bamber set the 6th fastest time across the two 25 minute Rookie Sessions as John Martin gave Aussie fans something to cheer about by setting a lap time more than 8/10ths of a second ahead of his nearest rival. Bamber now switches focus to his Australian Formula 3 campaign starting at Eastern Creek this weekend and Reid locks on to the four qualifying segments taking place tomorrow afternoon from 4.15pm. The points-scoring races start at 1pm and 5pm on Sunday afternoon.
Pakistan
A1 Team Pakistan returned to the track today, for the sixth round of the 2007/08 season. Under cloudy skies, Adam Khan took part in the first day of track action at the Eastern Creek Raceway for the A1GP Sydney, Australia. Following an incident-filled practice session, Pakistan was 21st on the timing sheets.
With no eligible rookie available, A1 Team Pakistan had to wait until the afternoon practice session to take the track at Eastern Creek. 22 year old Khan, who raced at the circuit in the first season of A1GP, spent the one hour practice session reacquainting himself with his A1GP racing machine
Following some light rain in the morning, the track had dried out fully by the time the 22 A1GP teams took to the track for afternoon practice. However, slippery track conditions led to many cars sliding off the track with two red flags halting proceedings with only 15 minutes gone. Two further yellow flags prevented the team from completing its full test programme and prevented Khan from getting the most out of his new tyres.
Speaking about his return to Eastern Creek, Khan remarked, "Obviously I'm familiar with this circuit from my time here in season one, but you're never quite bedded in until you've done a full session. Again, it really hurt us not being able to take part in the rookie sessions, and I think you could see that from a couple of the other teams that missed the first hour of track time.
"I was also using the session to readjust back to the A1GP car having raced the GP2 car last week. The cars are very different and require a different driving style but I feel I have adjusted back to A1GP now. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the weekend actually; I think we will make a step forward tomorrow."
A1 Team Pakistan driver coach Danny Watts added, "Today was very much about adjusting back to A1GP rather than setting the fastest lap times. Having driven the GP2 car last week, Adam is dialling himself back into the A1GP car today.
"The A1GP car is a very high powered machine and is physically demanding and draining to drive and the series attracts the top drivers in the world because of this. Towards the end of the session Adam was making definite improvement and was feeling more comfortable in the car. I'm confident that he will improve further tomorrow."
A1 Team Pakistan team manager John Allen surmised, "Adam did a good job today, despite the difficult circumstances. Missing the rookie session definitely hurt us and put us behind many of the teams. The first half of the afternoon session was also very disjointed, with two red flags and two yellow flag periods. I think that disrupted Adam's flow and meant we didn't get the best out of the new tyres."
USA
A1 Team USA's Jonathan Summerton was ninth fastest Friday in practice for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Eastern Creek International Raceway in Sydney, Australia.
Summerton, of Kissimmee, Fla., ran 1:19.914 on the 2.44-mile circuit. He completed 25 laps in the one-hour session.
"We couldn't find enough grip to make the 'We the People' car handle the way we wanted it," Summerton said. "We also weren't able to put the power down effectively. We made many changes and will make some more tomorrow. We'll definitely be more competitive Saturday. All things considered, I am pleased to be ninth."
A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger believes the team's hard work will pay off with a stronger performance in qualifying Saturday. "Jonathan kept us in the game by pushing hard and was one of the fastest cars on the track at the end of the session," Weidinger said. "We kept searching for a better setup on the 'We the People' car and we should be able to find it in time for a good run in qualifying. We've made gains in qualifying in recent rounds and we should be able to put that knowledge to work."
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