12/04/2008
NEWS STORY
Brazil
A1 Team Brasil will begin tomorrow's sprint and feature races at the Shanghai International Circuit in China from the seventh and ninth rows of the grid respectively after Xandi Negrão qualified in 14th and 17th positions. It was a tough day for the team but Xandi learned a lot during his first shot at one-lap qualifying and will work towards a positive result tomorrow.
The team participated in this morning's final one-hour practice ahead of qualifying. Xandi completed 22 laps of practice on old tyres and set a fastest lap of 1:36.622, putting him in 15th position on the timesheets.
In the afternoon's qualifying, Xandi embarked on his first ever one-lap qualifying - this unique format is always a challenge for drivers new to A1GP. Xandi set a lap time of 1:36.256 in the first segment of qualifying for the sprint race, putting him provisionally in 19th position. In his second shot he improved his lap by nearly nine tenths of a second, setting a time of 1:35.492 and moving up to 14th, securing a seventh row grid slot.
In feature qualifying the 22-year-old set a first lap time of 1:36.160, provisionally in 18th position. He improved his time with a lap of 1:35.887 in the final segment, but in an incredibly competitive session, it could only push him up to 17th. Xandi will compete in his first ever A1GP races tomorrow and will be looking to make the most possible out of his grid positions.
Xandi Negrao: "The car wasn't too bad today but I struggled a little bit as I've never done one-lap qualifying before and I was up against drivers that have been in this series for a while. In feature qualifying though I made a little mistake and we should really have been about P10. I think we need to improve the car for tomorrow and I also need to improve my performance – just a little bit all around. I think the session was really competitive and some of the top teams also struggled a bit, so we will just see what we can achieve tomorrow now."
Canada
Robert Wickens will make his final starts this season for A1 Team Canada from third (Sprint) and twelfth (Feature) respectively on the grid after qualifying today for Round 9 of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at China's stunning Shanghai International Circuit – the penultimate round of the third season of A1GP competition.
The 19-year-old, who missed Friday's practice at the 4.6km track having flown in from a test session in Europe, quickly got up to speed at the Formula One circuit taking over from fellow Ontario-native Daniel Morad who ran the Canadian entry in Friday's 'Rookie-Only' session and first official practice.
Wickens qualified third for Sunday morning's 20-minute Sprint race – putting the former Formula BMW USA Champion in line for a potential fifth podium finish for Canada in what's been a stellar rookie season in A1GP. Starting 12th for his final Feature event will prove to be more of a challenge for the A1GP race winner but having reached the podium from even further back this season, few would discount the stand-out Canadian to make an impression in the 70-minute race.
"I think that I'm normally pretty quick to learn a circuit but with a corner like the first one here it's tough to master," reflected Wickens post-qualifying. "I think I did a good job though as did the team and Daniel yesterday finding a decent baseline set-up for me to work with today. I made a mistake in Feature qualifying so that's disappointing and I'm probably going to be beating myself up for a while. That's said I'll take third for the Sprint and hopefully we'll come away with some good points. We just have to get our heads down and score as many points as we can in the Feature!"
Team Manager Simon Cayzer commented; "It was important to get Robert dialed into the circuit as quickly as possible this morning – something he's very good at! Overall in qualifying he did a great job considering the amount of track time he had compared to the other drivers. We had high expectations for his final run in Feature qualifying but he wasn't able to put the time together which was a bit disappointing. He's at the head of the pack for the Sprint which is good and despite his starting slot for the Feature, it's a long race with a couple of pit stops and he's proved he can climb the field. We've got a great shot at scoring points and I'm sure we'll have a competitive car out there."
France
A1 Team France had a difficult day here on the Shanghai circuit in China during qualifying for the second-last round of A1GP, World Cup of Motorsport.
Franck Montagny continued learning the car in the morning's free practice. In the afternoon he couldn't find any grip on new tyres: he will start from 18th place for the short race tomorrow and from 10th on the grid for the long one.
A1 Team France will have its work cut out to score points in the Sprint race, but things will be easier in the Feature event, which includes 2 refuelling stops. In addition, the car has been very competitive on worn rubber all weekend and Franck is happy with its handling in this set-up. The team is concentrating on preparing for the races and is going out there to fight. It intends to leave China having added a few more points to its score.
Olivier Panis, sporting director: "It wasn't quite the Saturday we were hoping for! But we knew it would a tough call. Asking Franck to drive our car without having been able to do any testing before the weekend's races was risky. The A1 car is very special and even the best drivers need time to get used to it. The rest of the weekend looks difficult, but Franck's experience should pay off in the races. We've still in there with a chance!"
Franck Montagny, driver: "I did my best today but I couldn't find enough grip on new tyres. The car demands a very specific type of driving which forced me to readapt my style completely. It doesn't like rough handling, hates late braking and generates low aero grip. I would have needed more than 40 laps and several sets of tyres to really get the hang of it. I'm going to analyse the data we've collected to adapt my style for the two races tomorrow. We can take advantage of the long race and we're still as motivated as at the start of the weekend."
Germany
Willi Weber's A1 Team Germany qualified on the fifth and seventh row for rounds nine and ten of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Shanghai. Michael Ammermüller from Pocking clinched the ninth grid spot for the sprint race and 13th for the feature race on the GP circuit close to the Chinese metropolis.
Michael Ammermüller set a time of 1m 35.012s on new tyres on his first qualifying run – the fifth fastest in the field. A1 Team Germany was marginally slower than the previous attempt with a time of 1m 35.029s in the second outing on new tyres and, in the final classification, dropped down to ninth place for the sprint race. In qualifying for the feature race Michael Ammermüller recorded a time of 1m 35.758s on a set of old tyres and therefore held 13th position. In the subsequent final run Ammermüller improved with new tyres by two-tenths-of-a-second to record 1m 35.558s, however he remained thirteenth on the grid for the feature race.
Michael Ammermuller: "Obviously we are disappointed that we couldn't do any better today. It won't be easy to convert these grid positions into good results in both races. Qualifying started reasonably well with fifth place. We then made a change to the set-up, a very small change actually. In spite of this the car got worse and worse throughout the session. We simply can't explain it until now. The aerodynamics in Shanghai is an extremely critical element. In the race we hope that we can benefit from slipstreaming on the long straights. I think we could see several interesting duels and overtaking manoeuvres."
Great Britain
A1 Team Great Britain will begin tomorrow's Sprint and Feature races in tenth and eighth positions respectively at the Shanghai International Circuit in China.
After a difficult qualifying session for the penultimate round of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Shanghai International Circuit today, A1 Team Great Britain's Robbie Kerr will begin tomorrow's Sprint race from the fifth row in tenth place, and the Feature race from the fourth row in eighth place.
Today's action got underway this morning when Robbie took to the track for one final hour of free practice to work on the set-up of the car ahead of qualifying. He completed 23 laps of practice for the team, recording a fastest time of 1:36.040, which was 0.570 seconds behind session leaders Team France. Robbie set his quickest lap on the tenth of his 23 laps and used old tyres throughout the session. Teams Italy and France, who were ahead of GBR on the timesheet, used new tyres towards the end of the session to test their qualifying runs.
In all four qualifying sessions this afternoon, the first two to determine the Sprint race order and the second two for the Feature race, the track saw a frenetic last minute with the majority of the field out on their hot laps when the track was at its best. Qualifying proved to be an incredibly competitive and difficult session.
Robbie set a fastest lap of 1:35.015 on his first outing on new tyres, which put him in provisional sixth, but worked after the session on a suspected brake problem. After scoring pole position for the Sprint race a year ago, Robbie was hoping for a similar result today, but the session was so competitive that he slipped down the order and he will start in tenth after setting a time of 1:35.031 in the second segment, also on new tyres.
In qualifying for the Feature race the team could not find the same pace as the front runners and Robbie struggled to find grip in the corners, particularly in the middle sector. He set a time of 1:35.618 on old tyres in the first segment, putting Team GBR in provisional ninth place. In the final segment, on new rubber, he improved his time by three tenths, setting a lap of 1:35.357, moving up to eight position and a fourth row start.
Robbie Kerr: "Unfortunately we just didn't seem to get the reaction out of the car that we were expecting from the new tyres. However we were reasonably quick on older tyres in practice so we don't want to make too many changes ahead of the races. But we'll look into it overnight as we definitely need to find a bit more time to be competitive tomorrow."
Katie Clements, Team Principal: "Unfortunately, it's been a disappointing result for us today. Robbie put in a decent lap in first qualifying for the sprint race but was not able to build on it in second qualifying. In the feature race qualifying we simply were not as quick as the guys at the front and Robbie had some problems with the car. The team will work now on some of the problems we experienced and we will work towards a better race performance tomorrow."
Ireland
Belmayne A1 Team Ireland got off to a flying start today claiming fourth on the Feature grid for the penultimate round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Shanghai International Circuit.
After the unveiling of the team's new livery earlier today, Adam Carroll steered the Celtic Tiger to Ireland's best Feature qualifying start of the season, putting the Irish car on the second row alongside Portugal for the standing start Feature race.
In the earlier sessions Adam put in a best time of 1m 34.928s to take eighth for the rolling start Sprint race tomorrow morning on an extremely close grid. Switzerland claimed pole for both races, nearly half a second faster than anyone else, with the next seven runners in the Sprint covered by just 0.3s.
Importantly for Ireland, Adam's qualifying times put him ahead of Germany and the Netherlands for both races in China tomorrow. The two nations are just ahead of Ireland in the championship so a good points haul tomorrow could see Ireland jump up the standings heading into the season finale at Brands Hatch.
Adam Carroll: "I was working really hard in qualifying looking at the data to see where I could improve and I got some good laps in. We didn't need to make any changes to the car, just maximize the tyres and put it all together. We're happy to take fourth though so we'll go from there and aim for another good result."
Dan Walmsley, Race Engineer: "After P17 in free practice this morning we were probably the dark horses of the session as we knew there was a lot more time to come on new tyres. We didn't quite string the lap together in Sprint qualifying but Adam put in a great lap on the final run to put us on the second row for the Feature. We saw in Mexico that Adam is a great racer and we have a great pit crew, so expect some fireworks tomorrow as we look to secure another podium finish to drive us up the championship table."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "It's very satisfying off the back of the win in Mexico to come to China and qualify fourth for the Feature race. It's nice to see us getting the speed out of the car when it matters most, which hasn't always been the case and it gives us a very strong chance of fighting for a podium tomorrow which is our objective after Mexico. It's also particularly pleasing that we're in front of a lot of the team's we're fighting with in the championship and that's who we need to keep our eye on."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon continued with race preparations for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport races in Shanghai today. This morning all the teams took to the track for a final practice session and in the afternoon the qualifying session was held under cloudy skies and a cool track temperature. Jimmy Auby, driving for the team this weekend will line up in 20th place on the ninth row of the grid for the start of tomorrow's Sprint race.
The team benefited from a clean, uninterrupted one hour of practice time at the Shanghai circuit this morning. Auby used the session to work with the engineers and crew to develop the car setup and prepare for the afternoon session. Posting 21st fastest time after this period of running, the Lebanon crew readied the car for afternoon qualifying.
The four segments of qualifying set the grids for the two races, the best lap of the first two is the team's Sprint race position and the fastest of the third and fourth segements will determine the Feature race position. A1 Team Lebanon completed the first flying lap run with 17th fastest time, but dropped to 20th, the team's grid position for the Sprint race tomorrow. Another 20th fastest flying lap in the first segment for Auby preceded a quicker lap in the final segment, to improve on the provisional grid position, gaining a place to start 19th for the Feature race.
Auby said after the session "I've been improving as the weekend has progressed, particularly this afternoon where I was two tenths of a second closer to the leader than in the practice sessions. Despite this we were still not as high up as I wanted to be, but that's just how competitive A1GP is. I hope we'll be able to make further progress in the races."
Trevor Bale, Team Manager, A1 Team Lebanon said of the second day of running in Shanghai, "Jimmy is continuing to learn from his track time in the Lebanon car. He's one of the least experienced drivers in the field and considering this, is coping well, particularly in this afternoon's qualifying session which only gives the driver one shot at a quick lap."
Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia continued race preparations for the ninth, and penultimate, round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Shanghai, China today, finishing seventh in qualifying for the Sprint race and sixth for the Feature race. These are the best grid positions achieved by the team so far this season. It was a closely fought battle amongst the front runners, with the Malaysian team featuring heavily in the fight for top grid positions.
Morning practice was an uninterrupted one hour of running in cool temperatures, but with plenty of heat on the track. The leader board changed regularly as the front running teams all pushed to gain the maximum from their cars. Malaysia ran close to the top ten throughout, finishing just outside it at 11th by the end of the session.
In the first qualifying session Yoong posted 12th quickest time after his first flying lap, and then put in a faster time with new tyres to take seventh for the Sprint race.
For the Feature, Yoong spun in the first qualifying segment to lie 22nd with one to go. On his final attempt at a top grid slot, he pushed hard and posted sixth quickest time to take that position for the 70 minutes feature race tomorrow. Both results are the best qualifying positions for the team this season.
Yoong said of qualifying, "I'm very pleased that we have two strong top ten starts for tomorrow. In the first season we won here and although in the second season we didn't have a particularly good weekend in the lead up to the race, we came away with a good result. This season I hope we can have two good results. With our grid positions that's certainly within our reach. The car is good and I'm feeling very positive heading into tomorrow. This is a great track for overtaking and we hope to do plenty of it in both races and hopefully be able to make up a few positions."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive A1 Team Malaysia commented, "I'm really pleased to see us improve on our performance in qualifying. The grid position can be such an important factor in the fortunes of the team in the races, and starting as far forward as possible is always the goal. From seventh and then sixth we have a realistic chance of a top five finish in each race. We have the package to do the job and hope that we can bring home the points for Malaysia tomorrow."
Netherlands
During the official qualifying for the A1GP Sprint and Feature race on the Shanghai circuit A1 Team Netherlands did not find the set-up problem yet. Despite several adjustments the team did not get further than a seventeenth grid position for the Sprint race and a ….starting position for the Feature race.
In the final free practice in the mornign A1 Team Netherlands is clearly coming up short compared to the front runners, which results in a seventeenth place. Despite the prediction for rain on Saturday it is still dry on the Shanghai circuit.
As is often the case the teams wait long before going out on track during qualifying. A1 Team Netherlands is one of those, with some three minutes to go they go out for their run. Jeroen Bleekemolen sets a time of 1'35.741, resulting in a provisional 15th grid position. On the radio Jeroen says that although it is better than this morning, he still suffers from oversteer on a number of places. Portugal is surprisingly quickest with a lap time of 1'34.672.
With an adjusted ride height A1 Team Netherlands is starting the second qualifying for the Sprintrace. This should counter the oversteer and an added advantage could be that the 'brake angle' of the car is better on the straights, it is more flat and thus giving a higher top speed. A1 Team Netherlands again goes out right at the end of the session. The adjustments made do not sort the desired effect, despite a small improvement on lap time. In the end A1 Team Netherlands finishes on a seventeenth grid position for the short Sprint race. Switzerland takes pole with a considerable margin, followed by Portugal and Canada.
On used tyres Jeroen Bleekemolen sets a time of 1'35.921 in Q3. With this A1 Team Netherlands is in provisional 16th after the first Feature race qualifying. Switzerland again is in the best position to take it's second pole position. Neel Jani sets a time of 1'34.637. Again intervals are small. Only Switzerland is ahead comfortably, the gap between P2 and P16 is only seven tenths.
In the final qualifying for the long Feature race, in which two mandatory pitstops have to be executed, A1 Team Netherlands does not manage to move forward after some more adjustments. Jeroen even sets his slowest time out of the four sessions and this results in A1 Team Netherlands having to settle for a disappointing eighteenth grid position. As expected Switzerland takes its second pole of the day.
Jan Lammers: "After consulting with the organization we have changed our engine, which also gives us the opportunity to thoroughly check the chassis for the first time since Durban, it is clear that we have got a problem there. Now we have been able to compare our data to that of another team and we could clearly see that we already lost 0.35 seconds on the straight. When this is the case you know you are completely helpless, because you have already lost when you try to recover this in the corners."The bad qualifying does create the opportunity though to drive an amazing race tomorrow, we have a huge task ahead of us. Time to straighten our backs and climb up again. Qualifying has never been this bad before, no matter what we did the car remained ' a handful' to drive.
Jeroen Bleekemolen; "I have tried everything, even adapting my driving style to the car's behaviour. Nothing worked, since the Durban crash we have changed our engine and are seriously considering that this might be the problem we have. In Mexico our engine was already questionable, but because you can use the draft of the car ahead during the race the problem does not seem to be too major, but as soon as you drive alone again the problem is clear again. Loosing is a big motivator though and we will do everything to get the maximum result tomorrow, because this hurts us all."
New Zealand
New Zealand driver Jonny Reid faces a major challenge in tomorrow's 9th Round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Shanghai.
Black Beauty qualified in 5th position for the opening Sprint Race and 7th of the 22 nations on the grid for the Feature Race.
But championship leader Switzerland is on pole for both races with Neel Jani blitzing the field to gain a crucial advantage in maintaining his nation's table topping position.
Switzerland, with 128 points, leads second-placed New Zealand, on 113, by 15 points with France another five points adrift. A maximum of 64 points is on offer in the remaining two rounds.
Earlier in the day Reid had set the 4th fastest time in the one-hour official practice.
Pakistan
A1 Team Pakistan took part in qualifying for the penultimate round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today, at the Shanghai International Circuit in China. Joining nations from around the globe at the ninth round of this 2007/08 season, Adam Khan was behind the wheel to qualify for tomorrow's races. Having struggled for pace in the earlier practice sessions, the team were disappointed to qualify 19th and 16th for the Sprint and Feature races respectively.
After studying data from yesterday's practice session, A1 Team Pakistan made a number of changes to the car ahead of final practice this morning. Khan completed 29 laps around the circuit in final preparation for the all-important qualifying session.
Having made a number of small changes to the car before the qualifying sessions, Khan was eager to set the best possible time over the first two qualifying segments – the quickest of which would set the team's position on the Sprint race grid. Khan's first attempt put the team provisionally 19th on the Sprint race grid. Pushing hard on his second attempt, Khan made up a significant amount of time, but it wasn't enough to push the team up the grid, as the other A1GP nations also improved. With the first two qualifying segment completed, the team will line up 19th for the Sprint race.
With the final two qualifying segments deciding the team's grid slot for the Feature race, Khan was on the pace in the third qualifying segment, to put the team provisionally in 15th place. As the A1GP cars took to the track for the final qualifying attempt, Khan was keen to defend or improve his position for the Feature race. With other teams improving their pace, the team were 16th by the end of the lap, the position Khan will take on the Feature race grid – out qualifying the home nation, China and previous race winners Brazil and the Netherlands.
Reflecting on qualifying, Khan said, "It was very difficult today, I didn't feel like had a lot of grip which made it quite difficult to push. A lot of teams have struggled here, but it doesn't mean I'm not disappointed to have qualified 16th and 19th. Being in the middle or at the back of the grid isn't a great position to be in; you can be susceptible to damage, especially on the first lap. But we'll have to make the most of it and do our best tomorrow."
Driver coach Bruce Jouanny added, "This is a very long and technical circuit which a lot of the drivers have struggled with this weekend. The positive thing from today is that the team and Adam continue to make progress. We were two seconds off the front runners this morning, whereas now that gap has come down to 1.6 seconds. I think that trend will continue tomorrow. We will go through the data with Adam to see where we might be able to improve our lap times, which should put us in a stronger position ahead of the races tomorrow."
A1 Team Pakistan team manager John Allen said, "Qualifying was a little disappointing, we struggled for pace in practice, and I think that carried on into qualifying. Adam was struggling a little for grip and I think there are areas on the circuit where we can make up more time. We tend to do well in the races, we have good pace and Adam is great at making up positions. However, qualifying seems to be a little bit of a weakness, and one we have to work on in the future."
South Africa
South Africa, with 21-year-old Adrian Zaugg at the wheel of Vulindlela, qualified 11th for Sunday's Sprint race and ninth for the Feature race in the penultimate round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Shanghai, China today.
Switzerland (Neel Jani) put itself into a strong position to strengthen its championship lead with just one round remaining (at Brands Hatch in Great Britain in May) by taking pole position for both races. Jani, who now has six poles to his credit this season (two ahead of next best Zaugg, who has four), achieved the distinction of becoming the first A1GP driver to score two double poles in a single season. Zaugg is the only other driver to record a double pole, at Zandvoort in the Netherlands in the season opener in September last year.
Switzerland's closest rivals for the championship (New Zealand, France, Great Britain and South Africa) all failed to make a strong enough impression in qualifying, with New Zealand (Jonny Reid) closest with fifth on the grid for the Sprint race and seventh for the Feature race. France (with Franck Montagny making his A1 debut for his country) qualified 18th and 10th for the two races, while Great Britain (Robbie Kerr) starts 10th on the gird for Sunday's Sprint and eighth in the Feature.
"Obviously we were looking for more in qualifying – we'll have to see how tomorrow goes," said Mike Carroll, general manager of A1 Team South Africa. "We ran fairly well to seventh in Q1, but probably went the wrong way taking rear wing off for Q2 - which was my suggestion, as we were losing on the long straights.
"Again, Q3 was reasonable and then in Q4 we had a decent sector 1 – the sector where we have really been struggling all weekend - and were looking forward to a good lap time. But we didn't have a particularly good sector 2, where we had been really competitive for most of the weekend including fastest in that sector in Q1.
"We'll be studying the data tonight to see what improvements can be made, but we have not positioned ourselves particularly well for the start of the races," Carroll added.