02/05/2008
NEWS STORY
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Home nation A1 Team Great Britain topped the time sheets in the second of today's two free practice sessions at Brands Hatch, as the final round of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway at the legendary Kent circuit in Great Britain in changeable weather conditions.
Despite spending some of the hour long session confined to the garage while the team worked on the car, GBR's Robbie Kerr stamped his authority on the first day of A1GP track action on home soil, setting a fastest lap of 1m14.891s around the challenging 4.22 km / 2.62 miles Grand Prix circuit.
China's Congfu Cheng, who knows the Brands Hatch circuit well, set the second fastest time of the day while Jonathan Summerton, who scored USA's maiden A1GP race win last time out in Shanghai, set the third fastest lap time.
Current title leader Switzerland's Neel Jani enjoyed a trouble-free session, finishing the afternoon in a comfortable fourth position, followed by Ireland's Adam Carroll and India's Narain Karthikeyan in fifth and sixth place respectively.
Championship rival A1 Team New Zealand got the weekend off to a strong start this morning, with new boy Chris van der Drift - who has only taken part in one rookie session prior to this weekend - topping the time sheets. Lead driver Jonny Reid took over this afternoon and set the eighth fastest time overall behind the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen in seventh.
Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque, who clocked the second fastest time this morning, finished the day ninth overall, closely followed by France's Franck Montagny, who has never driven the Brands Hatch circuit before, in 10th.
Great Britain's Robbie Kerr reflected on the first day of action on home soil and looked ahead to qualifying tomorrow: 'We went out early on this afternoon and the car was reasonable but we had a couple of little issues and rather than waste time and laps trying to solve it gradually we decided to take the tyres off and go through everything properly. We took our time and made a few changes then we got the car back together and went out at the end of the session and went quicker. The car has definitely got a good balance but there are still things we can improve on. We're fairly confident but we're not going to predict anything. We've just got to go out there and keep working at it. Qualifying is key in A1GP – if you're not there at the top on that first flying lap, you're not going to be there at the end.'