20/02/2009
NEWS STORY
Australia
In the heat of the early afternoon Ash Walsh took his A1 Team Australia car out onto the track for his and the car's very first time to learn as quick as he could, this legendary race track in the Gauteng District. Walsh impressed early into the session taking his car to the limit into some of the fastest corners on the A1GP calendar. After some adjustments to the brakes the session was trouble free with Walsh securing the fastest time in Sector 1 from the entire grid on track in his third Rookie session this season.
After an early opportunity in the Ferrari 599 GTB Safety Car, completing two laps on my own hosted by our own A1GP 'SC' driver James McAlpine; I can understand the stress on the driver at speed over a long period on the Kyalami track.
Ash Walsh 4th Rookies 1 1:34.001: "It was a great experience. I made a slow start to learn the track but the tyres were going off faster than I had expected so I took more care in the faster corners. The track is very quick and the car was fantastic, I really enjoyed it today setting a fast time plus keeping the car in perfect shape for John who had only 20 minutes to prepare for his first time on track"
The second practice was Martin's job to start learning the track, its intricate corners, and a fast drop like Eau Rouge into a rapid rise to a blind corner with sun in his eyes. The biggest problem was picking the best braking markers before another roller coaster downhill run into the slow chicane and then onto pit straight.
Tyre wear was critical as were the brakes which lead Rob Arnott the Team Chief Engineer to call a change to the front dampers to improve the front end balance. As the clock was running John Martin had nine minutes to sort his car out do some fast times. He did just that and in the session finished 8th with a time of 1:31.983 that being 1.167 seconds off the lead car.
John Martin: "The track is awesome and quick at almost every part, it doesn't matter where you are, and the only moment where you slow the car is the last chicane. When you come up over the top of the hill and the sun is right in your eyes, you just hold the line and land your car and then straight on the gas. Sensational place and we have a good car for the rest of this weekend"
Alan Jones, Seatholder: "Ash did a good job at the start; he kept the car on the track at all times and did exactly what we had asked of him beforehand. It was good to see him fastest overall in the first sector, that's certainly given him a lot more experience and confidence. A good Rookie session today. John had a great session as well with a 1:31 coming close to the top three. There were some critical changes made to his car for tomorrow to improve the qualifying assault."
France
Today, A1 Team France took part in practice for the 2 races in the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Championship on the Kyalami circuit in the Gauteng province in South Africa.
Due to delays because of a logistics problem the cars arrived at the track very early this morning. The organisers decided to revise the timetable to give the teams the most time possible to prepare their cars. The result was a rookie session and a single free practice.
Despite the limited track time A1 Team France ran through its technical programme and got the most out of every kilometre covered. Nicolas Prost topped the time sheets in the rookie session. He then had a set of tyres at his disposal that had already been used, so he was unable to match the pace of the cars that went out on new tyres a few minutes later. He set the eleventh time in the free session, a position that gives no cause for worry, because of the special conditions in which the first da y unfolded.
Olivier Panis, sporting director: "First of all, I'd like to congratulate the whole team who did a great job getting the car ready so quickly. Their professionalism enabled us to run more than our rivals and to collect a lot of very useful information. This morning, Nicolas showed that he was on the pace. The modifications to the set-up that we're going to make between now and tomorrow will enable us to gain more speed, so we're pretty optimistic!"
Nicolas Prost: "It's not been an ideal first day, but even so we're not worried. I was not very well seated in the car as the late arrival of the equipment prevented us from moulding my seat properly before the first practice session. Tomorrow, however, I'll have a made-to-measure seat and that'll make life a whole lot easier! We ran through a range of set-ups that didn't go off quite as we'd hoped. So we know what we have to do to up the pace in free practice and qualifying tomorrow."
Lebanon
Daniel Morad and A1 Team Lebanon set the pace at the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Kyalami, South Africa, posting the quickest lap of the nations out on track today.
The 18-year-old driver loved the challenge of this circuit and his passion translated into a very quick lap which his rival nations were unable to beat. "It's awesome here," said Morad. "The track is definitely my favourite of all-time, especially when I'm topping the timesheets.
"The team did a great job to have the car ready for me and although we weren't able to be out for the whole practice session, we were able to start to prepare for the races tomorrow."
The team has bolstered its support team with the introduction of Marc Hynes, a highly experienced driver coach.
Hynes is a successful British racing driver, who won the prestigious British Formula Three championship, raced in Formula 3000, Porsche Supercup and more recently in the Australian V8 endurance championship. As a successful racer, Hynes has the level of experience required to assist Morad with his racing and help him to improve his performance.
Billy Karam, A1 Team Lebanon, said of the team's performance today, "Daniel drove well today, at one of the more technically demanding circuits in this Series. He was very enthusiastic about the track and I think that showed in his results. There's more work to be done, and I think we have to bear in mind that not all the cars were on track, and we were later on to the track. Both these factors helped us in posting a quick lap time, but I know that we have the capability to stay well inside the top half of the grid this weekend."
Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia's assault on the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport continued today with the first two practice sessions at the Kyalami circuit, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Aaron Lim, the 'rookie' driver of the team was the first of the team's two drivers to experience one of motor racing's most famous circuits. Later in the day Fairuz Fauzy began his preparations for the two A1GP races. Both drivers voted the track one of the most exciting and challenging that they had ever driven. Fauzy finished the practice session 12th quickest, with Lim 10th fastest in the earlier session.
The two drivers walked around the 4.26 km circuit in the morning and were highly impressed with the challenge it presented. They were both very keen to take the wheel and have the chance to drive it, and it wasn't long before they were given this opportunity.
The team, with a new engine in the car, had to prioritise the rookie session for essential installation tasks. Lim completed installation laps and a three lap run, before handing over the car to Fauzy.
Lim loved the challenge of the Kyalami circuit and its unique qualities. "It is an amazing track," said the young Malaysian. "It's high speed and has quite a few blind corners so it is a real test of a driver's bravery. There's not much run off, so this makes it even more exciting to drive. It's just the sort of track that I enjoy; I'm buzzing from my drive, I'd love to have more laps.
Fauzy was just as enthusiastic as his team mate and full of praise for the Kyalami track, saying, "It is one of the most impressive tracks I've ever driven, with the changes in gradient and camber, blind corners, tricky chicanes, just everything. We had a few technical problems in the session, but we were able to run x laps. We were on the pace right from the start, topping the timesheets at one point, but cars that went out later in the session ended up with the quickest times.
"For qualifying I think we'll find more time, and with another practice before that, we have time to develop further."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, adds, "It's a satisfactory start to the weekend. It was a shame that Aaron wasn't able to have more laps as he obviously relished the chance to drive at a track which is so well liked. Fairuz was quick right from the start, so if we can keep improving our pace, as others will too, then we'll be in good shape for Sunday."
Monaco
For only the second time this season Team Monaco was due to participate in the Friday morning "Rookie" free practice sessions with Hubertus Bahlsen, co-seatholder of the team. Various operational difficulties however saw the running of the sessions delayed by almost two hours and condensed into one single gambit rather than the two sessions normally run. Hubertus, one of 16 drivers taking part in the "Rookie" session, emerged from the pits with 30 minutes of track time remaining, beginning his weekend with a one-off recon lap. Five minutes later he re-emerged from the pits for his first timed run of a single flying lap, setting a base initial laptime of 1:41.732. He improved throughout the remainder of the session, setting a best time of 1:38.434.
Clivio Piccione took over the Team Monaco car for the second practice session, which began just seven minutes after the conclusion of the "Rookie" session. Clivio took to the track with two thirds of the session left to run and immediately set Team Monaco's best lap of the weekend to date with a 1:37.873 on his very first flying lap. As the session progressed and the times toppled, Clivio improved his time to set a 1:32.314. His times remained consistently in the 1:32s for the remainder of the session, but Clivio saved his best for last, taking a 1:32.032 on his penultimate lap to seal ninth position in a hugely competitive practice session in which all but two of the drivers who registered a laptime were covered by two seconds.
Clivio Piccione, Driver and Seat-Holder: "Unfortunately we could not use the whole of the second practice session as the change over from the Rookie session was only five minutes long. When we went out we quickly found some issues with the car, so I came back to the pits and a small change resolved most of the problems. From there we got on with the programme and I was able to put some good lap times in. My confidence in the track grew with every lap and by the end of the session I was happy with the lap times. I like the track - it has quick corners and is quite demanding - and overall I am happy with today's performance. I think that our results today show that we are in a good position for tomorrow."
Graham Taylor, Team Principal: "After a complicated build up to today we finally managed to run this morning, benefitting from the data acquired in Rookie practice session. Hubertus is finding an improved lap time with every run and he gave us a good look at the car before Clivio drove it in FOP. In FOP we quickly saw that there was very little traction, but some changes to the car helped to rectify this. We ran a shorter programme than planned due to the lack of preparation time between the Rookie and main practice sessions today, so we have a lot of work to do tonight but are looking forward to more track time tomorrow."