08/12/2006
NEWS STORY
Brazil
Tuka Rocha took the wheel of the A1 Team Brasil car today for the first day of action at the Sentul circuit in Indonesia, for round five of the 2006/07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The 23-year-old maximised his track time by taking part in both the two 25-minute rookie sessions, as well as this afternoon's one-hour practice session.
Throughout today's practices, Tuka was able to complete 37 laps of testing, and improved his lap-times through the day, finishing this afternoon's one-hour session in ninth place, just five tenths off the pace-setters, Team France.
The team was pleased with Tuka's steady progress during the day, as the crew began the fine-tuning process of the car set-up for the fast and wide nature of the Sentul circuit. The event proves even trickier for teams and drivers due to the high heat and humidity, and frequent afternoon rainstorms, making it essential to be prepared for any kind of weather and track conditions.
Tuka will take part in tomorrow morning's final hour-long practice session before embarking on the afternoon's qualifying.
Tuka Rocha: 'It's good to be back in the car and we have improved the set-up a bit today. We made some changes after the rookie sessions because the car was not good and we were suffering from a lot of understeer. The set-up is a bit better now but I think we went a bit too much the other way, and we still need to work on the car for tomorrow. I think we should be aiming to be in the top ten in tomorrow's sessions. The track is very dirty at the moment and the asphalt is coming away at the last corner, which could be a problem over the weekend, but the track is still very nice and I'm enjoying racing in the hot weather.'
Canada
A1 Team Canada enjoyed a competitive Friday practice session in Indonesia ahead of Sunday's fifth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Sentul International Circuit.
James Hinchcliffe posted the seventh fastest time in the rookie-only session on Friday morning, the 20-year-old from Toronto enjoying his first taste of the 4.12km Indonesian track, before Vancouver's Sean McIntosh, winner of last season's A1GP Feature race at Sentul, took over for the rest of the weekend's on-track activities beginning with the afternoon's first official practice session.
McIntosh (21) recorded 24 laps in the hour-long session collecting a fastest time of 1m18.455s to place seventh from the 21-car field of nations, the competition as fierce as ever in A1GP with the top 15 entries all lapping within a second of each other. Great Britain and France traded fastest lap times throughout the day with the French team, piloted by Nicolas Lapierre, eventually scoring top honors with a hot lap of 1m17.992s.
Having scored A1 Team Canada's sole A1GP victory to-date in Indonesia last season, McIntosh declared himself satisfied with the early preparations for the defense of his Feature win. "There's still a bit of work to do but overall it's been a good start to the weekend," he commented. "We definitely had a good set-up today, working towards our best time late in the session. We should be higher up tomorrow as we had one of the fastest cars on-track towards the end of the day!"
James Hinchcliffe was similarly pleased with his run stating, "The rookie session went pretty well as I got to grips with the circuit! There's definitely more to come from the car and Sean should be up to speed pretty quickly given he's raced and won here before."
China
A1 Team China introduces Ho-Pin Tung as the driver for 2006/07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Sentul Circuit, Indonesia. Ho-Pin is well-kown in German Formula 3 Championship, and he just finished a test in Belgian KTR World Series by Renault Team. There are not many good Chinese Formula car drivers, and now A1 Team China gives more chances to some who would like to win honours and pride to China in A1GP series. Congfu Cheng was the main driver for A1 team China in the last 4 races in Season 2006/07, and when Ho-Pin is here to test, A1 Team China will let him test whole weekend to see his potential in A1 car.
As a German F3 champion, his performance is extractly what Team Engineers expected. His professional behaviour also encourages the whole team to build the car in the best condition. In the Rookie sessions, Ho-Pin did well in his first try in A1 car, and there wad 1.254 seconds gap between the quickest A1 Team France driver. And in the second half of the session, he made it just over one second gap to the leading A1 Team GBR.
A1 Team China engineers made some adjustment to the car during lunch break, Ho-Pin and the Team had their lunch in the garage and spent more time on discussion of the racing data. In the second Official Practice session, A1 Team China used a set of new tyres, Ho-Pin made a mistake in the corner in the flying lap and missed his chance to make the best lap time, but he managed to reduce the gap to the fastest driver within one second.
Ho-Pin Tung: "It is great honour for me to drive for A1 Team China, I really enjoyed today's first touch of A1 car. The driving style is very different from Formula 3, and I think I need a little bit more time to get familiar with this powerful car. I did not get used to the grip of the tyres in the second practice session, and lost my chance to get better lap time, but I am very confident to do better in tomorrow's Qualifying, and all through the weekend."
Rob, A1 Team China Chief Engineer: "I think Ho-Pin did a good job today, it was exactly what we expected from a German F3 champion, very mature, very professional. Even though he made some mistakes, we are very confident that he is capable to compete in top 6 in this race, and I think this is going to be a very impressive weekend for A1 Team China."
France
The sixth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport takes place at one of the very interesting Asian circuits in Sentul near Jakarta, Indonesia. On
the 4.12 km long Sentul circuit in Indonesia, A1 Team France rookie driver Loic Duval completed his program during the Rookie practice session where he finished second fastest.
The day went well for race driver Nicolas Lapierre's second visit ever to the Sentul circuit as he finished fastest with a lap of 1.17.992.
Nicolas explained: "I remembered this track from last year and I was the one driving here at that event. I knew what to expect and that the eleven turns are rather demanding to do a correct lap. I was happy to clock the fast time in the official practice session. It was quite hot today and while the track isn't easy, I like it. The team have a good record here from last season. We had a good afternoon working to improve the car for tomorrow's qualifying. The high-speed corners are really exciting, lots of things can happen as the high track temperature is very demanding for the tyres and the brakes."
Eric Boullier, Managing Director "We are very happy of the overall results today. Loic Duval had a very satisfying session. Nicolas drove well today to get the most out of the car. We're finalising out set-up and strategy which will be vital to qualifying and two good races on Sunday."
Great Britain
A1 Team Great Britain fired a warning shot to its rivals ahead of Sunday's fifth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Indonesia as Oliver Jarvis posted the fastest lap time in Friday morning's rookie-only session at the Sentul International Circuit before Robbie Kerr kept up the team's front-running challenge by setting the second fastest time in official practice later in the afternoon.
Oliver Jarvis was out first for Great Britain, the 22-year-old rookie experiencing the heat and humidity at the 2.56-mile track for the first time in his career. It failed to stop the 2006 British F3 runner-up from doing the business and he duly posted the fastest lap of the session with a 1m18.477s to top the timesheets ahead of Loic Duval in the French entry.
Robbie Kerr, set to race the British entry in Sunday's Sprint and Feature events, ensured the Anglo-French battle continued into the afternoon's official practice session as he traded fastest lap times with Nicolas Lapierre. Kerr, who captured pole at the track last season, was eventually forced to settle for second just 5/100ths of a second shy of Lapierre's quickest lap time.
Robbie Kerr: "It's great to be back in Indonesia and so far things have gone fairly well. We're happy with where we're at but there are a few changes we need to make to the car heading into tomorrow's qualifying session. We're going to look through the data and rectify some outstanding issues. Tomorrow's another day though and with the weather here in Indonesia you never know if there's going to be monsoon rains or baking sunshine like today!"
Oliver Jarvis: "The session went very well for A1 Team GBR. We had a few team jobs to do in the first part of the session, bedding in two sets of brakes and so on but we went for it in the second part and set the fastest time overall. If we'd made the most of new tyres in the first part we would have been much quicker. All things considered it's looking positive for Robbie and the team for the rest of the weekend."
India
A1 Team India took to the track today, for the A1GP Sentul, Indonesia. It was the first race of the season that the team were able to take advantage of the Friday rookie session, with new driver Parthiv Sureshwaren gaining valuable data for the team.
In his first outing in A1GP, Sureshwaren made a good impression around the 4.12 km long circuit. Improving on his best first session time by 1.5 seconds, Sureshwaren went on to finish 16th in the second and final rookie session.
Commenting on his first drive, Sureshwaren said, "It was really exciting to get out in the A1GP car. For the first 25 minutes I was just getting used to the car, as well as bedding in the new brakes and engine. I'm fairly pleased with how it went, the team seem happy and I think I could have got an even better time had I not been blocked by another car and had a quick lap spoilt by a red flag.
"I drove a World Series car last year and the A1GP car compares quite well. Although the World Series car has more grip through the corners, the A1GP car is good on the straights. I'm really looking forward to getting in the car again."
Building on the data gained by his new team mate, Armaan Ebrahim was able to work on set-up for qualifying tomorrow and completed 30 laps in the final practice session of the day.
Commenting on his afternoon, Ebrahim said, "I'm pleased with how it went today. I set a quick lap time early on in the session and was able to better that later on, despite being on old tyres. I think with new tyres and with the changes we have made to the car, we should be able to do better tomorrow."
Yohann J Setna, Seat holder for A1 Team India said, "Armaan did a good job this afternoon, he improved about 1.5 seconds over the duration of the session. The first sector was the weakest, but the team have made some changes which should help there tomorrow. Parthiv did a great job this morning and his information enabled us to start from a better baseline in practice this afternoon. We're hopeful that we will be able to improve further tomorrow."
Ireland
Richard Lyons' first day with A1 Team Ireland saw him set the 7th fastest time in the first 'Rookie' practice session and 14th in second practice during a day spent learning the 4.12km circuit in Bogor, near Jakarta, and also familiarising himself with Ireland's A1GP car.
The Hillsborough driver worked with engineer Andy Miller to develop the set-up of the car and tried a number of changes during both sessions, Lyons also improving his times as he became more used to the car and track. The stifling heat and humidity made the challenge of the Sentul track even more extreme today, although Lyons is well used to racing in these conditions in Asia.
Richard Lyons: "It's been quite a good day although there was a lot to get through in the time available. I haven't driven a single seater in a year, but it came back to me pretty quickly and we started making good progress. There's more to come from me and also from the car, so I'm hopeful we can make some headway tomorrow."
Andy Miller, Technical Director "Since this is Richard's first run in an A1GP car we had to approach things a little differently and let him build up his speed and confidence, as well as getting to know the circuit. We can see where we are losing out on time and in fact sectors one and two look good, it's just towards the end of the lap that we suffer."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "Richard has settled in well and did a good job learning the track, the car and working with the team for the first time. Obviously the purpose of him driving here is to help the team focus on the car's overall competitiveness, and we have some good idea of where we can make progress tomorrow."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon was out on track in Sentul, Indonesia today, with the first two practice sessions in preparation for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport races on Sunday.
It was an opportunity for the team's rookie driver, Alex Khateeb, to experience the unique characteristics of the 3.9 km circuit, driving in hot and humid conditions which added to his challenge of driving at a new location. The young Lebanese driver, in his fourth outing for the team in the A1GP car, undertook a number of technical tasks at the beginning of the session. After taking a few laps to familiarise himself with the circuit, he focused on this work and not overall lap times. In the second half of the session Khateeb pushed the car further as he continued with the race preparation programme and finished 13th quickest.
He said at the end of his morning in the Lebanon car, "I enjoyed driving the car today. I liked the circuit, as it wasn't as difficult to learn as some others, and it has a good flow, so you can get into a rhythm. I've still only had three hours of seat time in the car, so it's taking time to really understand it, as well as carrying out the various setup tasks which the team need done in this first session.
"I'm quite pleased with my times this morning, particularly as I didn't get a clear lap at any stage. Being part of Team Lebanon is a very educational and rewarding experience for me and it's been great driving here."
In the afternoon Basil Shaaban took over driving duties, with his previous experience of the circuit in the first season of A1GP giving him the advantage of knowing its characteristics prior to taking his turn behind the wheel. His session was a mix of setup work, routine technical tasks and car development. At the end of the session Shaaban finished 20th fastest.
After the session he said, "The team needed me to continue with some of the setup tasks that Alex had been doing this morning, so after a few laps on new tyres becoming reacquainted with the track, we spent some of the time on this. We then turned our attention to developing the car, but with old tyres we weren't pressing for a quick time."
Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia arrived in Sentul this week, travelling to the event from the team's home race nearly two weeks ago. With the team posting strong results in their home nation, they are focused on continuing with top performances in neighbouring Indonesia.
Fairuz Fauzy is driving the first practice sessions of the A1GP Series this season in efforts to accelerate the race preparations for the team. His extensive race experience and abilities to provide useful technical feedback to the engineers is proving to be an advantage in this highly competitive racing environment.
Today Fairuz ran strongly as well as working through a planned programme of technical tasks that are needed at the beginning of a race weekend. The session, split into two segments, saw the Malaysian driver posting 8th quickest lap in the first segment and 12th fastest in the second.
He said afterwards, "I enjoyed my run in the car this morning, but it's only my second time this season, so I'm still getting used to the characteristics of this particular car and becoming more comfortable with it. We put in some race preparation work which I hope will be of value to the team through the weekend. It's a great circuit to drive in Sentul and I'm happy to be with the team in Indonesia this weekend."
The Malaysian team's regular driver, Alex Yoong, was handed the car this afternoon and after the hard work of his team-mate earlier was able to concentrate on qualifying and race setups during the session.
After the practice hour Yoong said, "We haven't got to grips with the track today and we really haven't put in the opening day performance that we'd liked to have done. We need to spend some time analysing the data that we have, checking the car and then putting together a plan for tomorrow. I'm sure we can bounce back with some significantly better lap times."
Mexico
Mexican A1 Team was ranked among the Top-10 for the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport after the first day of activities at the 4.12-Km. Sentul International Circuit in Indonesia.
Sergio Perez participated in the session for rookie drivers and developing nations only, split in two segments. In the overall times he was ranked fourth with a lap time of 1'18.946, just behind the drivers for Great Britain (1'18.447), France (1'18.546), and Czech Republic (1'18.869).
"I did well in practice, but I'm not satisfied, since I had a lot of traffic during my fastest lap and I've lost about three tenths. I think if I put all the sector [times] together, I could have been the fastest one," Perez said. "I had to test two brake pads only, which took me about two laps per session. It wasn't like other times when I had to test brake discs, brake pads, etc. and I did not have time left to drive further. So actually I benefited from this situation."
"I think I was faster than other more experienced drivers who know the track, which made me feel very glad and boosts my confidence to keep doing things. The car is well balanced and I hope 'Chava' [Salvador Duran] will be comfortable with the car. I think this weekend will be good for us," said the young Mexican driver, who was fined for reducing his speed under yellow flag for just one second, instead of the required two seconds. Other rookie drivers went through this situation too. However, this did not affect their times.
Later, the number one driver for the A1 Team Mexico Salvador Duran went out to the track, and he said: "It was in some way a complicated session, on one lap I locked my tyres a little bit and they wore out. However, when we went out, we were running on the 1'18s per lap. The balance of the car is good, but it can be improved, since the tyres lock when braking. Overall, I think there are good expectations for this weekend."
Duran did his best lap time at 1'18.383 which was good for sixth place, behind the drivers from France (1'17.992), Great Britain (1'18.040), Australia (1'18.149), South Africa (1'18.244) and Czech Republic (1'18.301).
Also Julio Jauregui, Executive Vice President of A1 Team Mexico commented on this first day of activities: "The temperature is very high here and there is a lot of humidity. That wears out the drivers. They get out of their cars very tired and I think this can work on our favour, because our drivers are used to this weather and are very fit. I think this weather will benefit us, mainly on the 70-minute race. We have a good setting and we have improved our times consistently. Throughout the day we kept our times close to England's, despite using wore out tyres, but this will help us for Saturday's qualifying session, when we have several sets of new tyres."
Netherlands
After the two first free practice sessions for the A1GP at the Indonesian circuit of Sentul, A1 Team Netherlands has made solid progression with the car set up for the rest of the weekend. On a very hot Sentul both A1 Team Netherlands drivers made their debut on this circuit. This morning Renger van der Zande was the first one to go out, in the Rookie session of two times 25 minutes. Both in the first segment as in the second Renger provided much information about the car and the track, which the team used to make some improvements. Topping the time sheets was not possible for A1 Team Netherlands, Van der Zande encountered some traffic and yellow flags on a number of his fast laps. In the end he set a tenth fastest time in the first segment and a 11th fastest time in the second 25 minutes.
After that it was Jeroen Bleekemolen's turn. In a practice session that ran without any incidents Bleekemolen drove a total of 23 laps, setting a fastest time of 1'18.705. The A1 Team Netherlands driver showed that he got himself familiarized with the track very quick, setting his fastest time on his third lap. A1 Team Netherlands finished the practice session in 12th. The gap with France, fastest in this session, was some 7 tenths of a second. That once again shows how close the front runners in A1GP are.
Jeroen Bleekemolen was pleased after his first free practice session; "It went very well. We have really made a step forward with the car. Almost all guys who are in front of me already know the track, either from last year or from the Rookie test. They can get much more from their tyres. When you see what we were capable of at the end, we can be quite pleased. We are quite close. If we can make one more small step we are competing up front this weekend, that is very nice. I am confident for tomorrow. The track itself is quite fun to drive. You do notice that the asphalt is very abrasive, you can see that as well. There are a lot of different types of asphalt mixed together on this track, which makes it a bit bumpy. There are also a number of fast corners that can be quite challenging."
Renger van der Zande; I think that I did a good job today. We really used the session to improve the car further. We had some options on the set up to try. Today I was purely driving for the whole team, we did a lot and managed to improve the car quite a bit in the two 25 minute session. We were not able to drive a lot of laps though. The team has done a very good job on the working on the car and I think that we created a solid foundation for Jeroen."
Apart from the two A1 Team Netherlands drivers there were also some input from two other 'Dutch' drivers today. Ho Pin Tung, who also has a Chinese nationality, drove both sessions for A1 Team China and Chris van der Drift went out on track for New Zealand in the Rookie session.
New Zealand
The New Zealand team has some ground to make up after the first day's practice for Round 5 of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Indonesia.
Learning the track, trialling different set-ups on the car and recovering from an early mishap meant the team wasn't up with the pace-setters. Driver Jonnny Reid recorded only the 16 th fastest lap time in the one-hour official practice as only one second separated the first 15 cars. New Zealand was 1.14 seconds off the pace.
The team struggled to make up for lost ground after Chris van der Drift crashed out on the first lap of the Rookie Session, his first competitive run in Black Beauty after testing at Silverstone in late August.
New Zealand's head of engineering David Sears said it was probably a case of the 20-year-old trying to go "too fast too soon".
"He smacked the front end of the car and generally made it a bit messy," Sears said. "But the damage was relatively light in racing terms and while we were able to patch it up satisfactorily, we lost a bit of momentum in terms of testing different set-ups."
Reid slowly worked his way into the practice, setting his fastest lap on well worn tyres, and said while the first day wasn't ideal, he was improving the whole way through and certain he'd be able to pick up the pace further. "We're not entirely happy, but we appreciate the work we have to do, know the areas we have to work on and I'm very focused and very determined."
Reid says the weather could play a huge part in Sunday's racing. The heat was more stifling than in the previous round in Malaysia a fortnight ago, with temperatures so extreme that the tarmac on one part of the track is being replaced after breaking up under the wear of 20 high performance cars braking so hard on its scorched surface.
"It's unbelievably hot," Reid said. "When you stop it's a killer because the radiator is at your feet and the heat just flows through the cockpit. It's a blessed relief to get back out on the track with some ventilation!"
Reid says the monsoon rains will fall on race day…it's just a matter of when. "After practice today I was amazed by the clouds. I've never seen any that black and fearsome. It rains in a burst every day – the only questions are when it will rain and how much it will bucket down. Local knowledge could play a part in Sunday's outcome. I'll be keeping a sneaky eye on the Indonesian car to see what it does."
Another one-hour practice session tomorrow will precede Qualifying. The point-scoring Sprint and Feature Races will be held on Sunday.
New Zealand is 12th equal on the points ladder with 15 points – 22 points behind the table topping Germany, but only nine points behind three teams sharing 3rd place.
Pakistan
A1 Team Pakistan continued its campaign in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today at the Sentul International Circuit in Indonesia. After an eventful rookie session, Nur Ali completed 29 laps around the demanding circuit in afternoon practice, to improve his best time from the morning session by 1.5 seconds.
The Sentul circuit, situated 43 km east of Jakarta, is one of the most challenging on the A1GP calendar. The extremely hot weather makes conditions in the car difficult, while the high grip and abrasive surface means tyre wear is high.
Commenting on his first day at Sentul, Ali said "The track here is good, I like the configuration of it. I'm enjoying driving the circuit. There are different levels of grip, as the track surface changes from tarmac to concrete, but the grip level is generally high.
"This morning's sessions were a little frustrating, I had to learn the circuit, as this is my first time at Sentul, and we had a few incidents but nothing too serious. Unfortunately when the car was recovered from a run-off area at the end of the second rookie period, the marshals dragged the car through some deep gravel. Thankfully when we got the car back there was no mechanical damage.
"In this afternoon's practice session, I did one lap, but discovered we had a bit of a problem with the brakes which turned out to be air in the brake lines. The team worked on this and I was able to get back on track with about 45 minutes still remaining. After that I did a long stint and it was great to get some solid practice time in the car. Conditions are very hot here, and although I did start to feel the heat towards the end of the session, I felt fit enough to be able to concentrate on my driving. We have a couple of set-up changes that we want to make tomorrow, which should be beneficial and lower our times further."
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