09/12/2006
NEWS STORY
Brazil
A1 Team Brasil suffered a disappointing qualifying today at the Sentul circuit for the Indonesian round of the 2006/07 World Cup of Motorsport. After a weekend that has so far seen the team struggling to find a good set-up, Tuka Rocha was only able to qualify in 19th position, securing a tenth row start for tomorrow morning's sprint race.
This morning's final one-hour practice session actually saw Tuka finish fifth in the standings, with a fastest time of 1:18.367, but this was set on new tyres compared to most drivers running on old. It was also not to be indicative of a qualifying position once the rest of the grid fixed new rubber to their cars, and with the team unable to improve the performance of the car between the practice and qualifying sessions, Tuka struggled from the off.
He set his quickest laps of 1:18.251 and 1:18.483 in the second and third segments, giving him a combined time of 2:36.734. This put him a disappointing 19th in the standings heading into segment four, as he was lapping almost two seconds slower than the frontrunners. The team fitted new tyres for the final attack to try to elevate Tuka in the provisional grid order, however, as Tuka began his final flying lap, he was blocked by Team Canada's Sean McIntosh, who was on his outlap. The move saw Tuka's lap time tumble into the 1:20's, leaving him unable to improve on 19th.
Tuka Rocha: "We had new tyres in practice this morning when I set my fastest lap so it was not a true position which we knew. But I didn't expect it to be so bad in qualifying. I just couldn't get anymore out of the car. We were setting the same times as in practice this morning, but it just shows that we really need to improve. We had the problem with Canada blocking us on the last lap when I was on new tyres, which didn't help, but we need to develop this car."
Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "I've only just arrived at the circuit today so I haven't been involved in the meetings so far, but I am very disappointed that we didn't have the right set-up and that we were blocked by Team Canada on our last qualifying lap. The guy didn't look in the mirror and Tuka was there on new tyres for his final lap so we lost out there. But the car set-up is not looking great and we have to improve the whole team. We're two seconds off and that is something that seriously needs to be solved."
Canada
Sean McIntosh secured a fifth-row grid slot for A1 Team Canada on Saturday with a ninth place effort in qualifying ahead of Sunday's fifth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, hosted at the Sentul International Circuit in Indonesia.
Returning to the 4.12km track where he scored Canada's only A1GP victory to-date with a stunning last-to-first drive back in February, McIntosh was again a front-runner in qualifying holding a top-ten position throughout the session. Battling the heat and humidity, as well as 20 rival nations for the pole, Sean's first qualifying lap, a 1m17.344s, saw him up into ninth place.
Slower on his second run, this time on old rubber, the 21-year-old from Vancouver slapped on a new set of Cooper tires for his third outing, posting a flying 1m17.274s – the sixth fastest lap of the third sector. Sean's first and third laps would ultimately be used to set his aggregate qualifying time, 2m34.608s as he was later penalized by A1GP stewards, with the subsequent exclusion of his fourth sector lap time, for allegedly blocking A1 Team Brazil's Tuka Rocha exiting the pits.
Rocha had in turn blocked the Canadian on his final, potentially faster run, but McIntosh's penalty would negate his fourth lap irrespective of time although he held onto ninth on the grid for Sunday's Sprint race, the results of which then determine the starting order for the Feature race. New Zealand's Jonny Reid snatched P1 from last season's Indonesian pole-sitter, Great Britain's Robbie Kerr, in the dying stages of a thrilling qualifying session.
"It wasn't the best qualifying performance,' stated McIntosh afterwards. "I thought our pace in practice on old tires was going to convert into a better grid slot but it wasn't the case. We didn't start from the front last season when we won and we know we have a good, consistent race car here. If I can maximize that fact then I'm sure we can have another productive Sunday afternoon at Sentul."
China
After a good start in the first two Official Practices, A1 Team China Rookie driver Ho-Pin Tung started his 3rd Official Practice in the morning. Ho-Pin still has lot to learn about this comparatively heavy A1 car, he braked too hard in the 4th corner, which caused a lot of troubles to A1 Teams, and there was a hole on the front right tyre, then he lost last 15 minutes of practice.
A1 Team China has 3 sets of new tyres in the Qualifying, Ho-Pin made a mistake in turn 4 again and lost some time, then he only got 1:17.873 in the first session, about 1.21 seconds behind the fastest German driver. Ho-Pin used the same set of tyres in the 2nd session in the Qualifying, this time he did not make any mistakes and finished in sixth place of the session. In the following session, Ho-Pin was very fast in the first half of the track, unfortunately he was blocked by other A1 Team and lost his chance to get into top 10 of the list. In the last session, Ho-Pin made his second quickest lap time, and end up with 12th in the Qualifying.
Ho-Pin Tung said after the Qualifying: "It was a very disappointing Qualifying, again I did not manage the turn 4 very well in the first session. Then every time I switch my foot between pedals I step on both pedals a bit. Our team will get it fixed by tomorrow, it is not a big problem."
Yang Lu, A1 Team China Deputy Team Leader comments: "It is good to have more Chinese drivers racing in A1GP series, Ho-Pin did good job so far, and of cause he needs a bit more time to get used to A1 car, and more time with the team Engineers to learn this car. Now the Team knows where are the problems, and everything will be ok by tomorrow morning. I think Ho-Pin's experience with give him more opportunities in two races tomorrow, especially in the Feature Race which we will see some takeovers. We believe that Ho-Pin will bring a fantastic A1GP race for all the A1 fans, and we will not be surprised that he can get some points for A1 Team China in this weekend."
France
Following a trouble-free final practice session on Saturday morning where A1 Team France finished fourth fastest, its driver Nicolas qualified in seventh place for Sunday's sprint race.
Lapierre who looked in strong shape under the hot sun in the morning practice session explained his qualifying: "Before the session I inspected the track carefully. I was afraid that it had started braking up under the very hot conditions. I wrapped up the first part of the qualifying as fourth fastest which was a solid start and in the second session, before I could start my second run, there was a red flag after Ireland had an accident. Overall, we are lacking speed with our fresh tyres as opposed to the practice sessions where we managed to push and take the maximum performance out of the old tyres."
The team is now working to prepare a good race strategy and improve the car's balance for tomorrow's races.
Eric Boullier, Managing Director, A1 France added: "I am a bit disappointed with the qualifying results because it looks like we were not able to keep up with the pace we set in practice. But with a good start tomorrow and a strong strategy I hope to secure good results for the Championship."
Germany
For the third time in the 2006/2007 season, Willi Weber's A1 Team Germany will be starting from the second row on the grid. In the qualifying practice for the fifth round on the circuit of Sentul, Indonesia the team's driver for this race, Nicolas Hülkenberg, set the third-best time, thus repeating the previous showing in Malaysia. In the season opener at Zandvoort the German team had started from the second row as well, and from the first in the subsequent round at Brno.
In the first of the qualifying's four segments Nico Hülkenberg set the best time at 1m16.668s. In the second outing, following a red-flag interruption of the session, he was the first driver to go out again and finished in tenth place after being clocked at 1m17.730s. In the third part of the qualifying the German needed 1m16.859s to complete his lap around the circuit, which equated to the second-best time. At this point, the aggregate of the two best times put him at the top of the field. In the final fourth trial he managed the fourth-best time at 1m16.817s. This meant that he was in third place of the aggregate of the best lap times, having to admit defeat to New Zealand and Great Britain. Following his eighth and ninth places in the free practice sessions, Hülkenberg's third-best time in the qualifying represented his best result of the weekend so far.
Nicolas Hülkenberg: "Third place is okay, because that means I've got extremely good chances for the two races on Sunday. On new tyres the first trial went very well. In the second attempt we used the same tyres and therefore were a bit slower. For the third outing, which I again started on new tyres, we changed the set-up a little, but unfortunately that was a mistake. So we chose the original set-up for the fourth run and used a new set of tyres again. Unfortunately, I made a driving mistake, which is why I merely set the fourth-best time in this segment."
Great Britain
Robbie Kerr came close to capturing his second straight Indonesian A1GP pole for A1 Team Great Britain at the Sentul International Circuit on Saturday but in the end the former F3 Champion was forced to settle for a still highly respectable second place on the front-row for Sunday's Sprint race, Round 5 of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.
Having traded fastest lap times on Friday with A1 Team France, Saturday's qualifying session proved to be no less exciting for the British team as they seek to score their first A1GP victory at the 2.56-mile Sentul circuit. The ultra-consistent Kerr, who set the fastest lap time of the second timed segment in qualifying, lost out on pole to New Zealand's Jonny Reid by a mere 3/100ths of a second, recording an aggregate lap time from his two fastest runs of 2m33.276 to Reid's 2m33.242.
Kerr saved his best till last, posting a hot lap of 1m16.514s in the fourth and final outing of the day to pair together with his second sector time of 1m16.762s. It was a case of what might have been for the British team however as Kerr was set to record a faster fourth lap time until he clipped the curb, running onto the grass briefly exiting the third turn. None-the-less Robbie's performance secured a second consecutive front-row start for A1 Team Great Britain in Indonesia with his pace and consistency boding well for Sunday's Sprint and Feature events.
Commenting after another eventful day in Indonesia Kerr reflected, "I'm disappointed not to be on pole, my slight error on the last run cost us the top slot. I was running well but hit the power a little too early exiting Turn 3 and caught the curb. That said I don't want to take anything away from Jonny Reid, he did a great job to take pole! We should be strong for tomorrow's races, the car is on the pace, we're on the front-row and I want that first win!"
India
A1 Team India driver Armaan Ebrahim completed the second day at the A1GP Sentul, Indonesia today, to qualify 16th for tomorrow's Sprint race.
In hot and humid conditions typical of the region, the team struggled for pace in this morning's final practice, despite having made changes to the car since Friday's practice session.
Parthiva Sureshwaren, who gained valuable data for the team in yesterday's rookie session, supported his team-mate from the pit wall as the team undertook the four segment qualifying session. Completing one flying lap in each segment, Ebrahim made some big improvements to set two hot laps 2.5 seconds faster than the team's previous quickest time of the weekend. With his two quickest laps aggregated to determine the team's position for the Sprint race, A1 Team India will start from the 8th row of the grid.
Commenting on his performance, Ebrahim said, "I'm happy with how it went in qualifying, we've made up quite a bit of time since the beginning of the weekend. I'm a bit annoyed because I made a small mistake on my last run, so we could have been even quicker. We're just a second away now from the front runners which is a big improvement and hopefully we'll be even better in the race."
Yohann J Setna, Seat holder for A1 Team India added, "The team did a good job today. On Armaan's first flying lap he made a mistake going into the first corner, and lost about six tenths, so we knew he had a bit more speed in the car, we knew he could do a 1.17.900 at least. On his second run unfortunately he was behind Ireland when they went off, so he had to lift because of the yellow flag. Fortunately he still had new tyres left for sessions three and four.
"The last two sessions were really good, quick and very consistent, which was want we wanted. I don't think the car could have done a better time this afternoon. From the beginning of the weekend to now, Armaan has improved about four seconds. So yes, we're happy with how it went today, we got what we thought we could out of the car, and will be looking to improve again tomorrow."
Ireland
Richard Lyons' debut in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport saw him suffer an accident which cost him a valuable qualifying run and set the 18th fastest time. The A1 Team Ireland driver completed the first of four qualifying runs on used tyres and was on new tyres for his second run when he made an error under braking, the car sliding off the track and into the barrier.
Fortunately he was able to keep the engine running and return to the pits after the marshals pushed the car away from the wall, damage being confined to the front wing and nose cone. Earlier in the day Lyons was 15th in final practice, the session being used to test a range of set-up changes. A run on new tyres at the end of that session was ruined when the car was blocked by Team Lebanon.
Richard Lyons: "Obviously I am disappointed with the way today has gone and I have a lot of work to do tomorrow to if we are to salvage a result from this weekend. We got the car to the point where it was improving, but the accident cost us dearly. I made a small mistake under heavy braking but the team did a great job getting the car repaired and back out on the track for the next run."
Andy Miller, Technical Director: "We did a lot of set-up work today but obviously the off in qualifying didn't help matters and cost us that set of tyres plus a loss of momentum for Richard. It makes things tougher for tomorrow, but we will stick to a plan and see how the race develops as it was quite eventful last year."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "We certainly are not seeing a change in our fortunes, but the team has again worked hard and Richard was unfortunate to have that off. We just have to dig even deeper and keep pushing until we make the progress the team deserves."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon is set for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport races in Indonesia that take place tomorrow at the Sentul Circuit near Bogor. Final practice and qualifying for the fifth round of the Series were held today in the high heat and humidity of the Asian venue.
Basil Shaaban drove at this venue in the first season of A1GP, and was selected to represent Lebanon this weekend. In the final practice session this morning he continued with the race preparation programme, working on car set up with his engineers and developing it to the track and weather conditions.
The weather kept dry throughout the day with air temperatures reaching 35°, a track temperature of 48° and humidity levels of 82% adding to the challenge for the drivers this afternoon.
The four segment format qualifying requires drivers to complete four flying laps with the two quickest of these aggregated to determine the team's grid position for the Sprint race.
Shaaban started steadily and in the second segment had hoped to improve on his first segment lap time, but the Irish A1GP car went off track into the barriers causing a red flag during Shaaban's 'hot lap'. This forced him to return to the pit garage and although he returned for another flying lap, he was unable to make the most of his track time. Shaaban's third segment time was his fastest, and he backed this up in the fourth segment with his second quickest lap.
Shaaban said after the session, "We had two respectable times and two slower times on old tyres. We need to concentrate on our strategy for the races tomorrow now and as always, we'll be putting in the best performance possible to represent Lebanon and the wider Arab world in the A1GP Series."
Martin Stone, Racing Manager, A1 Team Lebanon added, "Basil was unlucky to be hampered by a red flag today, but that's the unpredictability of motor racing. He posted four solid lap times, but with a field of highly competitive, more experienced drivers, qualifying in A1GP is always tough. The races are always thrilling and the weather here could be a factor as well, so we'll look forward to being out there fighting hard tomorrow."
Malaysia
The fickleness of motor racing has been evident this weekend in the A1 Team Malaysia garage, with the team struggling to repeat the level of performance it has been showing this season at the start of the weekend. Their fortitude, however, paid dividends with a 13th place grid slot for tomorrow's Sprint race.
The team had been in the lower part of the timesheets during the practice sessions, which gave the engineers and Alex Yoong a tough challenge for qualifying. Running on used tyres for much of the sessions, the team concentrated on setup work, but still believed that they needed to find more speed for the afternoon sessions that would determine the grid.
Yoong's professionalism and experience came to the fore as he overcame the challenges presented by a car that was not as comfortable to drive as he would want. In these circumstances, skilful drivers have to draw on all their reserves to push to the limits and Yoong's talent helped to lift the team higher up the grid.
In the four flying lap segments of qualifying, Yoong had three new sets of tyres, and the team needed to put in two strong lap times, which would give him a good grid position when aggregated. A spin into the gravel in the second segment added to the pressures for the Malaysian team, but Yoong recovered to return to the pits for the team to check over the car. The team worked quickly and were able to have the car ready for the third flying lap run. With his fourth flying lap Yoong was able to improve his time further, to line up 13th on the grid.
He said after the qualifying session, "We started going the wrong way with our setups this weekend and it wasn't until qualifying that we made some changes in the right direction. We know now where we need to go and that's given me some confidence. When the racing is this close, and you're always trying to push the boundaries occasionally you get it wrong. We have a few more changes to make to get the car better, so hopefully we'll have two good races."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, praised the team saying, "Till late in qualifying we have had a poor weekend, but the whole team have pulled together this afternoon, and Alex has risen to the challenge to wring as much as possible from a car that isn't set up optimally. It will be a real challenge to get points in the Sprint race tomorrow, but there's certainly an opportunity to add another strong points finish in the Feature race. We know what we need to do now.
Overall we have not given Alex or Fairuz a good car so far this weekend but the team know that and will be doing everything we can to make progress throughout raceday. Alex likes this circuit and providing we make some more changes overnight that further improve the car, we will be OK tomorrow. That's the hope now anyway."
Mexico
The heat and humidity of Indonesia seems to suit Salvador Duran, who set the fastest time during the morning practice session (1'17.586). He improved his lap times in qualifying, in a performance where his combined times were good enough to beat American Phil Giebler (fifth), who posted the fastest time in the third qualifying segment at the 4.12-Km. Sentul International Circuit, in Indonesia. Therefore, A1 Team Mexico will start the A1GP Sprint race from the second row.
"During the morning practice we were fastest and we demonstrated that we are contenders. Here, we came back to a track that we already know and that makes the work easier, but we still need more experience in other tracks. Everybody in the team is happy because they saw we can deliver and we are in the second row. The A1 GP Series is very competitive, the times were faster comparing with last year's and New Zealand along with Germany at this moment are the strongest, maybe because they have the champion engineer with France [Chris Gore], but we are working hard to improve our performance. On Sunday, I think we will be back on the podium," Salvador Duran said.
Questioned on the strategy followed during qualifying he said: "We used three sets of new tyres, for the first segment we used the first set and I was sixth (1'17.003), in the second segment we used the same tyres from the first session and we were even faster (1'16.961), to get a fourth place. In the last two segments I used the two remaining sets of tyres. For the third I had a good car, but I had traffic and although the Chinese driver (Ho-Ping Tung) did not do it on purpose, we lost a tenth with him to grab a third spot (1'16.911) and in the last qualifying session, the Chinese driver again blocked, but this time we lost about two tenths (1'16.753), and I was third quickest to finally - with the aggregate time, I was fourth (2'33.664)."
About the car he said: "The problems with the brakes were solved and we had no gearbox problems this weekend. Overall, we improved the car, but as usually there are a few small details that can be improved. So, I want to thank A1 Team Mexico for the effort displayed. In the last race we were not in the Top-10 and now the car is competitive enough to be in the Top-5 and they keep working to improve it."
Netherlands
A1 Team Netherlands will start tomorrow's A1GP Sprint race at the Sentul circuit from a tenth grid position. In qualifying this afternoon Jeroen Bleekemolen set an aggregate time of 2:34.691 (1:17.363 +1:17.328).
This morning A1 Team Netherlands was around the same spot, with a twelfth fastest time in the final free practice. Just like the past few days it was very warm at Sentul, with the humidity increasing as the day progressed.
In the first qualifying segment Jeroen Bleekemolen set a tenth fastest time. Immediately it was shown how close this qualifying session was going to be, with the entire top ten being within 7 tenths of a second. A1 Team Netherlands was then unable to mingle into the battle for pole position, the team briefly went to 11th position after the second qualifying segment, but in the end moved back up one place again. A1 Team New Zealand took the pole in the final segment, with a very narrow margin of 34 thousands over 2 laps.
Jeroen Bleekemolen admitted that the gap was still too big to really compete; "This you can see. But it went ok, I think. We set the same laptimes three times out, there just wasn't much more left. That's the way it is, not very bad but certainly not good enough. It was quite warm today, but when you drive you do not notice it too much, you suffer more from it when you're inside the garage waiting. I did have the feeling though, also after looking at some others, that the track was getting slower. This is also influenced by temperature of course, but it was somewhat odd."
According to Jan Lammers this was an example how fierce the competition within A1GP is this season; "I think that this is a realistic image of where we stand at the moment. When you see that France is in eighth, Switzerland is in eleventh and we are in tenth, it proves the tough competition this year. It is awfully close together. In the races we are usually capable of getting a decent result. I also think that overtaking might be a bit easier here", comments Lammers. "Most of the time you are looking for halve a second or more, but then you only look at big changes. We will first have to concentrate on finding one or two tenths. Often the difference can be found in the details and adding a number of smaller, more sensitive things. But now we now what we will have to do and now it is a case of dotting the I's."
New Zealand
New Zealand will be in pole position for tomorrow's opening Sprint Race in Round 5 of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Sentul track in Indonesia.
Jonny Reid put the Kiwi team on the front row of the grid for the third time in as many drives this season, scoring his second pole after previously securing top position in Round 2 in the Czech Republic.
Reid snatched the top spot with a last gasp flying lap of 1:16.510 in the last two minutes of the fourth and final qualifying segment. The average of his two best times was just .034 of a second faster than Great Britain. Germany and Mexico will be on the second row.
Reid set his two fastest times in his first and fourth segments, the latter being the fastest lap of the day.
New Zealand's head of engineering David Sears said Friday speed wobbles were rectified by "an incredibly good team effort. Everybody's been working unbelievably hard to get us back into the frame," he said. "We couldn't have had a better day. It's excellent. And I must say, Jonny drove spectacularly well. His record of two poles and a second is pretty phenomenal."
A1 Team.NZL spokesman Bob McMurray concurred and said it was "an absolutely stellar performance" from Reid, given he was only 16th fastest in yesterday's opening practice session after an earlier crash by Chris van der Drift stopped the team deriving any benefit from the earlier Rookie Sessions.
"Jonny didn't fret about his situation yesterday, took his time to learn the track and then achieved what he said he would do in focusing hard and qualifying well," McMurray said. "From 16th in the first practice to 7th in the second hit-out today and now to qualify on pole, that's an incredible effort. He should feel proud that he's come back from so far behind to lead the pack.
"We couldn't be happier. Now we just have to focus on translating that car speed into points so we can continue to climb up the championship table."
Pakistan
A1 Team Pakistan continued to make progress today in the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. After looking at data from yesterday's practice session, the team were 2.5 seconds faster in morning practice. Taking these improvements into qualifying, Nur Ali completed four flying laps which will put him on the 11th row of the grid for tomorrow's Sprint race.
As the track temperature soared to 48 C, the skies remained clear for the four segment qualifying session. Completing a flying lap in each segment, Ali's two fastest times were combined to set his grid position.
Ali said at the end of qualifying, "The team and I had some quite detailed discussions yesterday on which sections we needed to improve on and spent a long time going through data. With those discussions in mind I started to push the car a bit more today and felt comfortable with the progress we made. We're not unrealistic about our hopes for tomorrow, we just want to keep building and put in some better lap times. We went quicker in each segment in qualifying and at this rate we should do even better tomorrow."
Bobby Issazadhe, Team Manager of A1 Team Pakistan, added, "We're pleased with the team's progress so far this weekend, especially as it's still only our fifth race weekend working together. We are concentrating on looking at Nur's performance and the information we collect from the car's data logging system to see where he can improve in each sector. After each session we are looking at where we are losing the most time, and working on those areas. Considering where we started, qualifying was successful; there was a big improvement in time. If we continue at this rate of progress, we will have a good fight with A1 Team Lebanon in the race."
South Africa
Alan van der Merwe, competing in his first race weekend for nearly two years, did well to drive Vulindlela into a closely-fought eighth place in this afternoon's qualifying session for tomorrow's fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.
The 26-year-old, who last raced in Formula 3000 in Hockenheim in 2004, completed the unique four-part A1GP qualifying format on the challenging 4,12-km Sentul circuit in West Java with a time of 2 min 34,1 sec. Drivers are timed once in each of the four 15-minute sessions and the two best times added together determine their grid position for Sunday's 20-minute rolling start sprint race.
Van der Merwe, a former British Formula 3 champion, was 0,7 sec slower than New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who claimed his second pole position this season, in one of the closest qualifying sessions seen so far in this unique nation-versus-nation series. Second place went to Great Britain (Robbie Kerr), with Germany (Niko Hulkenberg), Mexico (Salvador Duran), USA (Phil Giebler), Australia (Ryan Briscoe) and France (Nicolas Lapierre) making up the rest of the top eight with South Africa.
Van der Merwe: "I would like to have been higher up the grid, but I can't complain too much about my times. I made a mistake in the second session when I got on the power a bit too soon coming out of the last corner and lost maybe two tenths of a second. I could have been fifth or sixth, it was that close.
"My biggest challenge this weekend will be tomorrow's two races. I'll be aiming to survive the hectic battle for position in the opening laps of the sprint race and try to improve my overall position for the start of the feature race. Finishing in the points is my principal objective."
Mike Carroll, sporting and technical manager: "Alan did a good job considering the circumstances. His lap times were not far off the top three times, all achieved by established drivers in their second season of A1. In fact, all the drivers in front of him on the grid have either won a race already or finished in the top three.
"We felt we did not need to go out in the third session and were able to keep our third and final set of qualifying tyres for the final session. We were ahead of France, who have been the form team this weekend and with whom we share the French-based DAMS technical team, after three sessions and finished just one tenth of a second behind them."
Switzerland
Neel Jani qualified eleventh on the grid for tomorrow's sprint race at Sentul, Indonesia after a difficult practice session in which he finished tenth. The conditions were very hot this morning and the car was lacking grip on the track: "We tried different aerodynamic solutions to be prepared for the afternoon qualifying but
nothing seemed to be working," Jani said.
During qualifying, Jani finished the first of the four qualifying periods in 8th position but eventually his aggregate time was good enough for eleventh.
Jani commented, "I took to the track in very hot conditions and we have to be very careful not to be dehydrating quickly under these conditions. I'm not so pleased with the result of the qualifying. I pushed very hard from start to finish but there was not much I could do. I do not know why we are so slow. The car does not seem to react properly. It looks like we have not found the right balance on this challenging track. For now we cannot explain why the car is one second off the pace. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the long feature race will be interesting and challenging for everyone and that something good can come out of it."
Max Welti, team principal, A1 Team Switzerland commented, "I am surprised at our pace and that Neel did not manage to get back to yesterday's performance. The track is challenging and the conditions very hot. We need a good start tomorrow and to find our pace again to finish in a good position."
USA
After two productive practice sessions, A1 Team USA produced a successful qualifying session and secured grid position five for the Sprint Race for the fifth round of A1GP – the World Cup of Motorsport to be held on Sunday in Sentul, Indonesia.
After making various improvements to the "We the People" car throughout the practice session on Friday and Saturday, A1 Team USA recorded the third fastest lap in Saturday's official practice session with a 1:17:76—a significant improvement from tenth in Friday's practice.
In the qualifying round on Saturday, Team USA driver Phil Giebler's first and third segments [of four] were his fastest of the weekend and placed him fifth on the grid for the Sprint race. Giebler posted a lap of 1:16:70 in the third qualifying segment of the day, the fastest of all cars, to pair together with his first segment time of 1:16:99. A small error in qualifying segment four dashed any hope of moving up in the grid.
"I lost a little under braking with a small lockup on my last lap, but still, it was good to be up there battling for the front spots," said Giebler following the session. "The car is looking like it has really good race pace with used tires. Our strength is in the longer runs, so we are looking forward to getting into the race and taking advantage of that."
A1 Team USA Owner Rick Weidinger is pleased with the team's position heading into race day. "We are definitely in the game with a respectable qualifying position," Weidinger said. "The entire team feels good about the car and its set up. Hopefully, the weather will hold up but once again we will be ready for any condition. Our game plan is clear: Score the podium in the Sprint race and win the Feature race."
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