12/02/2009
NEWS STORY
Vitantonio Liuzzi set the quickest time at practice this evening at the Losail International Circuit for the first ever Speedcar Series night event this weekend. He was followed very closely by Jean Alesi and Gianni Morbidelli.
Alesi was ahead of the pack for the most part of the hour long practice session that began at 19:00 local time. Liuzzi however managed to clock 2:04.818 in the final minutes, bettering the Frenchman's time by .049 and half a second faster than fellow Italian Morbidelli.
The surprise outcome of the day was from MotoGP Champion Marco Melandri, who has ridden on the circuit in Qatar before but has only just driven on it in a Speedcar. He fared impressively finishing in fifth place only 0.025 slower than Johnny Herbert. The Italian rider said, "I had the advantage of knowing the track but the racing lines are different when comparing a Speedcar to a motorbike. The car understeers quite a lot but I had a great time on the track. It's a difficult car to drive but not as hard as I expected. I had estimated to finish around 10th place so to finish in 5th was a great result." Melandri was quick from the start and stayed between 6th and 4th places.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Liuzzi | UP Team | 2:04.818 | 0.000 |
| 2 | Alesi | HPR | 2:04.867 | 0.049 |
| 3 | Morbidelli | Palm Beach | 2:05.323 | 0.505 |
| 4 | Herbert | JMB | 2:05.946 | 1.128 |
| 5 | Melandri | Team Lavaggi | 2:06.146 | 1.328 |
| 6 | Frentzen | Team Lavaggi | 2:06.171 | 1.353 |
| 7 | Biagi | Palm Beach | 2:06.397 | 1.579 |
| 8 | Al Maktoum | UP Team | 2:06.462 | 1.644 |
| 9 | Villeneuve | Durango | 2:06.778 | 1.960 |
| 10 | Lee | HPR | 2:06.882 | 2.064 |
| 11 | Zoechling | Durango | 2:07.133 | 2.315 |
| 12 | Pasini | JMB | 2:07.622 | 2.804 |
| 13 | Al Attiyah | Team Barwa | 2:09.478 | 4.660 |
| 14 | Al Kuwari | QMMF Team | 2:15.225 | 10.407 |
| 15 | Al Thani | QMMF Team | 2:22.627 | 17.809 |