Ireland

A1 Team Ireland has qualified 7th for tomorrow's Indonesian round of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations series after the team gambled on rain arriving mid-way through the four qualifying runs. Driver Ralph Firman was on provisional pole position after two qualifying segments, but in doing so used his new tyre allocation and dropped to 7th place after the third run – at which point the rain arrived. The Irish team, fastest in opening practice on Friday, were forced to change the engine in A1 Team Ireland's A1 Grand Prix car after this morning's practice session due to a severe lack of straight line speed. The team mechanics managed to complete the change during the two hour lunch period.

Ralph Firman: "We took a gamble by using new tyres on the first two runs but it didn't pay off. Having said that we need to find a little bit of time here so we would not have been on pole position anyway and probably would have been a few tenths off a front row time. Realistically we could have been on the second row of the grid had things gone our way. It's disappointing but I'm looking forward to the race."

Andy Miller, Technical Director: "We did not really have the pace today and unfortunately the option of going for quicker times early on using the new tyres did not pay off. The engine problem this morning affected practice and our preparations for qualifying as Ralph was trying to compensate for a lack of straight line speed. The engine change sorted that but we were still a few tenths of a second away from the best times."

Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "Qualifying seventh is disappointing and leaves us with some ground to make up tomorrow. The decision to use new tyres on the first two runs would have paid off handsomely had the rain arrived mid-session as hoped. As things turned out the strategy backfired."

Germany

In qualifying for the eighth round of the A1 Grand Prix Series in Indonesia, Timo Scheider posted the 15th fastest time for A1 Team Germany. After the team were unable to find a suitable set-up during free practice, which gave sufficient grip on the wet circuit, the changes for qualifying also failed to bring the improvement required.

On the 3.965 kilometre circuit in Indonesia, Timo Scheider started the first of the four qualifying runs on used tyres with a lap time of 1:19.568 minutes which left him in 15th place. In his second outing the team improved by 1.3 seconds to 1:18.203 minutes with new tyres. The combined times left the squad in fifteenth position. On his third qualifying attempt on new tyres Scheider improved his time again by about a tenth of a second. With the times combined, his lap of 1:18.116 minutes gave an improvement to 13th place in the provisional standings. In the fourth and final run A1 Team Germany aborted his lap as conditions deteriorated in the increasing rain.

Timo Scheider: "We're just not quick enough, and have been struggling with the set-up for this circuit since first practice. If we solve one handling problem by changing the set-up we just end up highlighting a new one. Our weakest point is still the lack of rear grip. As a result, the prospect of a significant improvement for the two races, like last time in South Africa, is not so good, because on Sunday it's all about looking after the tyres on this abrasive track. Obviously it will be pretty difficult with a lack of grip on our rear wheel drive car."

Brazil

A1 Team Brasil will start from the eleventh row of the grid for tomorrow's A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Sentul, Indonesia sprint race. Team driver Christian Fittipaldi, competing in his first event for the team, had his first outing in the dry today and continued his weekend objective of learning the car and adjusting to the new series.

The third and final one-hour practice this morning saw a very competitive session, with the whole field separated at the end by just over 2 seconds. Christian completed 21 laps during the practice, setting a fastest lap time of 1:19.945.

Qualifying was difficult for Christian, as he had his first dry lap on new tyres in the first qualifying segment. Nevertheless he set some consistent times, his fastest time coming in the third segment with a lap of 1:18.769. In another competitive session though, Christian had to settle for 21st position in his first A1GP qualifying session.

Christian Fittipaldi: "Unfortunately, I needed some miles in the dry, which we didn't get. We ran the first set of new tyres in the dry in qualifying, and that's what killed me. The other guys here have had a lot of testing miles, whereas I haven't been in a single-seater for three years. I'm sure if it was wet we would have been in the top ten, but to qualify in the dry was hard. We have made a couple of good changes to the car, and I understand it more and more. I am sure that we will be good for Mexico and Laguna Seca. The qualifying system wasn't difficult to adjust to as it's pretty much the same in NASCAR, but the car is completely different."

Austria

After a difficult qualifying session for Mathias Lauda today, A1 Team Austria will begin tomorrow's A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Sentul, Indonesia from the twelfth row of the grid.