08/10/2005
NEWS STORY
A1 Team Germany, spurred on by their home fans, qualified on the third row of the grid at EuroSpeedway Lausitz. Race driver Timo Scheider claimed fifth fastest lap for the Willi Weber managed team with his combined time of 3:06.209 minutes.
The qualifying format with four single-sessions guaranteed that things went down to the wire yet again at the season’s second round: As only the sum of the fastest two of the four single laps from each session are classified and circuit conditions at the end of qualifying allowed the fastest laps, the grid positions were only decided in the dying seconds. A1 Team Germany was lying in fourth place behind France, the USA and Brazil with only minutes to go before Great Britain snatched a second row grid position from A1 Team Germany by eight thousandths of a second.
The Super Nova race team, run by David Sears, started Saturday with a different gear ratio set in the A1 Grand Prix race car and immediately set the fastest time in free practice. After setting eighth fastest time in the first qualifying quarter, Timo Scheider followed it up with the second best time. In the third and fourth quarters he managed the fifth fastest lap. On Sunday, the teams representing 24 nations compete in a sprint race over 18 laps and a main race with 36 laps.
Timo Scheider: "The third row is okay. With my first set of new tyres there was still more to come in the second run, although I really was completely on the limit right at the end. My times improved in every run, so things are still on the up."
Willi Weber: "When compared to the opener at Brands Hatch, A1 Team Germany has improved by eight places in qualifying. With Timo starting from the third row we have every chance of a good result in both races."