12/03/2006
NEWS STORY
Germany
A1 Team Germany achieved its third best qualifying result in the inaugural season of the A1 Grand Prix Series at Laguna Seca when Timo Scheider qualified for Willi Weber's team on ninth position for the tenth round of the series. As all the 22 teams battled cold and snowy conditions in California which even meant one practice session had to be cancelled on Saturday, A1 Team Germany found it hard to get sufficient heat into the tyres in qualifying.
Timo Scheider started into the first segment of the qualifying on a new set of tyres. His lap of 1:17.893 minutes meant he was on ninth position. In the second outing, he used the same set of tyres to improve by 0.3 seconds. His time of 1:17.581 minutes equalled an interim twelfth position. In the third segment, A1 Team Germany used a new set of tyres. Timo Scheider made best use of the fresh rubber when he improved to 1:16.000 minutes, the fourth fastest time of this segment which helped him climbing to ninth position in the addition of both fastest times. In his final outing on another new set of tyres, he drove a lap of 1:16.307 minutes, finishing the session on ninth position overall.
Timo Scheider: "The temperatures are so low at Laguna Seca that we had serious trouble to get heat into the rear tyres. Cold tyres are a big disadvantage in a single-lap qualifying format. In order to solve the problem I went for a very aggressive out-lap in my third run so as to start the flying lap on warm tyres. This strategy worked well and I achieved my personal best time in this segment. We nearly matched this time in the final outing. You had to drive exactly on the racing line as the track was still dirty after the adverse weather conditions. Ninth on the grid means we have a much better position to start from when compared to the previous two races that I tackled from 15th and 12th positions respectively. I'm fairly optimistic we will be able to fight for a lot of points on Sunday.
Canada
Patrick Carpentier qualified A1 Team Canada's entry 18th on the grid for tomorrow's A1GP Sprint race at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, California as qualifying was held this afternoon for the penultimate round of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations. The 34-year-old Québec racer, making his second appearance for the Canadian team in the first ever 'World Cup of Motorsport', was disappointed not to be further up the order having been amongst the pace-setters in this morning's practice session, eventually ending up with the seventh fastest time at the 3.6km track.
Carpentier, a two-time Champ Car winner at Laguna Seca ('03-'04), set his first qualifying run on old tires, banking a 1m21.492s utlising a modified set-up. Reverting back to his original practice set-up and a fresh set of tires, his next outing was a more competitive 1m17.201s. A 1m18.345s followed before he recorded a 1m16.440s lap in the fourth and final session. With an aggregate time of 2m33.641s Patrick lines up 18th for the Sprint race with former Champ Car rivals Bryan Herta (A1 Team USA) and Christian Fittipaldi (A1 Team Brazil) directly ahead and behind respectively.
A1 Team Mexico clinched pole position with Salvador Duran in the driving seat.
Patrick Carpentier: "I'm disappointed to be starting that far back, we ran a 1m16.440s at the end there which isn't too bad but overall the times were too inconsistent. We tried a couple of changes to the car but they didn't help us. I'm sure we'll work our way to the front when we go racing tomorrow."
New Zealand
The New Zealand A1 Grand Prix team has had a superb day to qualify in 3rd place for tomorrow's opening Sprint Race at the Laguna Seca circuit in California.
Black Beauty will start behind Mexico and France and alongside Malaysia on the second row of the grid in Round 10 – the Kiwis' best qualifying effort since the first meeting at Brand's Hatch last September.
After heavy storms and snow overnight, official were forced to cancel the morning's second practice session while the run off areas dried out, but the event's third session ran smoothly with only a few minor incidents and no red flags.
New Zealand driver Matt Halliday only posted the 9th fastest time in the final practice session, but A1 Team.NZL team manager Mike Ewan said they were always confident of a decent showing in qualifying.
"We chipped away this morning on old tyres while everyone else used new rubber and we knew there was more speed in the car," Ewan said.
"We made subtle changes during each of the four qualifying segments and are pleased with the result…very pleased in fact."
Ewan says the strategy tomorrow is simple: "Drive as fast as we can and finish as high as we can!
"We'll be keeping an eye on the weather and leave any tactical decisions until tomorrow."
Ewan says the team also kept an eye on its major rivals during the day and they are thrilled to be in front of the other contenders for 3rd place in the championship.
With two rounds left in the Series France (153 points) and Switzerland (121 points) are certain to finish in the top two spots overall, but the race for 3rd is a bunfight between Great Britain (73), Brazil (70), the Netherlands (69) and the Kiwis (64).
The Brits will start from 6th on the grid in tomorrow's Sprint Race, but the Dutch only qualified in 12th place and Brazil is a lowly 19th.
"We'll be striving for a couple of good results tomorrow to close the points gap down ahead of the final round in China next month."
Ewan was impressed with Halliday's driving and was equally pleased with the support offered by US-based driver Scott Dixon.
The 2003 IRL champion is firmly in the Kiwi camp this weekend and provided some handy tips during the day.
"Scott was good value for us," Ewan said. "During the practice session he told us to stay out and do longer runs to get more heat into the tyres on this particular circuit.
"He was bang on with his advice and we're pleased to have him in our corner."
Netherlands
A1 Team Netherlands has ended the qualifying for the A1 Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on a twelfth grid postion. In the four qualifying sessions Jos Verstappen set an aggregate time of 2'32.571 (1'15.939 & 1'16.632). The fastest times were set by Verstappen in the last two sessions of qualifying, during the first half A1 Team Netherlands was working hard to improve the car balance.
Weather conditions at Laguna Seca were good today. It was sunny and dry and the track also was completely dry during the afternoon.Early this morning there was snow along the track and on the paddock, a unique situation for this part of California. The team immediately used this for fun, there was a little snowman outside the team garage.Due to the snow and rain which fell last night the free practice session scheduled early this morning was canceled. At 11.15 hours the second free practice of the weekend was run in which A1 Team Netherlands ended in nineteenth.
After setting the third fastest time on Friday the twelfth grid position of today was somewhat dissapointing for A1 Team Netherlands driver Jos Verstappen.
Jos Verstappen; "Yesterday went very good, but this morning we went out on track and already after 10 minutes you could see that it would be difficult for us today. We have tried everything to improve the car, but we were not able to do this during the free practice. In qualifying we just came up short. The car balance was not good. For the third run we changed the car quite a bit and after that it went better, you could see that. In the third run I was held up a bit by the spin from China and in the fourth run I think it went quite well. But it all came too late, otherwise we could have been around sixth or seventh. We do know we have got a car that can go well tomorrow. We are going to see if we can improve the car more tonight. It's not ideal starting from twelfth on the grid. Overtaking is difficult here, but it also was in Mexico. We will definitely try our best".
A1 Team Netherlands team principal Jan Lammers saw a reverse situation from Mexico today. There the team struggled to find the right balance at the start of the weekend.
Jan Lammers; "Here the car was very good when there was low grip, but as the circuit got cleaner and had more grip our set up was not accurate anymore. We had to adjust that. Luckily we were able to find that just in time. In the final run we only were four tenths off. We do know now in which direction we will have to go, so if our interpretation is right and the adjustments we made to our set up work out we should be able to be competitive again tomorrow".
Czech Republic
The Czech team experienced an unpleasant surprise in the qualifying for the A1GP race at Laguna Seca. Tomas Enge was not able to continue with promising results from free practices and ended 14th on the grid.
Laguna Seca schedule had to be again amended. One of the yesterday's practices was moved to Saturday morning but freak overnight snow forced organisers to make another changes. The first today's session had to be cancelled and all drivers went to the qualifying with only two hours of running under their belt. The Czech car seemed to be in a good shape after Enge set the sixth time in the last practice. Enge started qualifying with the third time but was unable to hold the place. He set 11th time in the second run and was even one place worse in the penultimate run. He set his best time in the last run but it was good enough only for 14th place overall.
Tomas Enge: "I am not happy with the result at all. The strange thing is that the car was okay and I felt that especially my last lap was right on the limit but we were slow for some reasons. We have to find an answer why that was and why others improved that much comparing to the free practices where we had been comfortably in the top ten. A lot of things can happen tomorrow but we have a lot of work to do. Hopefully we will be able to reverse the trend and move forward."
Pakistan
A1 Team Pakistan welcomed Joey Gilbert, American NABO Middleweight Champion boxer, as a guest at Laguna Seca this weekend. Joey has won 11 of his 12 professional fights and is the current NABO Middleweight Champion. In addition he is a trained attorney.
Following snow overnight the sun came out and by the start of the qualifying sessions the track was completely dry. Practice went well this morning with Adam continuing to refamiliarise himself with the car after a three race break, but with the first of todays two practice sessions being cancelled the team lost a valuable hour of track time. A1 Team Pakistan will start the race from 21st on the grid for the Sprint race and hope to gain positions to claim a higher slot for the Feature race.
Adam Khan "I was struggling a little with grip – the set-up of the car wasn't quite as I would have liked. It was my worst qualifying of the Series and definitely isn't representative of what I can achieve. I'm looking forward to the race. As everyone has seen I go for it in races and I've always managed to finish at least one race higher than my grid slot. We'll be working on set-up overnight and in warm-up to get it better for the races."
Great Britain
Competition was close out on the track with several drivers having a big advantage of race experience on what is acknowledged to be a unique circuit. Robbie doesn't have this experience, so the team needed as much practice time as possible. Unfortunately the first of the two planned practice sessions of the day was cancelled which compromised the time available for the team to maximize the performance of the car.
When it came to qualifying Robbie drove well, carving valuable tenths of a second from his fastest time with each run. His fastest lap on the fourth attempt put him in sixth place giving him a third row slot for the start of the Sprint race tomorrow. Snow capped mountains in the distance made a spectacular backdrop for the track action as snow was seen for the first time at the circuit in its 50 year history.
Robbie Kerr: "The car was OK but we've got an inherent problem that we haven't managed to tune out of the car yet and we've not had the opportunity to try out a fix for it. It cost me a bit of time. We're in sixth but we're still looking for a good result tomorrow. The circuit's a real challenge and very enjoyable to drive."
John Surtees, Team Principal: "Laguna Seca is a difficult and testing circuit which with the reduced practice periods left a lot to be done in a short time. The team and Robbie did a good job. We tried a couple of things that didn't work quite so well but I think we'll be competitive in the race."
Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia achieved its best ever qualifying position today with 4th at the USA A1 Grand Prix in Laguna Seca Speedway near San Francisco today (Saturday).
Malaysia's Alex Yoong firmly attributed this success solely on the great teamwork which enabled a much improved setup to the car compared to the two practice sessions yesterday and this morning, saying, "The whole team collective have worked hard over the last two days to steadily improve the car's setup and a great improvement was found from the second practice session this morning to put us in this good position to score more points in the run-in to the championship."
"I'm very happy with this qualifying result but credit goes to the whole team." Yoong added.
Malaysia will line up alongside New Zealand on the second row with Mexico, who won its maiden pole position, and France on the front row.
Meanwhile A1 Team Malaysia has strongly refuted that pit-stop efforts have hampered better results for the team. The team's principal, Jack Cunningham and Yoong have both defended the team's pit-stop performance. "The crew cannot be blamed as the thread design on the wheel nut is not designed for tyre changing under high temperature in race condition." said Cunningham.
Yoong said that the other top running teams also had similar problems and added, "The team did very well in the pit-stops in Indonesia and Malaysia and were not the slowest in the last few races. Overall I'm happy with the crew's performance under these very arduous conditions."
France
A1 Team France will start tomorrow's Sprint Race in Laguna Seca from the front row of the grid. After a very competitive and exciting session in very cold conditions, Nicolas Lapierre's aggregate time of 2:30.895 minutes was good enough for second place on the grid, just behind Mexico. Thus, France will start for the seventh time out of ten events from the front row.
Lapierre was fastest in the first (1:16.202 minutes) and in the third outing (1:15.384 minutes), Mexico did the fastest time in the second and in the last of the four qualifying rounds. It was a close battle between France and Mexico that went right down to the wire and was decided only in the ultimate last corner: Lapierre made a slight mistake, came sideways and lost the 1.5 tenths of a second that brought him into 2nd place on the grid.
Nicolas Lapierre: "My mistake in the last corner obviously costed me pole position. I was all time in front and I had the car to do the pole. But at the end we are here to win the championship. We are in front of Switzerland and that was our main objective. On the other hand I am a racer and I want to win whenever the flag drops. So I promise, tomorrow I will set A1 Team Mexico under pressure."
Switzerland
A1 Team Switzerland endured a difficult qualifying and will start tomorrow's 10th round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series from 16th place on the grid. It was obvious that driver Giorgio Mondini is lacking practice time in the 520-hp A1 Grand Prix racecar. Due to heavy rain showers and even some snow fall, the second of the three free practice sessions was delayed for Saturday morning and eventually even cancelled.
Mondini did a lap time of 1:19.313 minutes in the first of the four qualifying rounds. He improved to 1:18.177 minutes but the time was cancelled due to the fact that he missed to follow the track marshals for a weighing procedure. In the third outing Mondini improved to 1:16.479 minutes. In his fourth attempt he did a time of 1:16.820 minutes. His overall aggregate qualifying time combined from the two best lap times was 2:33.299 minutes.
"My third lap time was quite okay but the other ones have been bad", commented Giorgio Mondini. "My last outing was supposed to be the best one but I made a mistake. On top of that I was hindered by Brazil. I was close behind their car and the driver braked very early for the first corner, so I lost time. P16 is very far away from my own and the car's possibilities. It's a shame. Nevertheless I have to realize that I cannot catch up in a few days the advantage the other guys have. Tomorrow I want to catch up some positions which will be very difficult as the track is very narrow."
Max Welti, team principal, added: "Taking into consideration the limited practice time, Giorgio did some satisfying progress. Unfortunately he missed his last outing in order to grab the chance finishing in the top ten."
Ireland
A1 Team Ireland will start tomorrow's USA A1 Grand Prix from 8th place on the grid after Ralph Firman suffered an accident on his third qualifying run, damaging the front left hand suspension. Highly competitive over the first two qualifying runs when he was 2nd fastest overall, Ralph caught a puddle on the inside of Turn 4 and went off the track, breaking the front left hand steering arm and damaging the lower wishbone.
He was able to return to the pits where the mechanics repaired the damage in just over 15 minutes and Ralph completed a fourth qualifying run, setting his fastest time of the day. Ralph's practice session this morning was also affected by suspension problems, the upper left rear wishbone and track control arm assembly suffering from a manufacturing fault. This was spotted after practice and the assembly replaced in time for qualifying.
Ralph Firman, Driver; Position 8th, Time 2m32.098s; "The car was very good over the first two qualifying runs and we were in a very competitive position. Unfortunately on the third run I caught a puddle just where the kerbing meets the track at Turn 4 and went off, bounced across the grass and hit the barrier a glancing blow. It's a shame and I am sorry for the team who did a great job repairing the damage and getting me out again. At least I know that we have a competitive car for tomorrow's race."
Andy Miller, Technical Director; "Initially we were very relieved to find out what the problem was this morning, which apparently is a suspension defect A1GP has come across before, so to recover from that and be highly competitive at the start of qualifying was very satisfying. Unfortunately a potential front row qualifying time was crashed away on the third run and it wasn't possible to fully recover. A tough day for us really."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal; "We had a front row qualifying opportunity today but the off on the third run meant we lost the momentum and couldn't set an aggregate time with two final runs in the 1m15s bracket. Ralph is disappointed, as is the whole team, but once again the pit crew did a superb job to repair the damage and get the car out again."
Brazil
A1 Team Brasil will line up on the tenth row of the grid for the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, California, USA after Christian Fittipaldi qualified 19th for the team.
The second practice session, due to take place on Saturday morning was cancelled due to adverse track conditions. Practice three did go ahead as planned, and Christian completed 19 laps for the team, recording a fastest lap of 1:18.261, which placed him 14th on the timesheets.
Qualifying proved to be a difficult affair, with Christian struggling with the set-up of the car. He eventually finished up with a combined time of 2:33.686, placing him 19th. He will therefore begin the sprint race from the tenth row, and hopes to finish in a stronger position from which to start the feature race.
Christian Fittipaldi: "It's been a very disappointing day. The day began with troubles and they lasted all day. We have a lot of problems and we need to try to improve the car overnight. Tomorrow is a new day and we will see what we can do."
Emerson Fittipaldi: "It hasn't been the best day for us today. We didn't have a great set-up and we are a bit disappointed. We will try to improve for the first race and see if we can work our way up into a better place for the second race. However, it's a difficult track to overtake but we will see how it goes."