07/10/2006
NEWS STORY
Team Brazil
A1 Team Brasil will begin tomorrow's sprint race from the eighth row of the grid after Tuka Rocha competed in this afternoon's A1GP World Cup of Nations qualifying session at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic. His position could have been higher, but he unfortunately hit traffic on his last hot lap with new tyres, and so was unable to improve on his grid slot.
The Team's day began when Tuka drove in the final one-hour official practice session this morning. The Brazilian squad had made some improvements to the car overnight, and made the most of the time available, with Tuka completing 23 laps of practice, the highest of any Team. The Team was pleased with improved times, despite running on old tyres, and Tuka finished the practice less a second adrift of the fastest man.
In the four-part qualifying session, Tuka was sitting tenth after the first segment, after setting a time of 1:46.968. He improved on this with his second set of new tyres in segment three, and was on for a blistering lap in the fourth segment, looking set for a top ten position, when he was blocked by the Team France car, which was on its inlap. Tuka's two fastest laps from Q1 and Q4 gave him a combined time of 3:33.732, placing him 15th in the standings.
Tuka Rocha: "We could have been in a better position that 15th but we lost between seven tenths and a whole second behind the French car on the last lap. I had let him past and then he blocked me for most of the final lap. I really like the track, the car is feeling quite good at the moment, and I know that our lap times are consistently good when we have old tyres on, so I'm quite confident for the race. Tomorrow I hope we can have a good day, we will see what happens."
Team Canada
Toronto's James Hinchcliffe powered A1 Team Canada to its highest ever Sprint race qualifying slot today, sixth place, ahead of Round 2 of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport tomorrow, Sunday 8th October, hosted at the 5.41km Auto Motodrom, Brno in the Czech Republic.
Having debuted for A1 Team Canada in last weekend's opening round at Circuit Park Zandvoort in Holland, where 23 nations lined up to compete against each other in identical 550bhp, V8-powered open-wheel A1GP racing cars, Hinchcliffe (19) proved himself to be a quick learner as he immediately dialed himself in to A1GP's unique aggregate qualifying system, where each driver has four timed runs with the fastest two laps combined to set the grid order for Sunday's Sprint race.
Straight out on fresh rubber, the Canadian entry was firmly planted in the top-ten and James duly powered the car further up the order as he utilized three new sets of tires over his four hot laps, eventually placing sixth overall at the end of the session with an aggregate time of 3m31.673s. Pole winners A1 Team New Zealand (Jonny Reid) are joined on the front row tomorrow by Round 1 Feature race winners A1 Team Germany (Niko Hülkenberg).
James Hinchcliffe: "Well I hadn't done a new tire run all weekend prior to qualifying, having used old rubber for the rookie session yesterday, so we decided to go out on a fresh set for my first flying run to see where the car's balance was. It was pretty good but we still had a few things to work on and ended up getting quicker and quicker with each run. By my fourth and final run we had a really good car, it was so much better than I was expecting to be honest.
"Considering how yesterday went, where we struggled throughout the day, sixth on the grid for tomorrow's Sprint race is a great result. We're looking forward to productive Sprint and Feature races here in Brno to open our points account. Hopefully things bode well as we had a good first session this morning working on long runs on old tires."
Team France
Following another trouble-free Official Practice session on Saturday morning in preparation for Sunday's second round in Brno, French driver Nicolas Lapierre had a difficult qualifying session, finishing in 9th position for Sunday's 20-minute Sprint Race with an aggregate result of 3.32.227. The 22-year-old French driver set his personal best time in the first run with 1.46.063. Data collected today will now be analysed carefully by the Team in order to improve the car's balance for tomorrow's races.
Nicolas Lapierre commented: "We had a very disappointing qualifying this afternoon as we had been ahead in all the Official Practice sessions. For some reasons we need to understand, we did not make the most of our new tyres. However, ups and downs are part of racing. Nevertheless, tomorrow should be better as with old tyres, we have always had a good pace."
Eric Boullier, Team Manager, A1 Team France added: "Our car was performing well in all the Official Practice sessions but then when it came to the qualifying session in identical conditions, we encountered unexpected problems. We now need to analyse all the information we have gathered this weekend in order to find the right balance for tomorrow's races."
Team Germany
By taking second place in the final practice session A1 Team Germany, managed by Willi Weber, recorded its best ever qualifying performance to date at the second round of the A1 Grand Prix Series in Brno, Czech Republic. The Team and nominated race driver Nicolas Hülkenberg start from the front row for the first time on Sunday in the World Cup of Motorsport. Only A1 Team New Zealand was quicker in qualifying, which is also run by the Supernova Team of David Sears.
Nico Hülkenberg set a time of 1m45.917s around the Czech race track on Saturday in the first of four qualifying-runs with the powerful 520 hp A1 Grand Prix car. As a result, he occupied second position 0.241 seconds behind A1 Team New Zealand. In the second qualifying segment A1 Team Germany drove the eighth fastest time (1m47.398s). The Team once again posted second fastest time (1m45.499s) 0.459s behind New Zealand in the third stage. With a lap of 1m45.025s, Nico Hülkenberg set a personal best and the second fastest time of all Teams. A difference of twelve-thousandths-of-a-second meant second place behind New Zealand once again. The sum of the two fastest times, used to determine the starting grid for Sunday's sprint race, sees A1 Team Germany line up 0.471 seconds behind New Zealand.
Nicolas Hülkenberg: "I'm delighted to have improved again when compared to the season opener. On the first run on new tyres we immediately recorded the second fastest time, even though I was driving cautiously. Eighth was all I could do with the same set of tyres in the second run, because my car oversteered too much. I used new tyres again for our third attempt and was second again. Then I wanted to see what was really possible: We made a small adjustment to the front wing, which was absolutely correct since I set my personal fastest lap on the new tyres. Only Johnny Reid was a tick faster. The races on Sunday will be difficult. It's easy to drift off the ideal line in Brno – and there is lots of dirt offline around the circuit and you can lose loads of time."
Team Great Britain
Robbie Kerr steered A1 Team Great Britain to fourth on the grid for tomorrow's Sprint race as the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport takes in the 3.36-mile Auto Motodrom, Brno in the Czech Republic for the first time for the second round of the 2006-07 season.
Kerr, back behind the wheel for A1 Team GBR having helped the Team to a third place finish in the A1GP Nations Standings last year, kept the Union Jack flying at the sharp end of the timesheets throughout the day, setting the second fastest time in this morning's practice session, from a field of 23 competing nations, before bagging a second row grid slot for tomorrow morning's 20-minute Sprint race, the precursor to the 70-minute Feature race held later in the day.
With three sets of brand new Cooper tyres at his disposal for the four timed qualifying laps, the fastest two of which are used to form an aggregate lap time to set the grid order, Kerr started off on old rubber only to see his pace build as the session progressed. Sitting sixth overall with one lap remaining, the Burbage racer's final run, a 1m45.449s, bumped him up the order to seal fourth on the grid for the Sprint race with pole going to A1 Team New Zealand's entry piloted by Jonny Reid.
A1 Team Great Britain Team Principal, John Surtees: "We welcome Robbie back for this drive on what's undoubtedly a real driver's circuit. We expect Robbie to increase his performance as he reacquaints himself with the A1GP car after a season competing in the World Series by Renault but he's done a good job today getting back into it and we look forward to a pair of strong results tomorrow."
Robbie Kerr: "The car was pretty good once we stuck the new tyres on following the first run, it needed a bit of fine tuning and we had to be careful not to go too far because the car was basically fine but we just needed to get a bit more from it. Overall it was a good session, you're never happy unless you're on pole but fourth's still a good starting position and I'm sure we'll be able to do something from there for the Sprint race."
Team Ireland
Ireland's Michael Devaney will start tomorrow's Czech A1GP event from 18th on the grid after his A1 Team Ireland car struggled for pace throughout qualifying at the Brno circuit. Despite the best efforts of the drivers and Team during practice Ireland's grand prix car was unable to find the pace necessary to challenge the leading contenders for tomorrow's second round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport™. Pole position went to Team New Zealand's Johnny Reid from Germany's Nico Hulkenberg with Malaysia's Alex Yoong and Great Britain's Robbie Kerr completing the top four.
Michael Devaney: "We've had the same problem all weekend – just not quick enough even though the car now feels quite good to drive and that is down to us just not finding the way to get the car to work around here. It's very frustrating because there is no way we should be two and a half seconds off the pace, but we just have to accept that we haven't found the step we need and that's been the problem."
Andy Miller, Technical Director: "Our lack of pace is a puzzle because we have made a number of changes which have solved various problems for Michael but for some reason the set-up has not translated into time out on the track. The race, is course, a different matter and I think we can be quite consistent, but ultimately starting so far back gives us a lot of work to do if we are to score points tomorrow."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "We are not competitive here and following on from last weekend in Zandvoort we seem to have started the season generally off the pace in spite of the Team and drivers using their best efforts. On the plus side the car has run trouble free throughout practice and qualifying, and we simply have to continue to analyze the car's performance and make improvements wherever we can. It would be great finish tomorrow's Feature Race in the points, and that has to be our objective from such a lowly grid position."
Team Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon, with Graham Rahal driving this weekend for the Team, continued its preparations for the first Eastern Europe race of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport calendar, topping the timesheets during official practice and qualifying in 13th place for tomorrow's Sprint race.
In the morning practice session, the Team used the time to develop the car set up in preparation for afternoon qualifying. Various technical changes were made during the session to make improvements and with this work, combined with a new set of tyres, Rahal was able to post the fastest time of the session.
Afternoon qualifying took the unique format of A1GP,with four sessions of one flying lap per Team. A1 Team Lebanon posted the four laps, with the best times set on new tyres. With these times aggregated to determine the grid position for the Sprint race, Rahal will line up on the seventh row for the rolling start.
Rahal said at the end of the day, "We've made improvements from where we were last year but the field is a lot more closely matched this season and we need to settle down and figure out how to extract even more from the car. With the race itself as our next time on track, it'll be tough for us to make further improvements, but we'll review everything tonight and see what we can do. The goal is to get some points for Lebanon. A top ten finish is definitely possible."
Tony Snook, Team Principal, A1 Team Lebanon, added, "It was a good effort from Graham today. Leading the practice session gave him the confidence that is needed to push hard in qualifying. Our midfield start will give us a good chance for a top ten finish tomorrow, which is our aim for this weekend. Graham only joined us at Brno, so he missed out on valuable running in Zandvoort, yet he has already shown that he has the potential to bring the Team success this season."
Team New Zealand
New Zealand has achieved a first-ever pole position in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport after a dominant performance in qualifying at the second round of this year's Series in the Czech Republic.
Kiwi driver Jonny Reid was the fastest in all four segments of today's qualifying session around the 5.41km Brno circuit to propel Black Beauty on to the front of the grid alongside Germany for tonight's Sprint Race. Malaysia qualified 3rd.
New Zealand's Engineering Team Director David Sears says the qualifying was an absolute dream.
"We're over the moon to be the top qualifier," Sears said. "We don't think any Team achieved a qualifying clean sweep last season, so it's an incredible performance from Jonny and the Team.
"We wrote the script yesterday, but never expected everyone to remember all their lines."
The New Zealand cause was helped when Team mechanics found a cracked suspension part.
The crack, caused in the Feature Race in the Netherlands last weekend when Black Beauty bumped heads with another car towards the end of the race, could have upset the balance of the car if it had gone undetected and not been fixed.
Sears says Reid has been cool and relaxed in his first competitive A1GP drive in eleven months.
"He's done everything right and been great to work with. He's been a demon on the track, but extremely analytical and insightful in providing feedback to set up the car."
There's a strong probability of rain tomorrow, but Sears says the Team is ready for anything the day will throw at them.
"It's important that Jonny pulls clear of the rest of the field and doesn't get tripped up on the first corner. We were so much quicker than the other Teams in qualifying that it would be criminal to be banging wheels when a great result is there for the taking."
Earlier in the day Reid had posted the 8th fastest time in the second of the Official Practice sessions, following on from another 8 th ranking after Friday's first practice session.
Team Netherlands
A1 Team Netherlands will start the Sprint race of the A1GP at Brno from a twelfth grid position. In the four qualifying runs this afternoon on the 5.4 km long circuit Jeroen Bleekemolen managed to set an aggregate time of 3'32.976 (1'46.744+1'46.232). in the third and fourth run the A1 Team Netherlands driver set his fastest times of the day.
The qualification was run under completely dry conditions and was incident free. A1 Team New Zealand took their first pole.
Jeroen Bleekemolen: "I had hoped to be well inside the top 10. It is basically still trying to find the right set up. We are not there yet and so we will have to continue working on that. This morning on used tyres it went reasonably well during the free practice", said Jeroen. "In tomorrow's races there is a lot that can happen of course. We do have the potential, especially in the Feature race, to move further forward. I am looking forward to doing that".
Jan Lammers: "We are still little over a second behind the fastest time, now we will have to understand why. Furthermore our third run during qualifying was not ideal. We tried something but that proved to be a step backwards. Otherwise we might have been further up the grid. The fourth run was better. We will just have to work on this. Tomorrow the prizes can be won, fortunately we do have two races to move forward by working intelligently, not pushing too hard and getting the most out of the skills of the Team, also during the pitstop. For now we will have to suffice with this. We will have to improve our whole package. This is a difficult circuit with regards to finding the right set up. There are a lot of turns where you really will have to let the car roll and manage to keep the speed all through the turn".
Team Pakistan
A1 Team Pakistan, with driver Nur Ali, continued with the race preparations for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Brno today, ahead of the Sprint and Feature races that are customary in this unique motor racing championship, which pits nation against nation in identical cars, It is a series where technology and innovation are deliberately equalised and performance is determined by human bravery, skill and excellence.
The A1 Grand Prix qualifying format requires drivers to make four 'flying laps', within four 15 minute qualifying segments, with the best two times aggregated to produce the overall qualifying position. A1 Team Pakistan posted four solid lap times, improving with runs on new tyres, and will line up on the 12th row of the grid.
Ali said at the end of the sessions, "I really like this track and I'm getting more comfortable with the car, and I was pleased to improve so much through the qualifying session. I think tomorrow will be a different day for us. I know there's a number of areas which I need to concentrate on and I've been working on these with my crew, who are a great bunch of guys. I know I need to keep it clean in the races as well. I'd like to be able to move forward in the Sprint race, and as for the Feature race, it's difficult to predict. We know just how much action there is in this race, so we'll wait and see. It's an exciting weekend."
Arif Husain, Chairman, A1 Team Pakistan, added, "Nur continues to learn his racecraft at this circuit, but it doesn't happen quickly and there is still more to learn. Tomorrow is the important day, so we're now focusing our attentions there and we'll be hoping to see Nur move up the field during the races tomorrow. This season's field of drivers is highly competitive and of an excellent standard, which makes it tough for Nur, with his lack of running in the car. However, we're proudly representing our country in the Czech Republic."
Team South Africa
Jonny Reid, making his first appearance of the new season for A1 Team New Zealand, earned his country pole position for tomorrow's sprint race ahead of Germany (Nico Hulkenberg), Malaysia (Alex Yoong), Great Britain (Robbie Kerr, also making his season debut), a much-improved China (Congfu Chen) and Canada (Sean McIntosh, in his first qualifying this season).
Stephen Simpson, enjoying his first race weekend in the SABC Sport and Telkom-backed Vulindlela after spectating in the Netherlands last weekend, was 14th out of the 23 competing nations at the end of the four 15-minute qualifying sessions this afternoon.
Reid, like GB's Kerr and Canada's McIntosh (a winner last season), was making his first appearance for his country in the second season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, had an aggregate time of 3 min 30,05 sec for his two best laps, 0,47 sec ahead of Hulkenberg and 0.99 sec better than Yoong (also a winner in the 2005/2006 season). Reid was also credited with the fastest qualifying lap of 1 min 45,013 sec. Simpson's best lap was 1 min 46,80 sec.
The 21-year-old from Hout Bay in the Western Cape, in his first visit to the 5,4-km Brno circuit situated in the Moravian forests in eastern Europe, was 3,6 sec off the pole position time. He will start from the outside of the seventh row of the grid for tomorrow's 20-minute rolling start first race. Behind him are Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, Ireland, India, Australia, Greece, Singapore and Pakistan.
"We had hoped to place a lot higher up the grid for Sunday's first race," said a disappointed Simpson. "We'll be making some changes to the car for tomorrow as there is some room for improvement. We haven't had a lot of time to learn the track – it's my first time here at Brno – and I had one less practice session than some of the other drivers ahead of me as the first session was for the 'rookies'.
"We've a bit of catching up to do, but I'm confident in the Team and the car and we'll be giving it our very best shot tomorrow," Simpson added.
Team Switzerland
Progress was made during the final Official Practice on Saturday morning in which A1 Team Switzerland driver, Sebastien Buemi, worked steadily through his assigned technical programme, focusing particularly on achieving a suitable chassis balance for tomorrow's races. He covered 22 laps of the technical 5.41-km Automotodrom Brno to finish in 15th position.
Struggling to find out that the tyres were not correctly lead-balanced, A1 Team Switzerland had a difficult qualifying session and finished 10th on the grid for Sunday's 20-minute Sprint Race. The 17-year-old Swiss driver clocked his best times respectively in the third (1.46.406) and fourth runs (1.46.368) that brought his final aggregate time to 3.32.774. The Team will now analyse the data collected this morning carefully in order to find the right set-up for Sunday.
Sebastien Buemi said: "We had a very difficult qualifying session, as finishing 10th, was not what we were hoping for. In the first two runs, my car was vibrating a lot when I was breaking but then we have managed to reduce the vibrations. We will really have to work very hard tonight to define a better set-up for tomorrow's races. I expect the Sprint Race to be tough: being such a short race, it will be difficult to overtake. However, should we be able to find the right set-up, then we have a chance for the Feature Race."
Max Welti, Team Principal, A1 Team Switzerland commented: "Following our good results yesterday, our qualifying slot is certainly not what we were expecting today. With the tyre problem we had, it was certainly not possible to get 100% from the car. However, we are not too pessimistic for Sunday's races. We know the areas we need to improve and will therefore work very hard until the start of the Sprint Race."
Team USA
Team USA's Phil Giebler will start from seventh position Sunday in the A1GP sprint race at the BRNO Automotodrom.
Giebler's final two laps [of four] in qualifying Saturday were his fastest of the weekend and placed him in the upper third of the 23-car grid for the second race of the A1GP season. They were nearly identical, 1:45.866 in the fourth segment and .011 of a second slower in the third. They averaged 114.078 mph. "It puts us in the ballpark," Giebler said. "We need to have a good start and take advantage of mistakes by others to move up a couple of positions for the feature."
The 26-year-old from Oxnard, Calif., viewed his lap in the third segment as a lost opportunity. He was fastest in the field through the opening two timed sectors of the 3.36-mile track, but went briefly off course and it cost him about one second. Without the mistake, Giebler would have been on the second row.
"I'm a little frustrated," Giebler said. "I had a lot of confidence in the car for that run and brought the tires in well. We had a mega first two sectors. Going into the last 180-degree turn, I was a little optimistic on how much speed I could carry through and I picked up a ton of understeer. I went off the track and it hurt the next turn, too. That could have been one of the fastest laps of the day."
In A1GP's unique qualifying format, the top two laps out of four 15-minute segments are combined to set the starting line-up for the 20-minute sprint race. The line-up for Sunday's 70-minute feature race is based upon qualifying, fastest lap, and finish in the sprint race.
Giebler had also been seventh in Saturday's practice at 1:48.350.
"It's coming up sevens for us," A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger said. "This is a sport of mistakes and we made a small error and it probably cost us third spot on the grid. That's what makes this sport exciting, the close competition. Phil's third segment was one of the most exciting qualifying efforts we have seen. Seventh is respectable, however, we expect better then a third seven going into the Feature Race tomorrow."
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