21/02/2009
NEWS STORY
Australia
John Martin once released to do his installation lap was slow in the first sector and very fast in sectors 2 and 3 for Q1 of the Sprint Qualifying. Quite the opposite in Q2 where Martin was fast in sectors 1 and 3 but slow in sector 2 and once the times were combined the grid position of 19th was handed down to A1 Team Australia.
Better results followed with a provisional pole position for Martin in Q1 of the Feature Qualifying. After a crash from the Brazil car, the session ended early with red flags and the grid positions were given to the Q1 time allowing those who set a quicker lap in their session of Q2 to move ahead of A1 Team Australia. Monaco claimed their first pole because they set a faster time in the session before the crash, and that time stands.
Alan Jones A1 Team Australia Seatholder: "We had a very busy start to our day with an early Rookies 2 where Ash did well, followed by some pedal changes for John for his third practice session. In John's session there were fuel problems plus errors in the data from the push to pass. We fixed those and then experienced over steer. Our plan for the qualifying worked well giving John plenty of room in front to set a quick lap but he overdrove the car and we ended up in 19th. Not the best place to be when you need points in the Sprint race. Let's see if we can do well with our pitstop. We had a better result in Q1 of the Feature Race Qualifying with a first place time of 1:28.439. With six minutes to go in Q2 we sent John out with hopes of a top three grid position but the Brazilian car lost control and crashed. The session was red flagged and finished early. With five cars lucky enough to set a time and having John just start his flying lap, he had to slow to finish in 4th for the Feature grid'
John Martin: 'I made a big mistake in the Sprint qualifying driving the car too hard again and it cost me big-time. The track is a lot faster and once I had it right in the Feature Qualifying that provisional pole was awesome. But the shunt and red flags changed that real quick and we start tomorrow in fourth, a place I seem to own lately"
Brazil
Under the watchful eye of Ferrari's Felipe Massa, A1 Team Brazil's very own Felipe - Guimarães - today qualified in 14th and 8th positions respectively for tomorrow's Sprint and Feature races at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit. A1GP Gauteng in Johannesburg, South Africa is the fifth round of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.
For qualifying, the series have reintroduced the PowerBoost 'joker' concept, which allows the PowerBoost button to be used for one lap of the four available in qualifying (two for Sprint and two for Feature). This gives the drivers an extra 60bhp and so it is a gamble for the team to decide on its strategy of which qualifying they opt to use it in.
Felipe did not use the PowerBoost In qualifying for the Sprint race, and set his fastest time of 1:29.726 on the first of his two laps, taking 14th position at the end of the session, setting himself up on the seventh row for tomorrow morning's race. Felipe set a time of 1:28.878 in the first segment of Feature race qualifying, putting himself in provisional fifth place. He saved his PowerBoost lap until the end and pushing hard, after a very strong first sector, he lost the rear of the car going into the esses, crashing heavily backwards into the tyre wall. The accident put a stop to qualifying, however, with only three cars managing to better Felipe's first segment time, he will begin the afternoon race from the fourth row of the grid in eighth place.
The team was joined for qualifying by Brazilian Ferrari star, and 2008 F1 World Championship runner-up, Felipe Massa, who watched the sessions from the pitwall with Team Principal, and two-time F1 World Champion, Emerson Fittipaldi. It was Massa's first visit to an A1GP event and his first opportunity to see the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari cars in action. He also took the opportunity to drive a hot lap of Kyalami in the A1GP Ferrari 599 safety car. After qualifying Massa commented: "It's really interesting visiting A1GP, it's a nice organisation and I've enjoyed seeing the quality of the new car, it's really nice. It was a shame for Felipe in last qualifying, but this can happen. As drivers we are always on the limit and that is what he was doing."
Felipe Guimarães: "This is our best qualifying result in the feature race this season but we should have been in the top four. I am looking at the positives because we were fast throughout. The last lap was looking really good and I was very happy after the first sector. Then I just carried too much speed into the corner, lost the rear and that was it. We've got some hard work to fix the car but I will go out and do my best for the team tomorrow."
Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "Felipe was on the maximum power on the final lap, using PowerBoost. He was very quick on the first sector and we were looking to finish in a strong position with a good time, but unfortunately he lost the car on the quick esses. We are just thankful that he is not injured because we can always repair the car. We have a great team of people and we are eighth on the grid for the Feature race so I hope tomorrow will be a good day for us."
France
Today, A1 Team France took part in qualifying practice for the 2 races in the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Championship on the Kyalami circuit in the Gauteng province in South Africa.
In the morning, the team finished free practice in fifth place and its hopes were high when qualifying began. The first 2 segments went off well and Nicolas Prost set the seventh-quickest time without using his power boost. He will start from this place for the Sprint race.
A1 Team France decided to use its power boost in the fourth segment and it looked like it was going to set a stunning time and start the Feature race from the front of the grid. Unfortunately, Nicolas had only done a few hundred metres when the session was interrupted by a red flag. The Brazilian car had gone off bringing qualifying to a premature end. This incident put A1 Team France in eleventh place, as it was unable to do a flying lap.
Knowing it is as quick as the front-runners A1 Team France is feeling disappointed this evening. But it is determined to bounce back tomorrow by using an aggressive strategy.
Olivier Panis, sporting director: "Since the return of the rule using the power boost only once in the four segments, qualifying has become a gamble. That's the A1GP hallmark, which emphasizes excitement. To start from the front of the grid you have to risk leaving it to the very last minute to go out, so you can fall foul of race incidents. Today, we were out of luck but we made the right choice. In addition, Nicolas did all we asked of him. His analytic approach is a joy for the engineers and for the mechanics too."
Nicolas Prost: "I'm disappointed. We all thought it'd be possible to finish at the top of the time sheets and we knew it was achievable. My place on the grid for race one isn't too bad knowing that two teams have already used their power boost, which gives an advantage of around 1.5 secs per lap. Then I had to lift off after only two corners in the last segment because of a red flag, and it was impossible to defend our chances. Of course, it's frustrating but that's racing. I'll do all I can to pull back places on the track tomorrow and obtain two good results for the team, even if overtaking seems difficult here."
Great Britain
Danny Watts was in action today for A1 Team Great Britain at A1GP Gauteng, the fifth round of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Kyalami GP Circuit, near Johannesburg in South Africa. The day began with three practice sessions for GBR. The British squad was one of five cars that did not make it onto the Kyalami track for the Friday practice sessions due to a technical issue beyond the teams' control. With Kyalami sitting 2000-feet above sea level, A1GP has had to introduce new parts to the cars' fuel systems to combat the high altitude. Unfortunately, the additional parts were not available to be fitted in time to these five cars. To ensure a level playing field, A1GP organisers scheduled extra practice sessions for those teams affected.
Danny was performing well in the first session of the day, running second on the timesheets. He was pushing to find the limits when he spun off track ten minutes before the end of the session, necessitating a nosecone change. Electrical problems were then discovered with the car, and the team worked hard throughout the morning to resolve them. Danny was able to get out for the last twenty minutes of the third and final practice in order to get in some crucial laps ahead of qualifying.
For qualifying, the series have reintroduced the PowerBoost 'joker' concept, which allows the PowerBoost button to be used for one lap of the four available in qualifying (two for Sprint and two for Feature). This gives the drivers an extra 60bhp for that lap. GBR opted to save its PowerBoost until the fourth and final session, when the track would be at its optimum condition. In Sprint race qualifying, Danny set his fastest time of 1:29.730 on the second of his two laps and at the chequered flag, he was 13th fastest, lining up on the seventh row of the grid. He set a time of 1:29.092 in the first Feature race qualifying and was set to record his best lap in the second segment as he had his PowerBoost to use. Unfortunately, the Brazil car crashed, causing a red flag before Danny had set his lap. With the session finished, GBR had to settle for tenth position and a fifth row Feature race start.
Danny Watts: "Our strategy was to put all our eggs in one basket for the last run while I got more mileage with the car due to our problems in practice. Unfortunately we didn't get to finish the lap, but we've got to take the positives and that is that the car has improved a lot, it's much more driveable and I've got much more experience of the circuit. It's been a difficult testing day for us but we are so strong as a team that I'm sure we'll bounce back tomorrow and we're looking forward to it."
Katie Clements, Team Principal: "It's been a fairly frustrating day in terms of our limited track time but, once again, we've gone out and performed well in qualifying. It's a real shame we didn't get to put in the last lap as I'm sure we would have scored a good result. We're focusing on tomorrow now and are eager to get racing."
India
A1 Team India returned to South Africa for the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The last three seasons, A1GP has raced on the streets of Durban, but this year the championship makes its debut at the home of South African motorsport, The Kyalami Circuit. The Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit is located in Gauteng province, just north of Johannesburg and has a rich history of international motorsport events on four and two wheels. The balanced blend of slow, medium and fast corners and the fact Kyalami is nearly 2,000 metres above sea level will present a challenge to both the race drivers and engineers at this weekend's event.
In the morning practice session, Narain finished 13th quickest. However, his laps were set on old tyres, and comparing them to other teams 'old tyre' laps, A1 Team India were very competitive. The team had made significant changes to the setup of the car overnight, & the changes had proved very positive.
The Sprint qualifying was very competitive and so was Narain. He put together an excellent flying lap during the second qualifying segment, finishing 5th quickest.
The Feature race qualifying was not so successful for A1 Team India. During the first segment of qualifying, Narain used a set of old tyres, saving his last set for the second segment. Unfortunately, A1 Team Brazil had a big shunt during the dying minutes of qualifying causing the session to be stopped for safety reasons. At that time, Narain, along with many other drivers were out on track on their warm-up laps. As the session was stopped, none of these drivers were able to complete their timed flying laps. This meant that Narain will have to start the feature race from 18th place on the grid.
Narain commented after the session, "I'm actually having mixed emotions after today. I very pleased that I was able to show, to some extent, the potential that the team have, by qualifying 5th for the sprint race. The car feels much better today. I'm really disappointed that I was not able to complete my final qualifying lap. I'm sure that we had the package for a strong qualifying for the feature race as well."
Ireland
A1 Team Ireland will start sixth for both the Sprint and Feature races at round five of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport after an incident packed end to qualifying in Kyalami today. Adam Carroll was lying in third place after the first segment of Feature Race qualifying and out on track getting set to pitch for top spot when the team Brazil car crashed bringing out the red flags.
That meant that Ireland missed out on a chance to record a lap in the all important second segment of Feature Race qualifying with the use of one lap of power boost which Ireland, like most teams, had saved right until the end of the session.
Monaco, Malaysia and New Zealand set their laps before the red flags brought a premature halt to the action and leapfrogged above Ireland who, nonetheless are right with their closest rivals Portugal and Switzerland in the title hunt. Earlier Carroll had set sixth fastest time in Sprint Race qualifying, but was disappointed that his hopes of a front row slot for the Feature Race were dashed.
Adam Carroll: "That's the way it goes sometimes, I suppose. I don't think we've ever been so disappointed with two sixth places in qualifying because we could have a crack at pole at the end. I was happy with the third segment of qualifying and I knew we'd have been right there in the final segment but for the red flag. The circuit is extremely aggressive on tyres so it will be important to be fast and consistent and make sure the rubber lasts."
Team Technical Director Gerry Hughes: Today was frustrating in terms of the ultimate outcome but incident happen and sometimes they work for you, sometimes against. Clearly our focus is on securing as good a points finish tomorrow as possible and I expect the Feature Race to see a high rate of attrition as the track is hard on the cars and the drivers."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon, with driver Daniel Morad, finished the day shaking their heads with despair. After setting the pace yesterday and continuing to run in the lead group this morning, the team were confident that they had all the ingredients for their best ever qualifying result. However, yet again bad luck struck the team when a persistent engine misfire halted the team's participation in the qualifying session.
The team stayed on the pace in the further practice session this morning, with Morad finishing third quickest, however the engine developed a misfire in the last few moments. In the break between the final practice and qualifying sessions the team checked and even replaced virtually all relevant components, systems and software in an attempts to remedy the problem and were working closely with Ferrari. Even after the qualifying sessions the problem had not been resolved leaving the team to work through the night to resolve the mysterious faults before Sunday's race.
Morad said of the team's misfortunes, "I'm totally gutted. I just don't know what to say. We were expecting to go into qualifying with a great shot at the first two rows, and possibly a pole. I can only hope that we've had the back luck now and that we'll have better luck for tomorrow and the next few races. The Sprint race won't give us much opportunity for points, but it will be frustrating for us tomorrow in the Feature race. We have shown to have a top running pace and we'll be behind much slower cars at the start. We'll have to work our way forwards, but on this track it won't be easy. The corners are high speed, so it won't be easy for passing. All we can do is try our best and score points, as that's what we really need to do."
Luke Craft, Team Principal, added, "We've had more than our fair share of bad luck this season and we're all very disappointed that an engine misfire put paid to our chances of securing very strong qualifying positions for tomorrow's races. It's very tough on Daniel who hasn't put a foot wrong all weekend, yet ends up at the back of the grid. He has the grit and determination to race for the best finish possible, but we'll need our luck to change if we're going to score points."
A1 Team Lebanon and 19 other nations will be racing tomorrow at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, South Africa at the historic Kyalami circuit. The Sprint race is a 30 minutes race with one pitstop in the morning and the Feature race later in the afternoon is 70 minutes of hard racing and includes two pitstops.
Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia, with driver Fairuz Fauzy, will start tomorrow's Feature race from the front row of the grid, after finishing second quickest in the qualifying session. The team will line up in ninth place for the morning Sprint race. These two top ten starts were well received by the team after serious engine issues threatened to heavily compromise the team's qualifying sessions.
A1 Team Malaysia's weekend started with engine problems in the Friday practice sessions and continued this morning when the team fired the engine up for morning practice.
For hours this morning the team reviewed all the relevant components and systems, finally reaching a position with the series engine supplier that the engine needed to be replaced. By the time this decision was reached the team ran the risk of not being able to qualify at all due the further hours of work required to install the new engine.
A new engine usually demands a series of installation laps, but with the team only able to be ready minutes before the start of qualifying they had to be content with a special dispensation to run only one installation lap before the start of the session.
Fairuz Fauzy, having missed his second hour of practice time was severely limited in track knowledge and the team had little time to focus on car performance due to the engine issues experienced. However, the Malaysian driver kept calm and put in a solid effort for his first run to lie 12th. He then improved to ninth position, his starting grid place for the Sprint race.
A1GP has introduced a PowerBoost feature in qualifying which was first trialled at the Sepang event. The PowerBoost button is made available for an entire lap of qualifying, and each team is allowed to use it for one of their four flying laps.
The Feature race qualifying session, with the better of two flying laps used to determine the grid positions, produced one of the best results of the season for the team through good fortune. Fauzy was lying seventh quickest after the first segment, and in the second segment the team opted to use the new PowerBoost feature. A great lap by Fauzy put the team second quickest with a few minutes of the session remaining. A large element of luck determined our final grid position for the Feature as there were 13 teams still to post lap times when the Brazilian team crashed causing the session to be red flagged, ending the session early and giving Malaysia a front row position for tomorrow's Feature race.
Fauzy said after the session, "We had major engine problems and missed the morning practice session which was extremely frustrating for us all as we haven't had much time to develop the setup or complete the usual installation laps. However, the team worked hard and I must thank them all for the efforts they made to make sure we could take part this afternoon. After all the setbacks we have been lucky to be rewarded with a front row position for tomorrow."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, added, "After the incredibly difficult problems we had this morning with the engine, which at one stage meant we were facing not being able to qualify at all, we have finished the day in an extremely fortunate position. There is still a lot of hard work to be done well in to the night following the engine problems but I must say that after the bad luck we've experienced in the two previous race events it was time for "lady luck" to shine on us today. Tomorrow's final results will be about sheer hard work both in the car and the garage following the extreme frustration of today and yesterday."
Monaco
Only half way through its inaugural season Team Monaco is getting in to its stride and challenging the more established teams in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport with increasing confidence. The squad maintained momentum from its Friday's performance and will not only start on the 2nd row of the grid for tomorrow morning's Sprint Race, but a clear strategy has also allowed the team to lead the start of the afternoon's Feature race from its first ever pole position at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa.
Official Practice 3 started at 11:00 local time and Team Monaco commenced its Saturday running as soon as an early red flag situation by China had been cleared. Clivio immediately set the fourth fastest lap time and as the rest of the cars came out to complete the field and the circuit rubbered in, Clivio was able to improve his time by setting a 1:28.754, putting the team in P2 with 35 minutes of the hour-long session remaining. Improvements by USA, Portugal and France meant that Team Monaco's best lap time, set on lap six, secured them 6th position on the time sheet at the end of the session.
The PowerBoost 'joker' was reinstated for Saturday qualifying. The functionality of the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car allows for the PowerBoost button to be available for an entire lap of Qualifying, and teams were allowed to use it for one of their four flying laps.*
In the afternoon the Monegasque squad ventured out on to a clear track in the opening stages of SQ1. Clivio set a provisional P1 time and sat a clear 1.318 seconds ahead of the competition. His time was good enough to see off all his rivals until two last gasp flyers from Switzerland and then Portugal edged Clivio down to a still respectable 3rd position at the close of the session. Ten minutes later, in SQ2, Clivio set a time of 1:28.417, putting him a mere 0.7 seconds off P1 and will start the Sprint race on the 2nd row of the grid in 4th position tomorrow.
Clivio set an early hot lap of 1:29.813 to sit in 12th position at the end of FQ3, the first qualifying session for tomorrow's Feature race. When the final qualifying segment got underway, Clivio left the Monaco garage and utilised the PowerBoost to set the fastest lap time of the weekend so far - a 1:27.269. An accident by Team Brazil forced a red flag situation with under two minutes of the session to go bringing an abrupt end to running. A calculated strategy by the team has given Monaco its first pole position in its first season in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.
Clivio Piccione, Driver and Seat Holder: "We started the day with the car as we left it last night and straight away I was quite comfortable and able to set good lap times on the new tyres. I knew that we were going in the right direction and after a few changes to try to improve on a few corners, we went back out to complete the programme. Overall I was confident that we had a good car, so we made no further changes for qualifying. In SQ1 the car was on it straight away; I made a small mistake, but we were quickest at the beginning of the session. We changed to the second set of tyres and improved our time again, with the car still feeling good. It was great to finish in fourth position, our best qualifying position until then. For FQ3 we just wanted a time in the bag and then we went in to FQ4 on a fresh set of tyres and using the push-to-pass button. I had a perfect lap until a small mistake at the chicane, but the time was good enough for pole. After that the red flag stopped the session and so for once luck was on our side! We now hold the record for the fastest lap around Kyalami - thanks to the whole team and to Graham for our strategy today."
Graham Taylor, Team Principal: "We had a positive morning session and quickly realised what was necessary for the races tomorrow. We discussed our approach to qualifying in great length and took a defined strategy which, truth be told, came to pass. I am pleased with our runs during Sprint race qualifying; to achieve P4 without using the PowerBoost showed us that we were in with shout for a good position for the Feature race as only four drivers had used the button for Sprint qualifying. There was therefore potential for red flag situations in Feature race qualifying and so we stuck to our strategic guns, went out early and congratulations to Clivio for not only achieving pole position with a superb lap, but for also setting the fastest lap around this circuit."
South Africa
The A1GP qualifying format produced another close and intriguing grid for Sunday's Sprint race in the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Kyalami on Saturday afternoon. An accident involving Brazil's Felipe Guimaraes), who crashed into a tyre wall with minutes of the final segment of the Feature race qualifying remaining, bringing out the red flag and the premature end of the session, resulted in an unexpected grid for the main race.
Monaco's Clivio Piccione scored his nation's first ever pole position in its first season of A1GP with a fastest lap time of 1m 27,269s for Sunday's 70-minute Feature race. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy) will line up alongside Monaco on the front row of the grid after returned a time just 0,136s slower. Row two will be occupied by New Zealand (Earl Bamber) in third place and Australia (John Martin) in fourth.
Switzerland (Neel Jani) and championship leaders Ireland (Adam Carroll) are on row three, with Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque) and Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes) on row four. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen) and Great Britain (Danny Watts) make up the top 10.
South Africa's Adrian Zaugg was one of 15 drivers caught out by the final part of the Feature race qualifying session being stopped before time. Zaugg had not completed his second and final lap by the time the red flag was shown and will now start from a disadvantageous 16th place on the 20-car grid.
"It's disappointing, but this is the risk you take going out as late as possible in the session to take maximum advantage of the conditions," said the 22-year-old. "I was comfortable with the car's set-up in the Sprint race qualifying sessions and I think we could have made the top six for the second race start."
In the earlier Sprint race qualifying, South Africa managed a creditable seventh place, less than a second behind pole position winner Netherlands. Dutch driver Bleekemolen's best lap time was 1m 27,717s, 0,355 better than second-placed Portugal. Switzerland and Monaco fill row two, with India (Narain Karthikeyan) and Ireland on row three.
USA
A1 Team USA driver Marco Andretti turned a best-lap time of 1 minute, 29.487 seconds to grab the 13th starting position for tomorrow's A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Feature race in Gauteng, South Africa. The 21-year old Andretti will start 17th in the Sprint race, which will be run prior to the Feature Race.
Marco Andretti: "For us, not being able to get on track at all on Friday put us behind, for sure, especially when we're still trying to close the gap on the experienced teams that know these cars better than we do. We still have a lot to learn about how to find the speed we need in this package.
"We'll just have to take what we've got and try to run two smart races tomorrow."