Huge crowds flocked to the Zandvoort circuit, the Netherlands, today for the start of the 2006/07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, packing the circuit’s grandstands and sand dunes close to the North Sea.   Two rookie practice sessions opened the season’s action. A new introduction for this year, the sessions gave young drivers the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the demanding 4.18km Zandvoort track and the powerful 550bhp A1GP cars. Frenchman Loic Duval was fastest of the twenty rookies who participated in the two 25 minute sessions, with a lap just 0.618 seconds quicker than Dutch star Jeroen Bleekemolen.   Duval commented, “This morning went well. Fortunately it was a good session as the car was set up perfectly for me. The first time I drove was last year at Silverstone, so this has been a great experience to test here. I'm confident that Nicolas Lapierre will do a good race this weekend and it will be an excellent opportunity for me to watch and learn."   Bleekemolen was similarly exhilarated by his first experience of an A1GP car on his ‘home’ track. “It’s been a long time since I’ve driven an open-wheel car at Zandvoort, so it was very good to be up there at the front,” the 23-year-old Dutchman commented. “I know the track well, it’s only five minutes from my home, but the A1GP car was definitely the fastest thing I’ve driven around here. I spent the first 25 minutes familiarising myself with the track and the car and then the final session going for the times. It should be a very exciting race and I hope I can do well in front of all these fans. It's a great feeling to be in Zandvoort - the people are here to support me and the team - it was just amazing to hear all the people and see the orange flags on the hills - I don't think we have seen anything like it at Zandvoort.”   Another rookie, A1 Team Canada’s James Hinchcliffe, was to shine in the later practice session. The 19-year-old Canadian topped the timesheets, just 0.046 seconds quicker than A1 Team Great Britain’s Darren Manning. Hinchcliffe commented, “It is a remarkable result for the team. This year we had everything in place early, we were well prepared, and the team could give me a brilliant car. I have never seen so may fans turn up for a Friday session - we are having a blast." Hinchcliffe benefited from his earlier track experience, "It's part of the job to learn the track, you learn to push the limits. It really forces drivers to come to grips quickly with the track and it's phenomenal that the team has given me a car to do that."   Manning, who competed for the team for the first time in the 2005/06 season finale in Shanghai, completed three laps of the circuit with a best time of 1:29.040secs. A1 Team South Africa recorded the third-fastest time over the one hour session with new recruit, Adrian Zaugg, at the wheel. The free practice sessions also gave fans their first glimpse of A1 Teams Greece and Singapore, who enter the World Cup of Motorsport for the first time this year.   The racing action resumes tomorrow with a further free practice session and four 15 minute qualifying sessions that will determine the grid for Sunday’s sprint race.   Official Practice Session 1 – Part 1 (Rookie drivers only)   A1 Team Driver Time No. Laps 1 France Loic Duval 1:30.328 10 2 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 1:30.946 10 3 Great Britain Oliver Jarvis 1:31.325 7 4 Canada James Hinchcliffe 1:31.473 12 5 Switzerland Sebastien Buemi 1:31.848 11 6 Brazil Ruben Carrapatoso 1:31.906 10 7 USA Jonathan Summerton 1:31.954 10 8 Germany Nico Hülkenberg 1:32.871 10 9 Mexico Sergio Perez 1:33.232 12 10 Lebanon Alex Khateeb 1:33.419 7 11 Australia Karl Reindler 1:33.484 11 12 South Africa Adrian Zaugg 1:33.683 8 13 China Congfu Cheng 1:33.696 9 14 Czech Republic Jan Charouz 1:33.828 8 15 Ireland John O’Hara 1:34.027 12 16 Italy Michele Rugolo 1:34.192 8 17 Greece Takis Kaitazis 1:36.338 8 18 Singapore Denis Lian 1:38.165 9 19 Indonesia Moreno Soeprapto 1:38.923 6 20 India Armaan Ebrahim 1:45.967 6   Official Practice Session 1 – Part 2 (Rookie drivers only)   A1 Team Driver Time No. Laps 1 France Loic Duval 1:30.967 9 2 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 1:31.155 9 3 Switzerland Sebastien Buemi 1:31.282 10 4 Great Britain Oliver Jarvis 1:31.308 9 5 South Africa Adrian Zaugg 1:31.656 10 6 Canada James Hinchcliffe 1:31.713 9 7 USA Jonathan Summerton 1:31.875 9 8 Germany Nico Hülkenberg 1:32.621 9 9 Brazil Ruben Carrapatoso 1:33.029 5 10 Czech Republic Jan Charouz 1:33.050 9 11 Mexico Sergio Perez 1:33.053 8 12 Australia Karl Reindler 1:33.746 10 13 Lebanon Alex Khateeb 1:33.988 6 14 China Congfu Cheng 1:34.107 9 15 India Armaan Ebrahim 1:34.256 8 16 Italy Michele Rugolo 1:34.908 12 17 Ireland John O’Hara 1:34.953 8 18 Greece Takis Kaitazis 1:35.049 11 19 Indonesia Moreno Soeprapto 1:36.795 8 20 Singapore Denis Lian 1:37.399 8   Official Practice Session 2   A1 Team Driver Time No. Laps 1 Canada James Hinchcliffe 1:28.994 23 2 Great Britain Darren Manning 1:29.040 3 3 South Africa Adrian Zaugg 1:29.267 20 4 Germany Nico Hülkenberg 1:29.873 25 5 Switzerland Sebastien Buemi 1:30.059 24 6 Mexico Salvador Duran 1:30.339 21 7 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 1:30.382 19 8 France Nicolas Lapierre 1:30.844 16 9 New Zealand Matt Halliday 1:31.123 22 10 Brazil Tuka Rocha 1:31.462 19 11 China Congfu Cheng 1:31.568 23 12 Ireland Michael Devaney 1:31.602 20 13 USA Philip Giebler 1:31.898 24 14 Malaysia Alex Yoong 1:32.172 22 15 Australia Ryan Briscoe 1:32.271 19 16 Czech Republic Tomas Kostka 1:32.483 26 17 Italy Pier Guidi Alessandro 1:32.737 21 18 India Armaan Ebrahim 1:33.865 13 19 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1:33.922 17 20 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 1:34.448 4 21 Singapore Denis Lian 1:37.508 13 22 Pakistan Nur Ali 1:45.461 16 22 Greece Stelios Nousias - -