FINAL PRACTICE

A1 Team France proved this weekend’s RAB Capital A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain won’t be an easy run for the home team by topping the timing sheets in this morning’s third official practice session. Lapping the Brands Hatch GP circuit in 1.15.296, France’s Loic Duval beat GBR’s Robbie Kerr by three hundredths of a second although the slightly windier conditions meant they were still off yesterday’s pace set by the two British drivers.

A1 Team USA’s Jonathan Summerton was third quickest ahead of a strong showing for A1 Team Portugal’s Alvaro Parente in fourth. Germany, who secured the 2006/07 season title with their third place in the Feature race in Shanghai last time out, put in the sixth fastest lap with A1 Team New Zealand, currently lying second in the points ahead of the home team, clocked the ninth fastest time.

The entire field was separated by just 3.374 seconds, making it one of the smallest gaps between first and last, and demonstrating the competitiveness of all the teams. For A1 Team Ireland, who are also expecting a strong crowd of supporters to their local race, the tight field means they are still in with a chance of impressing the fans despite their ‘consistent’ 17th place finish in the event’s three practice sessions
The session was halted with a minute still to run when A1 Team Pakistan’s Nur Ali took a trip into the gravel traps bringing out the red flag.

While it has been anticipated that the cars could better the times set at the last A1GP race at Brands Hatch, one thing that is certain is the reliability of the series equipment. In practice on Saturday the A1GP engine passed the 300,000 kilometre mark without a single failure. This distance includes all the testing and racing mileage since the car turned a wheel in its first test in 2004.

The teams now have to decide on their set ups before qualifying for the Sprint race begins at the later time of 15.45 this afternoon. Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a five minute break between each. Only one driver per A1 Team is allowed to take part in Qualifying and that driver must have completed at least three timed laps in an Official Practice session. Each driver is limited to three laps - effectively one “flying lap” - per session and must record at least two times, an aggregate of which will determine that A1 Team’s position on the grid for Sunday’s Sprint race. The grid for the Feature race will be determined by the outcome of the Sprint race.

Official Practice Session 3

POS	DRIVER	A1 TEAM	TIME	LAPS
1	Loic DUVAL	FRANCE	1:15.296	23
2	Robbie KERR	GREAT BRITAIN	1:15.333	24
3	Jonathan SUMMERTON	USA	1:15.493	26
4	Alvaro PARENTE	PORTUGAL	1:15.504	22
5	Narain KARTHIKEYAN	INDIA	1:15.610	30
6	Nico HÜLKENBERG	GERMANY	1:15.813	28
7	Sebastien BUEMI	SWITZERLAND	1:15.919	26
8	Alex YOONG	MALAYSIA	1:16.084	24
9	Matt HALLIDAY	NEW ZEALAND	1:16.204	24
10	Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN	NETHERLANDS	1:16.431	24
11	Adrian ZAUGG	SOUTH AFRICA	1:16.447	25
12	Congfu CHENG	CHINA	1:16.531	19
13	Enrico TOCCACELO	ITALY	1:16.576	26
14	Sean McINTOSH	CANADA	1:16.625	28
15	Jan CHAROUZ	CZECH REPUBLIC	1:16.796	19
16	Bruno JUNQUEIRA	BRAZIL	1:16.803	26
17	Richard LYONS	IRELAND	1:17.098	22
18	Ian DYK	AUSTRALIA	1:17.595	27
19	Moreno SOEPRAPTO	INDONESIA	1:18.012	30
20	Allam KHODAIR	LEBANON	1:18.058	3
21	Nur ALI	PAKISTAN	1:18.586	30
22	Juan Pablo GARCIA	MEXICO	1:18.670	18

Nominated drivers for Qualifying – RAB Capital A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain

QUALIFYING

A1 Team Great Britain has put in the best qualifying performance of a home nation, taking pole position for tomorrow’s Sprint race at the RAB Capital A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain. Driver Robbie Kerr recorded an aggregate time of 2.28.899, just one tenth of a second faster than second placed Germany, making it the first team in the history of A1GP to take pole position at its home race.

Commenting on his performance, which saw him grab pole despite a heart stopping off-track moment, Kerr said: ‘It’s a third of the job done today and we have just got to focus now on getting the car ready for the two long races. We now have a good car beneath us. It is looking after the tyres very well. We are looking forward to it and now we can be competitive here. I am just looking forward to the race – I just can’t wait.”

Track time in the first segment was limited after USA crashed on the exit from Hawthorne and brought out the red flag just minutes into the segment when only Pakistan had put in its flying lap. The segment was halted while the ‘We the People’ car was recovered and the rest of the field lined up to leave the pit lane. As the chequered flag dropped, A1 Team India was on provisional pole but as Great Britain, France and then Germany crossed the finish line from their flying laps, India dropped down to fourth.

A1 Team Italy came from nowhere to record the fastest lap of the second segment, completing the circuit in just 1.14.710. Despite its impressive lap, Italy was pushed down the provisional grid with France and Great Britain both putting in marginally slower lap times but still enough to create an aggregate time from the first two segments faster than that of Italy. A1 Team Germany pulled into the pits after running over the kerb on its flying lap and choosing not to continue.

Italy put itself back on provisional pole at the start of the third segment but once again, despite holding the spot for most of the segment, was knocked off in the closing seconds. France once again left the pit lane in the last minutes of the segment regaining the top spot until an undeterred home team recorded the fastest lap of the weekend so far (1.14.381), snatching provisional pole from last season’s champions.

It all came down to the closing seconds of the fourth segment for pole to be decided with France, Great Britain, Italy and Germany all in with a chance. Italy was soon displaced from provisional pole by France and when Great Britain left the track on its out lap gathering dirt on its tyres it looked like the home team had missed its opportunity. As Germany crossed the finish line with the second fastest lap of qualifying, it snatched pole from France but just seconds later, Great Britain followed having recovered from its earlier hiccup to claim the first pole of a home nation in A1GP’s 42-race history.

Kerr’s comment about his off-track moment was: ‘I just thought I would try something new to get the tyres warm! It was a heart stopping moment but we pulled it all back together. Got the tyres cleaned off as best we could for the start of the lap, and then just went out there and put a good solid lap together. I just wish I hadn’t done it and then I think the lap time would have been a lot quicker without that moment. Anyway it was a good solid lap at the end of qualifying and we are on pole.’

The 2006/07 season champions, Germany, will sit alongside Great Britain on the Sprint race grid tomorrow. Driver, Nico Hülkenberg said: ‘The car was all right, it was just I was a bit too optimistic and too early on the power. I went on the kerb and the kerb pulls you out, so that was a mistake.

‘I knew I had to score two very good lap times and that always the two last qualifying runs would be the quickest. I have a good car with new rubber so decided let’s go and do a good lap time. I did two solid quick lap times, but just not quick enough for pole position.’

A1 Team France saw the return of Loic Duval after a four race absence but despite this, combined with the fact he has never been to the Brands Hatch circuit before, Duval put France third on the grid. ‘It is not an easy track to learn, but unfortunately I think the car was not perfect today,’ he said. ‘We had quite a big oversteer and didn’t find the problem. At the end I knew it was important to push on the last qualifying lap. I was pushing, but maybe too much and had big oversteer. Anyway I did my best with the car, we have to find some set up tomorrow for the race, but it is not that bad.’

A1 Team Ireland improved on its earlier practice performances recording an aggregate time of 2.30.751 putting it on the sixth row of the grid. The team was obviously spurred on by MTV’s Pimp My Ride presenter Xzibit who came to the track at lunchtime to meet the team before he takes part in tomorrow’s Gumball 3000 event alongside A1 Team Ireland who will join the start of the rally leaving London’s Pall Mall at 16.00.

Tomorrow’s Sprint race at Brands Hatch, Kent will start at 11.00 local time and will determine the grid positions for the afternoon’s 70-minute Feature race.

Qualifying results

	A1 Team	Driver	Aggregate time	Gap first
1	Great Britain	Robbie Kerr	2.28.899	+
2	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	2.29.028	+0.129
3	France	Loic Duval	2.29.255	+.0.356
4	Italy	Enrico Toccacelo	2.29.446	0.547
5	India	Narain Karthikeyan	2.29.768	0.869
6	Malaysia	Alex Yoong	2.29.803	0.904
7	Switzerland	Sebastien Buemi	2.30.119	1.220
8	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	2.30.144	2.245
9	New Zealand	Matt Halliday	2.30.255	1.356
10	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	2.30.354	1.455
11	USA	Jonathan Summerton	2.30.508	1.609
12	Ireland	Richard Lyons	2.30.751	1.852
13	China	Congfu Cheng	2.30.822	1.923
14	Canada	Sean McIntosh	2.30.928	2.029
15	Portugal	Alvaro Parente	2.31.436	2.537
16	Brazil	Bruno Junqueira	2.31.441	2.542
17	Czech Republic	Jan Charouz	2.32.000	3.101
18	Australia	Ian Dyk	2.32.813	3.914
19	Lebanon	Allam Khodair	2.33.281	4.382
20	Indonesia	Moreno Soeprapto	2.34.105	5.206
21	Mexico	Juan Pablo Garcia	2.34.263	5.364
22	Pakistan	Nur Ali	2.37.480	8.581

Nominated drivers for the Sprint race – RAB Capital A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain