Great Britain Tops Friday Practice as Lap Times Tumble
Friday, 23 November 2007, Sepang, Malaysia – A1 Team Great Britain dominated today’s free practice sessions at Sepang circuit in hot and humid conditions, as round three of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season kicked off in Malaysia.
Jarvis was pleased with his team’s start to the weekend but is adamant there is still work to be done and is targeting a strong qualifying performance tomorrow afternoon:
‘It was a reasonable day. I would’ve liked a bit more pace early on in the session with the new tyres but I’m very happy with the lap time set at the end – for the age of the tyres it was fairly fantastic. But tomorrow’s when it really counts and the guys will sit down tonight and analyse the data and hopefully we’ll come back even stronger tomorrow.’
Switzerland’s Neel Jani, whose driving style suits the smooth and flowing Sepang circuit, finished the day second fastest, just under half a second off the British car. Jani took over from Rahel Frey who was in the Swiss car this morning for the rookie session. Frey set the 13th quickest time and became the fifth female to drive an A1GP car during a race weekend.
France’s Loic Duval set the third fastest time of the day while the fourth spot was taken by current championship leader New Zealand’s Jonny Reid, closely followed by China and defending champion Germany in fifth and sixth place respectively.
Home nation Malaysia’s Alex Yoong had a difficult session this afternoon and was not able to improve on 17th place due to the session being yellow flagged when Pakistan’s Adam Khan spun off towards the end of the hour.
Commenting on his performance today and his team’s chances this weekend, Yoong said:
‘We’re losing quite a bit of time through the middle sector – the medium and high speed corners are where we’re struggling a bit. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much grip there is out there and they’ve done a good job resurfacing it – it doesn’t feel at all like the track we had last year. We made a couple of changes to the car during the session in the right direction but there’s still a lot of work to be done overnight. I don’t think today’s time is truly representative of where we are and we should be able to improve that quite a bit tomorrow. There are still a couple of things we can improve on the car for sure. I am feeling more confident since Brno but I’m not going to count my chickens before they’ve hatched and we’ve got to keep pushing and hopefully keep improving throughout the weekend.’
Official Practice Session 1 – Rookie drivers and developing nations only
POS A1 TEAM
DRIVER
TIME S1
LAP S1
TIME S2
LAP S2
TIME
GAP FIRST
1
GREAT BRITAIN
Oliver JARVIS
01:52.868
8
01:52.013
5
01:52.013
2
BRAZIL
Sergio JIMENEZ
01:53.954
6
01:52.757
4
01:52.757
+0.744
3
AUSTRALIA
John MARTIN
01:54.539
6
01:52.806
5
01:52.806
+0.793
4
ITALY
Edoardo PISCOPO
01:54.777
9
01:53.161
10
01:53.161
+1.148
5
NEW ZEALAND
Earl BAMBER
01:56.046
7
01:53.682
9
01:53.682
+1.669
6
USA
Charlie KIMBALL
01:57.323
5
01:53.783
5
01:53.783
+1.770
7
CZECH REPUBLIC
Erik JANIS
01:55.705
6
01:53.787
5
01:53.787
+1.774
8
PORTUGAL
Joao URBANO
01:54.964
6
01:53.789
3
01:53.789
+1.776
9
MEXICO
Michel JOURDAIN
01:55.572
7
01:53.796
8
01:53.796
+1.783
10
IRELAND
Adam CARROLL
01:55.622
7
01:54.031
4
01:54.031
+2.018
11
SOUTH AFRICA
Wesleigh ORR
01:56.635
6
01:54.385
8
01:54.385
+2.372
12
CANADA
Robert WICKENS
01:56.187
5
01:54.695
2
01:54.695
+2.682
13
SWITZERLAND
Rahel FREY
01:58.848
6
01:55.102
6
01:55.102
+3.089
14
NETHERLANDS
Arie LUYENDYK
01:57.414
7
01:55.267
8
01:55.267
+3.254
15
MALAYSIA
Aaron LIM
01:55.278
7
01:55.387
6
01:55.278
+3.265
16
INDONESIA
Satrio HERMANTO
02:03.177
3
01:55.453
5
01:55.453
+3.440
17
INDIA
Parthiva SURESHWAREN
01:58.549
8
01:55.567
9
01:55.567
+3.554
18
CHINA
Marchy LEE
01:55.576
5
01:55.680
5
01:55.576
+3.563
19
GERMANY
Michael AMMERMÜLLER
0
01:57.400
3
01:57.400
+5.387
20
LEBANON
Chris ALAJAJIAN
01:57.684
5
0
01:57.684
+5.671
Official Practice session 2 (14.00 – 15.00)
POS
A1 TEAM
DRIVER
TIME
GAP FIRST
LAPS
1
GREAT BRITAIN
Oliver JARVIS
01:49.459
–
22
2
SWITZERLAND
Neel JANI
01:49.911
+0.452
18
3
FRANCE
Loic DUVAL
01:50.094
+0.635
17
4
NEW ZEALAND
Jonny REID
01:50.320
+0.861
17
5
CHINA
Congfu CHENG
01:50.471
+1.012
17
6
GERMANY
Michael AMMERMÜLLER
01:50.641
+1.182
19
7
BRAZIL
Sergio JIMENEZ
01:50.753
+1.294
14
8
CANADA
Robert WICKENS
01:50.909
+1.450
16
9
INDIA
Narain KARTHIKEYAN
01:50.989
+1.530
19
10
NETHERLANDS
Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN
01:51.006
+1.547
19
11
SOUTH AFRICA
Adrian ZAUGG
01:51.010
+1.551
19
12
IRELAND
Adam CARROLL
01:51.174
+1.715
20
13
PORTUGAL
Joao URBANO
01:51.266
+1.807
22
14
USA
Jonathan SUMMERTON
01:51.304
+1.845
23
15
AUSTRALIA
Ian DYK
01:51.387
+1.928
20
16
ITALY
Enrico TOCCACELO
01:51.513
+2.054
21
17
MALAYSIA
Alex YOONG
01:51.668
+2.209
19
18
CZECH REPUBLIC
Erik JANIS
01:51.830
+2.371
21
19
LEBANON
Chris ALAJAJIAN
01:52.076
+2.617
16
20
MEXICO
Michel JOURDAIN
01:52.201
+2.742
17
21
INDONESIA
Satrio HERMANTO
01:52.926
+3.467
19
22
PAKISTAN
Adam KHAN
01:52.993
+3.534
17
