A1GP Friday Sessions Find Czech Up Top
Written by Allan Brewer · January 19, 2007
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Photo: A1GP
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Tomas Enge Leads Early Practice Sessions in New Zealand
Wade Cunningham Shares Drive with Team New Zealand’s Jonny Reid
A1GP Team Czech Republic snatched the top spot on the timing sheet in the closing minutes of Friday afternoon’s second practice session for the A1GP race scheduled for Sunday in Taupo, New Zealand. The Czechs recorded the fastest time of the day, despite a last-minute substitution of veteran driver Tomas Enge for injured teammate, Jarek Janis.
“I should be in Daytona, preparing for the 24 hour race next weekend,” said Enge, “but Janis is injured so I got a late call to come to New Zealand.”
“I’m very happy to step in. I love the country, I’ve never been in such a nice place before,” he commented referring to the lushly green mountainous terrain of the northern island of New Zealand where the 2.2 mile Taupo circuit is located.
“I didn’t expect the track to be so dirty and you really have to push the car round the corners. I hope I can continue like this for the weekend. I will be concentrating on myself, not looking at the others,” he said.
Former F1 ace and A1GP India team driver Narain Karthikeyan held top spot on the speed chart for nearly half the session, until the Czech Republic driver closed the gap and finally bettered his mark by 0.055 seconds. All things considered, however, Karthikeyan’s performance was remarkable (having only joined the team last week) as the morning practice session was Karthikeyan’s first time in an A1GP car.
Commenting on his day Karthikeyan said: “It’s a big big difference (from F1) and I’m happy with the way things are going. I’m not getting carried away by today, there is still lots to be done on the car. The team have had some less experienced drivers so we need a lot of work to be done on the car set up wise.”
A1GP Team France set the fastest lap time in Friday morning’s rookie session with team driver Loic Duval behind the wheel.
Commenting on the extensively renovated Taupo circuit Duval said, “It is a nice track but difficult off the line as it gets really dirty outside. The track looks very good and the whole complex is very nice. The corners are difficult, and the shorter lines are a problem during the race. Its tough to overtake and quite dirty so I’m expecting a tough race.”
Host nation A1GP Team New Zealand weathered a disappointing start to the weekend, finishing no better than eighth fastest in both practice sessions. Fresh from victory in the last race in Sentul, Indonesia just before the holiday break, the expectations are high for New Zealand to be the first team in A1GP to win a home race.
“Winning at Sentul doesn’t add any pressure but I can use the home fans and use that energy to help me,” commented driver Jonny Reid. “I’m not disillutioned by the (practice) results, it’s quite pleasing as we have a few tricks up our sleeves. The track is really dirty off line and it’s a really technical circuit so I’ll be relying on the team and mechanics a lot.”
Joining Reid in the cockpit of the New Zealand car was Indy Pro Series driver Wade Cunningham who took the morning session practice before yielding the seat to his countryman for the afternoon and tomorrow’s qualifying sessions.
A1GP Team USA’s new driver Champ Car World Series veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay took advantage of the two Friday sessions to sort out his car and posted the fifteenth and eighteenth fastest times of the morning and afternoon practice periods respectively. He remains a little over a second off-pace in his first A1GP race for Team USA.
After a further free practice session at 11:00 AM Saturday morning, qualifying for the Sprint race will take place with four 15 minute sessions between 2:15 PM and 3:30 PM Saturday afternoon. The Sprint race will be followed by the Feature race on Sunday when action resumes in A1GP’s sixth scheduled event of the 2006-2007 season.
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