Team Germany Snaps Up A1GP Sydney Pole
Written by Allan Brewer · February 3, 2007
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Photo: A1GP
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New Zealanders, Brits Promise Rumble Down Under
Hulkenberg Continues Series Domination With New Track Record
From A1GP Media Reports
Nico Hulkenberg took pole position for Sunday’s A1GP Sydney, Australia Sprint race by putting in the fastest lap time ever round the Eastern Creek track during the last of four qualifying segments.
Setting an aggregate time of 2:36.225, A1 Team Germany was just two tenths of a second faster than second place New Zealand, setting the stage for a “Rumble Down Under” in competition tomorrow.
Hulkenberg, whose blistering first-lap time of 1:17.962 proved insurmountable, commented, “There is not a lot of grip on the circuit so it is a compromise between pushing very hard and safety, but I think I got a good lap and, of course, a very good car from the team.”
“I knew before qualifying four that this was the main segment and very important if I wanted to be on pole, and I managed to make a very good lap. We saw the clouds coming in for the final session so that is why we decided to exit the pit earlier and it was a perfect lap.”
New Zealand’s Jonny Reid continued his own driving ambition by putting the Kiwi machine alongside Hulkenberg at the head of the pack.
“It is great to be on the front row, but I am a little bit disappointed that I didn’t get the top spot,” he said. “Being a race driver you are competitive and that is what you aim to achieve.”
“Nico drove well and I made a small mistake and that is the way it is. I was behind South Africa on the last run, so my error was there and the car stepped out slightly. That is just the way it goes and you have to take the good with the bad. I shall be fighting to win tomorrow.”
A1 Team Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr delivered the second fastest lap time of the weekend on his first lap but could not find another good lap to put with it, ending the day with the car third on the grid.
“I had a problem yesterday when I got into the car and it was not quite set up right,” he said. “We were up against it and did not get the best out of the tires.”
“Unfortunately the results from practice this morning did not quite carry over to a good qualifying car, but we managed to put things together reasonabaly well and did some competitive laps at the end.”
“In the Sprint race it is going to be tight with us all pushing hard and someone can easily make a mistake. In the Feature race it is going to be down to who can keep it consistent and be there at the finish, so it should be interesting. I am not going to say out loud where you can overtake here, but I know where I overtook last year and where it is possible. I know I have a good car and we will see what happens tomorrow.”
A1 Team China saw the biggest improvement from practice by qualifying sixth, with driver Ho-Pin Tung giving the team its best-ever qualifying result.
A1 Team USA with regular driver Phil Giebler aboard (following a short hiatus at Taupo) recovered well after spinning off in the first segment, taking seventh place on the grid.
Home team Australia disappointed with slower times than anticipated as the team qualified the car 18th. Mexico, Singapore and South Africa also failed to deliver on this morning’s early promise with results well to the back of the grid.
A1 Teams Ireland and Malaysia both found gains from their earlier practice performances, qualifying ninth and 10th respectively.
The 20-minute Sprint race will start on at 11AM Sydney time on Sunday. The results of the Sprint race will determine the grid for the 70-minute Feature race, which will begin at 3PM local time.
Qualifying results
A1 Team Driver Aggregate time Gap
1 Germany Nico Hulkenberg 2.36.225 -
2 New Zealand Jonny Reid 2.36.441 +0.216
3 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 2.36.596 +0.371
4 France Loic Duval 2.36.711 +0.486
5 Switzerland Sebastien Buemi 2.37.266 +1.041
6 China Ho-Pin Tung 2.37.280 +1.055
7 USA Phil Giebler 2.37.377 +1.152
8 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 2.37.455 +1.230
9 Ireland Richard Lyons 2.37.549 +1.324
10 Malaysia Alex Yoong 2.37.727 +1.502
11 Canada James Hinchcliffe 2.37.739 +1.514
12 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 2.37.909 +1.684
13 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 2.37.964 +1.739
14 Mexico Salvador Duran 2.38.059 +1.834
15 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 2.38.267 +2.042
16 Singapore Christian Murchison 2.38.618 +2.393
17 South Africa Alan van der Merwe 2.39.177 +2.952
18 Australia Karl Reindler 2.39.384 +3.159
19 Lebanon Alex Khateeb 2.40.276 +4.051
20 Brazil Tuka Rocha 2.40.428 +4.203
21 India Parthiva Sureshwaren 2.43.436 +7.211
22 Pakistan Nur Ali 2.44.345 +8.120
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2 Responses to “Team Germany Snaps Up A1GP Sydney Pole”
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And I’m too busy with work to attend the race.sob! :-)
that was meant to be a :-( not a :-) sob.