A1 Grand Prix: Drivers nominated for Sydney qualifying !

 – Words and pics: A1GP
Eastern Creek, Australia – A1 Team Australia has solved its set up problems of yesterday, making good headway towards a strong home performance in the last official practice session for the A1GP Sydney, Australia. The team moved up from twelfth place on the timing sheet yesterday to sixth place this morning, despite an earlier hiccup when refuelling which saw the nozzle burst and driver, Karl Reindler sprayed with fuel.A1 Team Germany took over from New Zealand at the top of the time sheets with Great Britain slotting into second place ahead of New Zealand. A1 Team Great Britain were delighted with this result having made suspension changes over night which seemed to do the trick, giving them the biggest jump up the time sheets from 13th place yesterday afternoon to second today.

The same could not be said for Italy and Malaysia as they dropped down to 20th and 21st respectively. A1 Team Malaysia’s driver, Alex Yoong, was very frustrated saying that the car seemed to have the wrong set up for the track. On top of this, the master switch failed and the electronics cut out.

With the A1GP engines having reached the 250,000 kilometre mark this weekend after 18 months of racing, many of the teams are changing them. New Zealand was due to change their engine at the end of this race meeting but in fact changed it over night. Canada also has a new engine this weekend, but installed it before the start of yesterday’s practice sessions. The life of an A1GP engine is 3,500km, so the teams make this change once a year – usually mid-season.

The teams now have to decide on their final set up before qualifying for the Sprint race begins at 14.15 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 (11.00 – 12.00)

 A1 TeamDriverTimeLaps
1GermanyNico Hulkenberg1.21.08019
2Great BritainRobbie Kerr1.21.28423
3New ZealandJonny Reid1.21.29323
4FranceLoic Duval1.21.34322
5MexicoSalvador Duran1.21.48024
6AustraliaKarl Reindler1.21.59025
7South AfricaAlan van der Merwe1.21.59325
8SwitzerlandSebastien Buemi1.21.70623
9NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen1.21.76422
10SingaporeChristian Murchison1.21.89225
11USAPhil Giebler1.21.89523
12CanadaJames Hinchcliffe1.22.02322
13Czech RepublicTomas Enge1.22.06921
14BrazilTuka Rocha1.22.11618
15IrelandRichard Lyons1.22.15322
16IndiaParthiva Sureshwaren1.22.16223
17LebanonAlex Khateeb1.22.20621
18ChinaHo-Pin Tung1.22.24927
19IndonesiaAnanda Mikola1.22.41324
20ItalyEnrico Toccacelo1.22.89921
21MalaysiaAlex Yoong1.23.06114
22PakistanNur Ali1.23.75618

Nominated drivers for Qualifying – A1GP Sydney, Australia

A1 TeamDriver
AustraliaKarl Reindler
BrazilTuka Rocha
CanadaJames Hinchcliffe
ChinaHo-Pin Tung
Czech RepublicTomas Enge
FranceLoic Duval
GermanyNico Hulkenberg
Great BritainRobbie Kerr
IndiaParthiva Sureshwaren
IndonesiaAnanda Mikola
IrelandRichard Lyons
ItalyEnrico Toccacelo
LebanonAlex Khateeb
MalaysiaAlex Yoong
MexicoSalvador Duran
NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen
New ZealandJonny Reid
PakistanNur Ali
SingaporeChristian Murchison
South AfricaAlan van der Werwe
SwitzerlandSebastien Buemi
USAPhil Giebler

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