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jjoseph

A1 Reliability At First Team Test Session

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03/08/2005 - Silverstone, 3 August - At 9.51 this morning the first A1 Team race car took to the historic Silverstone circuit. A1 Team Great Britain was first on the track, and by the end of the day had recorded the fastest lap time at the first multiple test of A1 Grand Prix.

Commenting on the day, A1 Grand Prix Founder, President and Chairman Sheikh Maktoum said: 'It's been a successful first shakedown for A1 Grand Prix giving an exciting insight into the first World Cup of Motorsport. Fifteen countries were brought together and the competitive spirit of the teams has already begun to shine through with a friendly rivalry developing between them.

'Most drivers finished within two seconds of each other, proving that the original formula of identical cars with identical engines and tyres is the right solution. The feedback from the drivers has been positive, the seat holders are happy and we're looking forward to a great first race at Brands Hatch.'

Alan Jones, A1 Team Australia Seat Holder said: 'We have been very impressed, the reliability has been brilliant, there hasn't been a single glitch with any of the cars and that is a fantastic result which bodes well for the future. A lot of the cars aren't in their final livery yet but when they are it will look spectacular.'

Robbie Kerr, Driver for A1 Team Great Britain, said: 'Today went well, the team is gelling as a unit and we are working well together. There is a lot still to be gained out of the car and I'm still learning about my driving and how the car performs.' On recording the fastest lap of the day, he commented 'We have to be pleased that we recorded the fastest time today, but today is testing and we have to make sure that we carry this forward to the first race'.

A1 Grand Prix's Global Operations Manager, John Wickham said: 'It is testament to the huge amount of hard work put in by the teams and seat holders over the last couple of weeks that today's test session was such a success. We had 15 cars take to the national circuit and after a morning of technical checking, the cars ran totally reliably in the afternoon, producing very close competitive times. We'll move on tomorrow to another full day of testing when we expect the reliability to continue with some teams introducing new drivers to the Series.'

Fastest lap times and number of laps recorded:

Great Britain 48.888 57 laps

Brazil 49.069 67 laps

Switzerland 49.095 35 laps

France 49.271 41 laps

Portugal 49.393 68 laps

Pakistan 49.506 34 laps

Malaysia 49.634 40 laps

USA 49.740 48 laps

South Africa 49.864 42 laps

Lebanon 49.976 58 laps

Australia 50.066 52 laps

Mexico 50.265 44 laps

Netherlands 50.377 28 laps

New Zealand 50.610 59 laps

China 55.783 22 laps

Collectively, the 15 teams covered 1175 miles.

A1Team drivers:

Australia Christian Jones

Brazil Nelson Piquet jnr, Danilo Dirani and Joao Paulo Oliveiria

China Qing Hua Ma and Tingyi Jiang

France Loic Duval, Alexandre Premat and Nicolas Lapierre

Great Britain Robbie Kerr and Alex Lloyd

Lebanon Kalil Beschir and Basil Shaaban

Malaysia Alex Yoong

Mexico Luis Diaz, Memo Rojas, David Martinez and Salvador Duran

Netherlands Jos Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen

New Zealand Jonny Reid and Matt Halliday

Pakistan Adam Khan

Portugal Pedro Lamy

South Africa Stephen Simpson and Thomas Scheckter

Switzerland Neel Jani

USA Jeff Simmons

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Interesting, it's nice to see that we did well and the informatuion regarding the teams and drivers. So thanks for that.

JS.

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Is A1GP going to be out of GP2/F1 seasons? Since Piquet Jnr, Jani, Premat (who is excellent by the way!) and Lapierre are all involved in GP2!

Nice to see Yoong and Verstappen racing

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Is A1GP going to be out of GP2/F1 seasons? Since Piquet Jnr, Jani, Premat (who is excellent by the way!) and Lapierre are all involved in GP2!

Nice to see Yoong and Verstappen racing

yeah, the guy who made it happen "didn't want to step on F1's toes" or something like that, so most of the races will be in either offseason or weekends when there is no F1 race by the looks of things.

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I see my Country (SA) were 9th quickest...

I saw the car testing at Kyalami last year(Sounds very similar to A F1 by the way).

On that occation Alan van der Merver was driving, he's rumoured to race it.

The catch here is that he hammered Piquet Jnr & completely outdrove him in the British single seater championship they raced in last year. van der Merver won the championship & Piquet finished 3rd.

As far as I can see the only reason Piquet is in GP2 and van der Merver is not, is because Piquet has a world champion as a father & obviously more cash.

Thanks a lot jjoseph for the time list, very interesting stuff, I just though i'd mention this young South African.

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yeah I've heard alot about him. Sounds like a very good prospect. Can't wait until the A1 season kicks off!

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Here is the fastest timimgs for each team.

Fastest lap times and number of laps recorded in the afternoon session (4 August):

France 48.251 59 laps

Brazil 48.439 62 laps

Malaysia 48.535 49 laps

Netherlands 48.766 62 laps

Portugal 48.835 54 laps

Great Britain 48.953 45 laps

Pakistan 49.046 30 laps

New Zealand 49.088 44 laps

South Africa 49.115 34 laps

Mexico 49.226 57 laps

Switzerland 49.422 6 laps

USA 49.514 40 laps

Australia 49.676 34 laps

Lebanon 49.876 66 laps

China 50.640 59 laps

Fastest lap times and number of laps recorded in morning session (4 August):

France 48.183 41 laps

Switzerland 48.408 38 laps

Pakistan 48.573 36 laps

Great Britain 48.585 38 laps

Brazil 48.848 79 laps

Malaysia 48.891 47 laps

Portugal 49.007 50 laps

Netherlands 49.192 67 laps

Australia 49.203 45 laps

South Africa 49.211 57 laps

New Zealand 49.430 49 laps

USA 49.530 33 laps

Mexico 49.557 48 laps

Lebanon 49.786 66 laps

China 51.685 33 laps

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The times are actually quite close (apart from China)...

Should be a very exiting series.

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