The highly anticipated Malaysian leg of the A1 Grand Prix took off this morning with a free practice session dedicated to rookie teams and developing nations. Out of the regular 20 nations that compete for the top prize, only 17 nations took part in this mornings free practise. The three nations that did not pracitice are China, Mexico and Monaco.
Fastest time during the practice session was clocked by Team France (1:50.679). This was followed by Team Great Britain and Team New Zealand with host nation, Team Malaysia stopped the clock just enough to come in fourth.
The afternoon session saw the time sheets dominated by Team Great Britain whose driver James Winslow clocked a fastest time of 1:50.038. Team Switzerland and Team India clocked second and third fastest with previous race winners Team Ireland coming in at seventh fastest. Team Malaysia managed to secure a top 10 spot at tenth fastest.
Team Malaysia currently leads the standings with 28 points followed by Team Ireland and Team France who are both tied at second on the table with 23 points respectively and Team New Zealand has third spot with 20 points. Last year’s champions, Team Switzerland are down at seventh spot with 17 points but with the season still young and seven races still to go, expect drastic changes to the table. Below are both of today’s timesheets and the complete 08/09 season table. Visit www.a1gp.com for more information.
Free Practice 3 starts at 11am tomorrow (Saturday) and Qualifying will start at 2:15pm
Rookies Combined Practise Session
| Pos | A1 Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | Nicolas Prost | 1’50.679 | – |
| 2 | Great Britain | Danny Watts | 1’51.096 | 0.417 |
| 3 | New Zealand | Earl Bamber | 1’51.240 | 0.561 |
| 4 | Malaysia | Aaron Lim | 1’51.815 | 1.136 |
| 5 | Italy | Stefano Coletti | 1’51.839 | 1.160 |
| 6 | Lebanon | Daniel Morad | 1’52.008 | 1.329 |
| 7 | India | Armaan Ebrahim | 1’52.205 | 1.526 |
| 8 | USA | J.R. Hildebrand | 1’52.325 | 1.646 |
| 9 | Netherlands | Dennis Retera | 1’52.603 | 1.924 |
| 10 | South Africa | Gavin Cronje | 1’52.747 | 2.068 |
| 11 | Portugal | Armando Parente | 1’53.272 | 2.593 |
| 12 | Australia | Ashley Walsh | 1’53.277 | 2.598 |
| 13 | Ireland | Niall Quinn | 1’53.676 | 2.997 |
| 14 | Brazil | Felipe Guimarães | 1’54.126 | 3.447 |
| 15 | Korea | Jin-Woo Hwang | 1’54.499 | 3.820 |
| 16 | Indonesia | Zahir Ali | 1’54.903 | 4.224 |
| 17 | Switzerland | Alexandre Imperatori |
Practise Session 2
| Pos | A1 Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Britain | Danny Watts | 1’50.038 | 13 | |
| 2 | Switzerland | Neel Jani | 1’50.110 | 0.072 | 9 |
| 3 | India | Narain Karthikeyan | 1’50.187 | 0.149 | 14 |
| 4 | France | Loïc Duval | 1’50.277 | 0.239 | 15 |
| 5 | Netherlands | Jeroen Bleekemolen | 1’50.363 | 0.325 | 16 |
| 6 | Portugal | Filipe Albuquerque | 1’50.404 | 0.366 | 20 |
| 7 | Ireland | Adam Carroll | 1’50.559 | 0.521 | 16 |
| 8 | New Zealand | Earl Bamber | 1’50.583 | 0.545 | 17 |
| 9 | Monaco | Clivio Piccione | 1’50.618 | 0.580 | 21 |
| 10 | Malaysia | Fairuz Fauzy | 1’50.620 | 0.582 | 22 |
| 11 | Lebanon | Daniel Morad | 1’50.962 | 0.924 | 15 |
| 12 | China | Ho-Pin Tung | 1’51.291 | 1.253 | 22 |
| 13 | USA | Marco Andretti | 1’51.358 | 1.320 | 18 |
| 14 | South Africa | Adrian Zaugg | 1’51.439 | 1.401 | 21 |
| 15 | Brazil | Felipe Guimarães | 1’51.520 | 1.482 | 14 |
| 16 | Australia | John Martin | 1’51.642 | 1.604 | 19 |
| 17 | Mexico | David Garza | 1’51.775 | 1.737 | 19 |
| 18 | Italy | Edoardo Piscopo | 1’51.954 | 1.916 | 14 |
| 19 | Indonesia | Satrio Hermanto | 1’52.406 | 2.368 | 21 |
| 20 | Korea | Jin-Woo Hwang | 0 |
Complete Season Table
| Pos | A1 Team | Points | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Top 10s | Poles | F.Laps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Malaysia | 28 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | – | |
| 2 | Ireland | 23 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | France | 23 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | – | 1 | |
| 4 | New Zealand | 20 | 4 | – | 2 | 3 | – | – | |
| 5 | Netherlands | 20 | 4 | – | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| 6 | Portugal | 18 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | – | – | |
| 7 | Switzerland | 17 | 4 | – | – | 3 | – | – | |
| 8 | Great Britain | 16 | 2 | – | 2 | 2 | 1 | – | |
| 9 | Australia | 13 | 4 | – | – | 2 | – | – | |
| 10 | South Africa | 9 | 4 | – | – | 3 | – | – | |
| 11 | Monaco | 9 | 4 | – | – | 3 | – | – | |
| 12 | USA | 6 | 4 | – | – | 3 | – | 1 | |
| 13 | Korea | 4 | 4 | – | – | 1 | – | – | |
| 14 | Lebanon | 3 | 4 | – | – | 2 | – | – | |
| 15 | Italy | 2 | 4 | – | – | 1 | – | – | |
| 16 | China | 2 | 4 | – | – | 1 | – | – | |
| 17 | India | 1 | 2 | – | – | 2 | – | – | |
| 18 | Indonesia | 0 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 19 | Brazil | 0 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 20 | Mexico | 0 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | |
| – | Canada | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| – | Germany | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| – | Pakistan | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
