A1 Team Switzerland will be starting from the second row with its driver Neel Jani for each of the two A1GP races at Chengdu (China). Jani will start from third place for the sprint and from fourth position on the grid for the subsequent feature race.
In the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, there is a two heat qualifying session for each of the two races. For the premiere at Chengdu, China’s fifth-largest city in the province of Sichuan in the south-west of the country, the drivers had to make do with one session to determine the grid positions for the sprint race. The second heat had to be cancelled following an accident by Italian driver Piscopo. Recovery of the demolished cars required more time than planned.
“That took extremely long. However, one always has to count with surprises like that”, said Max Welti, principal of the Swiss team. “We are here in China, a country that still has little experience in motorsport.” Understandably, Welti had higher hopes in terms of results. “However, given the circumstances, we can be satisfied”, he said.
Welti is very positive about the new Ferrari A1GP car. “Now that we have been able to run the car in normal conditions for the first time here in China, we really find out about the potential that is in the car.”
“Following fastest lap time in practice on Friday and a gap of only nine hundredths of a second to the fastest time this morning, I had hoped for a better grid position at Chengdu for our first race with our own car”, said Neel Jani. In spite of the adverse conditions in qualifying for the sprint race, he still claimed third place on the grid. “However, the set-up with new tyres wasn’t exactly spot-on”, Jani reported. “Especially in the first part of qualifying for the feature race, it didn’t work at all. I had to cope with a lot of oversteer.” Nevertheless, he was able to improve significantly in the fourth and final qualifying segment and secure fourth place on the grid for the feature race.
The best grid positions went to Ireland with Adam Carroll for the sprint and Great Britain with Danny Watts for the feature race.
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