A1 Team Brasil began round eight of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today at the Durban street circuit in South Africa, but the team’s running was cut short, firstly due to a mechanical failure on the car during this morning’s rookie session, and then this afternoon when second practice was red-flagged and not re-started after officials discovered that the track was breaking up, which caused safety concerns.
Team Brasil showed off a brand new livery today, alongside a new driver line-up for the Durban race, with both rookie Luiz Razia and race driver Bruno Junqueira driving the A1 car for the first time.
Luiz began the rookie practice, but was only able to put in one timed lap before he suffered a bearing failure on the front right wheel. Unfortunately the problem was not able to be rectified in the short amount of time remaining and Luiz was forced to sit out the rest of the session.
Bruno took over driving duties for this afternoon’s free practice sessions, and quickly got to grips with the car and the track, posting a P3 time on his first outing. Unfortunately, half-way through the hour the session had to be red-flagged and was not re-started because the track had begun to break up on the apex of some of the corners. Unfortunately, it was Team Brasil that brought this problem to the attention of the officials when Bruno hit a patch of this section of the track, which sent him into the wall, leading to a nose-cone change.
Teams will have one further hour of practice tomorrow morning, before the afternoon’s qualifying session.
Bruno Junqueira:
“It’s a different experience driving this car from what I’m used to because there is less power and downforce. It’s like going back to the old times, with the car sliding a lot, but I’m happy that we were competitive straight away. I was P3 on my first run but on the second outing I experienced some problems with the track breaking up and I drove over that and damaged the car a bit. So in one way I am quite happy because we were fast on our first outing and were right on the pace, but in another way I am not happy that we could not keep running because the session was cut short. I think the track problem will be easy to fix, so let’s just see what we can do tomorrow. â€
Luiz Razia (Rookie Driver):
“I only got one timed lap in which is a shame, but that’s racing so these things happen. The car feels very good to drive, it’s not a kid’s car that’s for sure! It’s fun to drive - like my experiences of F3000 and GP2. I hope that Bruno can do well this weekend. â€
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