British Potential Hampered In Durban Practice

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Throttle problems blighted A1 Team Great Britain’s progress in South Africa Friday as the team prepared for Sunday’s eighth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, hosted on the streets of Durban on a specially designed 2.04-mile temporary circuit.

Cambridgeshire’s Oliver Jarvis was first on track for the British team, the 23-year-old undertaking driving duties in the Rookie-Only Session. The 2005 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year was forced to take a conservative approach following an engine change earlier in the week, Jarvis wracking up a total of 24 laps in the session posting the ninth fastest time with a 1m21.443s.

Jarvis handed over to Kerr for the afternoon’s official practice outing but the Burbage racer’s hopes of quality track time ahead of Sunday’s Sprint and Feature races were thwarted by recurring throttle problems, the Brit logging just nine laps in the process. The day ended early for the entire A1GP field as the session was red flagged halfway through due to a kerbing issue at Turn 7.

Robbie Kerr:

“Hopefully we haven’t lost too much ground due to the session being red flagged but we were done for the day anyway as we had to retire the car to investigate the throttle problem. Ultimately we don’t know how the car’s going to behave here now as the problems with the car began almost as soon as the session started. We’re definitely on the back foot a little but can take heart from how competitive we were here last year. We just have to see what we can get the car to do tomorrow in practice before we have to qualify in the afternoon. ”

Oliver Jarvis:

“Well I didn’t get as many laps in as I’d have liked but we still fulfilled the usual team duties during the course of the session. We ran a new engine so I had to break that in along with new discs and so on while learning the track at the same time. It’s a great circuit in a fantastic setting! I thought the potential was definitely there with the car but unfortunately Robbie couldn’t build on it in the afternoon thanks to the mechanical issues. ”