A1 Team Great Britain will start the Zandvoort feature race from third on the grid as 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season commenced today. Oliver Jarvis set the fastest lap of the final qualifying segment but fast laps from Germany, and eventual pole sitter South Africa, in the final minutes of the session meant a front row start was missed out on. Jarvis produced a strong performance on his last qualifying run putting him 3 rd on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
The earlier qualifying segments for the Sprint Race saw Oliver line up in 10 th position, intermittent light showers and strong winds made for challenging conditions and the team struggled to find a suitable set- up over the first two runs. Improvements were made for the final two runs resulting in Oliver improving on his previous best time by almost two seconds.
Oliver Jarvis: “It’s been quite a frustrating day. We struggled in the two morning practice sessions, then before qualifying I thought we had a good chance as I felt we learnt a lot in the break, but unfortunately my first sprint race qualifying session didn’t go so well. We definitely improved in the second sprint race qualifying session, yet the majority of teams went slower in the session. We made a few changes to the car before the feature race qualifying and made a big jump forward by almost two seconds. To qualify 10 th and 3 rd respectively is slightly disappointing but I am delighted to at least make it into the top three after a difficult day”.
James Goodfield, Race Engineer: “We tested a number of setup this morning to try to get to grips with the changing weather conditions but we didn’t quite find the right one. But we optimistic that we knew what we had to do ahead of qualifying and made a few more changes to improve the car – unfortunately we didn’t quite get the best out of the car in the sprint race qualifying but it all came together for the feature race qualifying. Olly did a really good job as its been a fairly challenging day”, and commenting on the new qualifying format: “The new qualifying format completely changes the way you approach a weekend and adds new pressures, but is great for the fans and for the teams as we can really go for it in both races knowing that you no longer have to start from the back for the feature should something go wrong in the sprint race. ”
A1GP Round 1 Sprint Race Qualifying
1, South Africa 1’45.095
2, France 1’45.431
3, Mexico 1’46.198
4, Switzerland 1’46.728
5, Netherlands 1’46.791
*10, GBR 1’47.748
A1GP Round 1 Feature Race Qualifying
1, South Africa 1’43.979
2, Germany 1’44.670
3, GBR 1’45.143
4, Switzerland 1’45.599
5, France 1’45.691
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