A1 Team Netherlands had a good first day of the A1GP Brno, with the team setting a fourth fastest time in the first official free practice. Jeroen Bleekemolen set a fastest time of 1’46.347.
This morning it was Arie Luyendyk jr who made his debut for A1 Team Netherlands in the Rookie session during an A1GP race weekend. In the first half of 25 minutes Luyendyk jr mainly focussed on bedding in new brakes and started working on the car set up with the team. In the end Arie finished on a combined 15th place on a track which was completely new to him. During the Rookie session the team also discovered that one of the brakepads had broken, causing locked up wheels for Luyendyk.
In the afternoon Jeroen Bleekemolen took over for his first free practice this weekend. The one hour session went without any problems for A1 Team Netherlands and the team was constantly amongst the front runners. Vietoris of Germany had a clear advantage because he already went out in the Rookie session and this enabled him to get the maximum from his new tyres straight away.
Jeroen Bleekemolen was pleased with today’s result; “It went very well. The first run was the quickest because then the tyres are still very fresh and the drop off here is quite significant. There Germany had an advantage over us, they already went out this morning with the same driver. We were competitive from the start and also later on in the session, as the tyres were worn we were still there. Every time we went out we improved the car and apart from that first run we were inside the top three when you look at the times. That’s just good and I am confident about the weekend. We can still improve the car and things are looking good. Already we are much quicker than last year. We are driving with a totally different set up, now we are there immediately. That was never the case last year. ”
According to Jan Lammers a solid foundation to build on has now been lain; “So far, so good. Friday practice is always the possibility for the teams to get everything in position for the important qualifying sessions and the races. So, today is mainly an indication, where are you?. This first indication for us is that we are quite competitive. Tomorrow the important things have to be executed well and on Sunday the prizes are won. But for now it is good”.
Despite his 15th place Arie Luyendyk jr was guite pleased; “It was great. The first session we were a little bit slower, I had to bed in some brake pads. The second session went much better, with the brakes being bedded. I was quite pleased, considering the fact that I had never been here before. I learned the track more and more. The car had a lot of understeer and we also had a broken brake pad. Those two things considered I am quite pleased with the result. The circuit is quite technical, with a lot of hard braking points. This makes it difficult to find a flow. There are also a lot of chicanes where you have to sacrifice the first corner a bit. In my last lap I took a different line in some and that was my fastest lap. Hopefully the team can make good use of my data and we will see how the rest of the weekend goes. ”
Tomorrow morning at 11.00 hours the final free practice for the A1GP Brno will be held. At 14.15 hours the qualifying starts, with the fastest time from the first two 15 minute segments determining the Sprintrace grid and the fastest time from segments three and four determining the starting grid for the Feature race.
| 
|