A tropical downpour which began just as the pit lane opened for today’s first official practice session left a slippery wet track for A1 Grand Prix’s first outing at the Sentul circuit, Indonesia. The rain continued to fall into the afternoon but as the sun broke through mid-way into the second session, conditions improved and the A1 teams picked up speed.

Relative newcomer to the Series, A1 Team Italy’s Max Busnelli who drove for the first time at the last round brought out the first red flag spinning off and damaging the car. Red flags caused by Austria, Brazil and the Czech Republic and China followed with Lebanon and Portugal joining the list from the second session.

Home racer Ananada Mikola showed that circuit experience pays leading the second session for some time but it was A1 Team Malaysia’s Alex Yoong who put in the day’s fastest lap time of 1.27.557. ‘We did a good job today, but it is more important to be quick tomorrow. We were struggling with set up at first, but we found a couple of things that really helped us. And I have raced here a long time ago which helps.’

Commenting on tyre wear at the track, Alex admitted ‘I am a little worried, the track is very abrasive. Tyre wear will be high if the track is dry, but I have heard that it will be wet over the weekend.’

Marcus Marshall made an impressive debut with A1 Team Australia, finishing the day second fastest. Marcus said he was impressed with what he had seen of A1GP so far, ‘It’s been fantastic, I love the concept, every car being equal means tough racing. No-one has an advantage, and everyone starts even.’

Winner of the last A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Jos Verstappen, is hoping for a repeat performance this weekend. ‘I’m very pleased with how it went today, it took around five or six laps to find the limit. The response at home was very positive after the win in South Africa, there was good press and TV footage which always helps a team.’

However, the focus of local attention remains on Ananda Mikola, the Asian Formula Three Champions, who is the driver for A1 Team Indonesia. ‘There isn’t too much pressure at my home race, it is my own pride that is at stake. I just want to get a good result. I think we are looking good for the race, as long as no-one hits me from the back! This is a great race for Indonesia, there are some good drivers here, some from F1 such as Ralph, Jos and Alex. We show great racing, and crashes on TV all over the world, I think it will be a great race this weekend.’

Official Practice Session 1 (13.00 – 14.00)

   A1 Team  Driver  Time  No. Laps  1  Ireland  Ralph Firman  1.28.458  16  2  Indonesia  Ananda Mikola  1.29.006  20  3  Great Britain  Robbie Kerr  1.29.028  20  4  Portugal  Alvaro Parente  1.29.372  18  5  Australia  Christian Jones  1.29.551  28  6  Canada  Sean McIntosh  1.29.737  29  7  Switzerland  Neel Jani  1.30.166  18  8  S outh Africa  Stephen Simpson  1.30.205  25  9  France  Nicolas Lapierre  1.30.295  10  10  New Zealand  Matt Halliday  1.30.385  30  11  Japan  Hayanari Shimoda  1.30.444  25  12  Netherlands  Jos Verstappen  1.30.517  20  13  Brazil  Christian Fittipaldi  1.30.571  27  14  Germany  Timo Scheider  1.30.610  21  15  Mexico  Salvador Duran  1.30.730  20  16  Czech Republic  Tomas Enge  1.30.801  6  17  Malaysia  Alex Yoong  1.31.308  23  18  India  Armaan Ebrahim  1.31.393  29  19  Lebanon  Basil Shaaban  1.31.822  28  20  China  Tengyi Jiang  1.32.963  28  21  USA  Philip Giebler  1.33.459  16  22  Austria  Mathias Lauda  1.34.518  10  23  Italy  Max Busnelli  1.37.191  5 

Official Practice session 2 (16.00 – 17.00)

   A1 Team  Driver  Time  No. Laps1  Malaysia  Alex Yoong  1.27.557  17  2  Australia  Marcus Marshall  1.27.820  21  3  Netherlands  Jos Verstappen  1.28.279  20  4  France  Nicolas Lapierre  1.28.680  23  5  Indonesia  Ananda Mikola  1.28.776  15  6  Ireland  Ralph Firman  1.28.915  20  7  Canada  Sean McIntosh  1.29.203  18  8  Great Britain  Robbie Kerr  1.29.380  21  9  S outh Africa  Stephen Simpson  1.29.437  17  10  Mexico  Salvador Duran  1.29.666  19  11  Austria  Mathias Lauda  1.29.785  28  12  Czech Republic  Tomas Enge  1.29.839  23  13  India  Armaan Ebrahim  1.29.925  22  14  China  Tengyi Jiang  1.30.019  30  15  Japan  Hayanari Shimoda  1.30.100  22  16  Portugal  Alvaro Parente  1.30.172  26  17  Germany  Timo Scheider  1.30.349  23  18  Brazil  Christian Fittipaldi  1.30.414  25  19  Switzerland  Neel Jani  1.30.489  24  20  USA  Philip Geibler  1.30.772  26  21  Italy  Max Busnelli  1.30.822  23  22  New Zealand  Matt Halliday  1.31.464  23  23  Lebanon  Khalil Beschir  1.32.958  24