Malaysia In Good Shape
Alex Yoong 2nd In Practice 1, Looks Forward To Strong Qualifying In China
A1 Team Malaysia which lies 10th in the A1 Grand Prix championship with one round to go in Shanghai, China got off to a good start with second in the first official free practice at the Shanghai International Circuit an hour ago.
The team's pre-event release quoted Yoong as saying, “Shanghai is a fairly new circuit and shares the same designer as for Sepang, Hermann Tilke so there are a number of characteristics which are similar, not least the high-tech, modern architecture of the facility. It’s another of the many new experiences for both me and the team, and an exciting challenge. I think very few of the drivers will have been here, so if we can be on the pace quickly there’s a good chance of a strong qualifying result.”
“As the first season of A1 Grand Prix draws to a close we are tenth in the championship standings, but, only sixteen points separate the fourth placed team and ourselves in tenth. The competition is so close we could improve on this if we can have two good race finishes. This will be our goal for the weekend.”
Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia, announced new sponsors in the same release, “We’re aiming to finish on a high note at Shanghai. We had a second place podium in Indonesia and 12 top ten finishes, so we’ve had some good results and are capable of more. It’s only when you reach the final race weekend and look back at what has been achieved that you realise how far you’ve come. Putting together a new team, with a new car and racing competitively at eleven venues all around the world is a huge undertaking. A1 Team Malaysia has really proved to be an excellent team that have worked tirelessly to be part of the spectacle of A1 Grand Prix, and really deserve everything achieved so far. We’ll keep pushing this weekend and hope to be celebrating a successful end to the season on Sunday evening.”
“In addition to the prominent Proton branding on the A1 Team Malaysia car, we will feature 4 additional Malaysian brands on the car in China. We are in discussion for long-term commercial participation with a number of brands for the much-anticipated second season of A1 Grand Prix. The brands featured for this event include “Visit Malaysia 2007”, FTEC, MBF Cards and Royal Selangor. Their possible future long term inclusion in our programme highlights our strategy to promote Malaysia and Malaysian brands internationally and our focus on the development of national pride, both domestically at a grass roots level and within the corporate sectors.”
A1GP: SHANGHAI - Official Practice 1
Pos/Team/Driver/On Lap/Time/Total Laps1 MEX Salvador DURAN 19 1'52.513 202 MAL Alex YOONG 14 1'52.721 173 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 16 1'52.733 174 IRL Michael DEVANEY 8 1'52.919 95 CAN Patrick CARPENTIER 17 1'52.989 186 AUS Ryan BRISCOE 16 1'53.229 217 GBR Darren MANNING 18 1'53.314 208 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 12 1'53.452 139 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 20 1'53.508 2110 USA Philip GIEBLER 16 1'53.546 1811 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 9 1'53.560 1612 INA Ananda MIKOLA 16 1'53.626 1713 PAK Adam KHAN 11 1'53.662 1914 SUI Giorgio MONDINI 18 1'53.966 2115 LIB Graham RAHAL 22 1'54.001 2216 CZE Tomas ENGE 18 1'54.125 1917 POR Cesar CAMPANICO 15 1'54.26418 18 BRA Christian FITTIPALDI 19 1'54.841 2019 ITA Enrico TOCCACELO 18 1'54.868 2020 CHN Qinghua MA 3 1'55.087 1221 AUT Mathias LAUDA 7 1'55.095 1022 GER Sebastian STAHL 19 1'56.833 21A1GP China: Less Than One Second Seperates Top 13 In Practice 2 Alex Yoong Just Four-Tenths >From Fastest In Fifth
It's going to be a cracker of a qualifying tomorrow as less than one second seperates the top 13 in the just concluded second official practice in the Shanghai International Circuit in China this afternoon.
A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong, as usual, was not using up his new tyres in practices like the other top teams. He finished fifth less than four-tenths away from France's Micholas Lapierre who clocked 1m 51.972s.
Great Britain finished second with Mexico in third and Australia in fourth ahead of Malaysia.
A1GP: SHANGHAI - Official Practice 2
Pos/Team/Driver/On Lap/Time/Total Laps
1 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 9 1'51.972 192 GBR Darren MANNING 9 1'52.079 193 MEX Salvador DURAN 15 1'52.321 214 AUS Ryan BRISCOE 7 1'52.355 195 MAL Alex YOONG 17 1'52.371 216 IRL Michael DEVANEY 7 1'52.376 197 CAN Patrick CARPENTIER 17 1'52.388 228 CHN Tengyi JIANG 20 1'52.436 239 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 7 1'52.477 1610 INA Ananda MIKOLA 9 1'52.701 2011 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 8 1'52.703 1912 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 8 1'52.858 1913 CZE Tomas ENGE 4 1'52.960 2314 ITA Enrico TOCCACELO 22 1'53.052 2215 SUI Giorgio MONDINI 10 1'53.066 1916 PAK Adam KHAN 10 1'53.200 1617 POR Cesar CAMPANICO 22 1'53.423 2318 USA Philip GIEBLER 3 1'53.564 2019 AUT Mathias LAUDA 10 1'53.918 2420 LIB Graham RAHAL 8 1'53.951 2221 BRA Christian FITTIPALDI 10 1'54.073 1522 GER Sebastian STAHL 10 1'56.172 20
