TAUPO, New Zealand (January 20, 2007) - A1 Team Mexico was ranked in 13th position for the starting grid of the Sprint race that will be held this Sunday at the 3.5-Km. (2.17-mile) circuit of Taupo.

     With Salvador Duran behind the wheel, the Mexican team set the following times in qualifying: 1'16.373 (13th place) in the first segment, 1'16.011 (17th place) in the second segment, 1'15.561 (10th place) in the third segment, and 1'15.288 (11th place) in the fourth segment. Duran lowered consistently his times, but only they were enough to be placed in the 13th spot with an aggregate of 2'30.849.

     About his performance today, the Mexican driver said: "It has been hard. The things are not working well this weekend. I think that we have something in the car, but simply we did not find what it is. I feel very comfortable on the track and I feel the car well, simply we are slow. The problem is that this is such a short and narrow track that it's very easy to loose time with a small detail."

     "I am not in a bad moment because I am well, that's why I feel frustrated because the things are not working as we would like. However, we keep working to do better. I think this may be our worst qualifying in this A1 season and this can not be in this way after all those podiums and good results. Now, we have to carry on. We have to figure out how we can improve our performance in the best way possible," he said.

     The pole position went to Team Germany, with the French team in the second position, followed by New Zealand, Netherlands, Switzerland and Great Britain.

     The races will be broadcast this Saturday live on SPEED Channel en Español at 19:00 hrs. (Mexico CST), and will be rebroadcast this Sunday at 9:30 hrs. (Mexico CST). Again international commentator Jorge Koechlin will be joining Tony Rivera in the SPEED Channel en Español broadcasts.