Nicolas  Prost  had  his  first  test  session  in  an  A1GP  car  on  the  Silverstone  circuit  (Great Britain)  yesterday.

Thanks to his performance the young French driver was announced as the  rookie  in  the  team  for  the  2007-2008  A1GP  Championship.  He  will  take  part  in  free practice on Friday in all the rounds, and will probably find himself competing in some races during the season. Nicolas got behind the wheel of an A1GP car at 14:00 on the 3,619 km circuit and soon got the  measure  of  his  Lola-Zytek,  the  same  car  as  the  one  driven  by  all  the  young  hopefuls racing  in  the  championship.  He  was  soon  on  the  pace  and  covered  over  40  laps  in  the afternoon. 

Nicolas  had  his  first  taste  of  the  car  under  the watchful eye of his father Alain, four-times F1 World Champion.   The  A1GP  organisers  announced  several  measures  aimed  at  protecting  the  environment. The main one is the decision to use bio fuel with 30% ethanol, which should reduce harmful emissions by around 20% this year.

A1 Team France ended the day in second place with Nicolas Lapierre setting a time of 1m 10.531s in the morning. It was not beaten until late on in the afternoon when Team South Africa improved it by 0.047s. A1GP testing will continue on the Silverstone circuit today.

Nicolas  Prost:  “The  A1GP  car is the most powerful single-seater I’ve driven so far, and I immediately felt at home behind the wheel. The whole team and Nicolas Lapierre did their best to help me and I’d like to thank them all. My aim for today is to improve my knowledge of the car and to progress. I’m proud of having obtained the role of rookie in A1 Team France, and I can’t wait to make my contribution to bringing the cup back to France.”

Alain Prost: “A1GP has chosen to give pride of place to bio fuels this year and I’d like to congratulate  them  on  this  initiative.  Motorsport  must  come  to  terms  with  present-day preoccupations. Today also marked Nicolas’s debut in the championship and I have to admit that I’m delighted with his performance. It will be a pleasure for me to attend several races this year, and I lend my full support to A1 Team France whose aim is to recapture the Cup it won at the end of the 2005-2006 season.”

The A1GP Series is the World Cup of Motorsport in which 22 countries do battle with each other  in  identical  single-seaters  over  11  weekends.  The  2007-2008  season  will  kick  off  at Zandvoort in Holland on 30th September. At present Nicolas Prost is lying third in the Spanish F3 Championship; he also raced in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours at the wheel of a Saleen, and finished in fifth place in the LM GT1 category.