A1  Team  France  set  the  third-quickest  time  in  Friday’s  practice  on  the  Sepang  circuit  in Malaysia. At the end of the day’s only session Loïc Duval got to within 0.6s of the quickest time,  but  his  attempts  to  beat  the  stopwatch  were  upset  by  a  yellow  flag  at  the  end  of practice. The team reckons it has found a number of useful set-up adjustments and is quietly confident for the next two days. Its aim is to finish on the podium in this weekend’s two races and to close the gap in the overall classification.

Olivier Panis, Sporting Director: “It’s been a good day for A1 Team France, which found its footing  straight  away  setting  promising  times  that  bode  well  for  the  rest  of  the  weekend. Sepang  is  a  very  demanding  track  with  a  wide  variety  of  corners  with  very  different characteristics. It’s often difficult to find the right set-up, but we’re on the right track as Loïc’s time showed in all sectors on his last run. Without the yellow flags at the end of the session, we would have been on the same pace as the fastest time of the day.” Loïc Duval, driver: “I’m pretty satisfied with my first day. I know Sepang having raced GTs on  it,  but  I  have  to  say  that  the  circuit  looks  very  different  when  you’re  in  a  single-seater. Technically speaking, Nicolas Prost’s absence forced us to miss the rookie session. It had a small impact on our programme as I had to spend time bedding in the brake pads with new tyres. We’ve also got a new engine this weekend and adjusting it took three laps. However, our performance is very promising and it improved throughout practice. Before my last  run  we  made  a  major  modification  to  the  car’s  set-up.  I  was  not  able  to  confirm  the overall improvement in general balance due to the yellow flags at the end of the session, but we’ve definitely made a step forward as confirmed by the data acquisition systems. I think I can make a little progress too, so we’re feeling confident for tomorrow.”