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Good Friday for the Netherland, NZ Second Fastest |
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A1GP Press Release
Friday, April 10, 2009
Vodafone A1GP
Algarve, Portugal got underway this morning with New Zealand’s Earl
Bamber setting the early pace in the rookie session and the
Netherlands’ topping the timesheets in afternoon practice
Round
Six of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport began today in Portugal
as the A1GP Powered by Ferrari cars took to the new 4.69-kilometre
Autódromo Internacional do Algarve for the first time with the drivers
giving it great reviews.
Robert
Doornbos looked strong on his return to A1 Team Netherlands’ posting a
1-minute 31.962 seconds early on in this afternoon’s first official
practice session.
“It’s
a great track here,” said the Netherlands’ Robert Doornbos. “For me,
it’s not easy to swap cars, especially as I arrived last night from
Texas where I was testing on an oval there so this is a completely
different car.
"Every
time I have driven the car I have been strong and finished on the
podium. This will be my last time in the car this season because I have
IndyCar commitments, but I’m looking for a win to leave the team on a
high note.”
New
Zealand continued its consistent pace this afternoon with Earl Bamber
back behind the wheel of Black Beauty to record the second quickest
time of the day.
Fresh from his podium success in South
Africa, Monaco’s Clivio Piccione put in a great last lap to move up to
third as the chequered flag came out which pushed Italy’s Vitantonio
Liuzzi down to fourth on his A1GP debut.
Home
favourite, Filipe Albuquerque clocked the fifth fastest time, 1-minute
32.570-seconds, 0.608 seconds adrift of the Netherlands’.
Portugal’s
Filipe Albuquerque’s session came to an early end this afternoon after
getting stranded out on track: “I was struggling on braking with the
rear and that time I was just too late to catch the clutch. I asked the
marshals to push as I knew the car would start.”
| Pos | A1 Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 |
Netherlands |
Robert Doornbos |
1'31.962 |
|
19 |
| 2 |
New Zealand |
Earl Bamber |
1'32.030 |
0.068 |
15 |
| 3 |
Monaco |
Clivio Piccione |
1'32.242 |
0.280 |
20 |
| 4 |
Italy |
Vitantonio Liuzzi |
1'32.568 |
0.606 |
23 |
| 5 |
Portugal |
Filipe Albuquerque |
1'32.570 |
0.608 |
16 |
| 6 |
Switzerland |
Neel Jani |
1'32.635 |
0.673 |
10 |
| 7 |
Germany |
André Lotterer |
1'32.762 |
0.800 |
24 |
| 8 |
France |
Nicolas Prost |
1'32.894 |
0.932 |
20 |
| 9 |
Lebanon |
Daniel Morad |
1'33.019 |
1.057 |
22 |
| 10 |
Australia |
John Martin |
1'33.221 |
1.259 |
25 |
| 11 |
South Africa |
Adrian Zaugg |
1'33.379 |
1.417 |
23 |
| 12 |
India |
Narain Karthikeyan |
1'33.448 |
1.486 |
25 |
| 13 |
USA |
Marco Andretti |
1'33.500 |
1.538 |
21 |
| 14 |
Ireland |
Adam Carroll |
1'33.732 |
1.770 |
22 |
| 15 |
Malaysia |
Fairuz Fauzy |
1'33.745 |
1.783 |
25 |
| 16 |
China |
Ho-Pin Tung |
1'34.087 |
2.125 |
24 |
| 17 |
Indonesia |
Zahir Ali |
1'35.064 |
3.102 |
23 |
| 18 |
Mexico |
Salvador Durán |
1'56.253 |
24.291 |
6 |
| 19 |
Brazil |
Felipe Guimarães |
|
|
0 |
| 20 |
Great Britain |
Dan Clarke |
|
|
0 |
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