A1GP: Big battle for top 10 in the qualifying - 02.02.2008

Tomas Enge managed to get one top 10 grid position at Eastern Creek after he set 9th time in the feature qualifying. The Czech team will start 14th in the Sprint. The Czech team struggled with grip on Friday and Saturday’s practice showed a slight improvement. However, the main focus was on race setup and Enge was running for majority of the session with full fuel tank and the team was playing with the ride height on bumpy Australian track.

He did 22 laps with best time 1:21,733 and ended 16th. Tomas Enge managed to get one top 10 grid position at Eastern Creek after he set 9th time in the feature qualifying. The Czech team will start 14th in the Sprint. The Czech team struggled with grip on Friday and Saturday’s practice showed a slight improvement. However, the main focus was on race setup and Enge was running for majority of the session with full fuel tank and the team was playing with the ride height on bumpy Australian track. He did 22 laps with best time 1:21,733 and ended 16th.

First two qualifying segments decided as usual about the sprint race grid. Enge’s best time 1:19,099 was set in the second run and was within a second of the pole winning time. The Czech team finished 14th. The sun went out in the meantime and the track temperature was considerable higher for the feature qualifying. Lap times were slower as a result. Enge set his best in the last run and 1:19,232 put the Czech to the fifth row on the grid, six tenths shy of the pole position.

Tomas Enge: “It is more or less the same like last year when we compare gap to the front. We tried few things to improve the grip in the morning but it is still not ideal. The focus was on race setup with full tank and we checked the ride height to prevent bottoming. Qualifying was very close with 14 cars in one second. The sprint qualifying was quicker because sun went out for the feature one which meant that everybody was approximately half a second slower than expected. We are in a better position comparing to Taupo but we still have to find more. Our car understeers little bit here but it is not a big problem. I think that both races will be quite close as you can see from the gaps in the qualifying and pitstops could be decisive.”

Eastern Creek track
The A1GP is the biggest international championship that visits the track. Eastern Creek is located just 40 minutes of drive from the Sydney downtown and is a familiar venue of the very popular V8 Supercars series. It also hosted MotoGP championship in 1991-1996. The track is 3930 metres long. Eighty percent of the track can be viewed from the main grandstand.
Internet: www.eastern-creek-raceway.com

Grid for Sprint
1 France 1:18.149
2 Switzerland -0.069
3 South Africa -0.094
4 New Zealand -0.219
5 China -0.221
6 USA -0.315
7 Germany -0.483
8 Great Britain -0.500
9 Australia -0.541
10 Netherlands -0.655
11 Brazil -0.662
12 Ireland -0.780
13 India -0.855
14 Czech Republic -0.950
15 Canada -1.048
16 Malaysia -1.235
17 Portugal -1.343
18 Pakistan -1.474
19 Mexico -1.636
20 Italy -1.826
21 Indonesia -2.005
22 Lebanon

Grid for Feature race
1 New Zealand 1:18.578
2 Switzerland -0.012
3 Great Britain -0.142
4 China -0.247
5 France -0.251
6 South Africa -0.344
7 USA -0.398
8 Canada -0.621
9 Czech Republic -0.654
10 Brazil -0.657
11 Malaysia -0.674
12 Netherlands -0.909
13 Germany -0.938
14 Mexico -0.951
15 Australia -1.033
16 Ireland -1.128
17 Portugal -1.155
18 Pakistan -1.274
19 India -1.300
20 Italy -1.473
21 Indonesia -1.555
22 Lebanon

Standings
1. New Zealand 82
2. Switzerland 80
3. France 80
4. Germany 65
5. South Africa 59
6. Ireland 50
7. Netherlands 49
8. Great Britain 48
9. India 28
10. China 28
11. Brazil 27
12. Canada 22
13. Mexico 18
14. Czech Republic 10
15. USA 9
16. Portugal 5
17. Italy 4
18. Australia 4
19. Malaysia 2
20. Pakistan 0
21. Lebanon 0
22. Indonesia 0
Internet: www.a1gp.com

Book - A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Season 2006/07
Nearly 160 pages of high quality art paper bring hundreds colour pictures from the last season of the A1 Grand Prix. The publication presents the World Cup of Motorsport in its typical form – like a colourful and exciting world of top class racing. Successful Czech photographer Adolf Zika (www.zika.cz) took the pictures. However, there are not only pictures but also a lot of articles – about races, drivers, teams and background of the growing championship. Full results are a must.
The author and his team that participated on the book found one interesting bit during their work. Adolf Zika was the only member of the Czech team who was at all races! The group of engineers and mechanics varied and the same apply to the drivers. However, the photographer himself had to be everywhere because he needed documents from the whole season.
Sale of the book: www.bpa.cz

A1GP 2007/2008
30 September A1GP Zandvoort, The Netherlands
14 October A1GP Brno, Czech Republic
25 November A1GP Sepang, Malaysia
16 December A1GP Zhuhai, China
20 January A1GP Taupo, New Zealand
3 February A1GP Sydney, Australia
24 February A1GP Durban, South Africa
16 March A1GP Mexico City, Mexico
13 April A1GP Shanghai, China
4 May A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain
Internet: www.a1gp.com