STREET FIGHTING MEN
23 February 2007 - A1GP

Having flown overnight from a GP2 test at the Paul Ricard track in the South of France, A1 Team South Africa’s main driver, Adrian Zaugg made his long awaited return to A1GP at his home race in Durban, South Africa this morning after a three race break as he recovered from surgery on a forearm injury.

Adrian flew in this morning and headed straight to the track for the first practice session of the Durban race weekend. Despite suffering a broken drive shaft on the first lap out, A1 Team South Africa recorded the 13th fastest lap of the morning session and 10th fastest lap of the afternoon session.

‘It felt as if I arrived just five minutes before the session, but I had enough time to start on time and get prepared in the car so that was okay. It was just a drive shaft that broke on my first lap but in motorsport things like that happen. Then I pushed a bit too much later, missed my braking and hit the wall, so we had to retire and I was only able to do one lap in the rookie session. The track is really fantastic and lots of fun to drive. It is a bit bumpy but everybody has the same problems and so this is not something I need to worry about’, Zaugg commented.

A1 Team France’s Loic Duval set the fastest time of both sessions, putting his experience of street circuits at Pau, Monaco and Macau to good use. Commenting on the Durban track, Duval said: ‘This morning I spent learning the track and this afternoon unfortunately we had some mechanical problems at the beginning and many red flags, but the car is quite good. I didn’t do a really, really good lap but the time looks fine so it was okay. Now we have to take care about the German, South African and New Zealand teams, but everything is all right. Durban looks a really nice track and it was good fun to drive today.’

Unfortunately the final practice of the day was cut short when a small section of track kerbing at turn seven broke up. The organisers are now repairing the area and foresee no further problems over the weekend. After a further free practice session at 11.00 in the morning, Qualifying for the Sprint race will take place with four 15 minute sessions between 14.15 and 15.30.

Official Practice Session 1 – Rookie drivers and developing nations only

A1 Team
Driver
Time
No. Laps

1
France
Loic Duval
1.19.836
12

2
India
Narain Karthikeyan
1.20.120
24

3
China
Ho Pin Tung
1.20.746
26

4
Switzerland
Marcel Fassler
1.20.924
24

5
Italy
Michele Rugolo
1.20.947
24

6
Netherlands
Renger van der Zande
1.20.966
23

7
USA
Jonathan Summerton
1.21.097
22

8
Singapore
Christian Murchison
1.21.409
18

9
Great Britain
Oliver Jarvis
1.21.443
23

10
Ireland
Richard Lyons
1.21.448
18

11
Portugal
Alvaro Parente
1.21.550
7

12
Australia
Ian Dyk
1.21.678
19

13
South Africa
Adrian Zaugg
1.21.684
2

14
Canada
Kevin Lacroix
1.21.943
26

15
Czech Republic
Filip Salaquarda
1.22.924
14

16
Lebanon
Allam Khodair
1.23.066
16

17
Indonesia
Moreno Soeprapto
1.23.809
16

18
Brazil
Luiz Razia
1.27.261
5

19
Pakistan
Nur Ali
1.27.264
16

A1 Team Portugal were permitted to take part in one of the two sectors that made up practice session one to shakedown their car.

Official Practice session 2 (14.00 – 15.00)

A1 Team
Driver
Time
No. Laps

1
France
Loic Duval
1.18.620
5

2
Ireland
Richard Lyons
1.19.179
11

3
Germany
Nico Hulkenberg
1.19.350
10

4
Czech Republic
Tomas Enge
1.19.358
6

5
Netherlands
Jeroen Bleekemolen
1.19.441
14

6
Switzerland
Neel Jani
1.19.583
14

7
Indonesia
Ananda Mikola
1.19.739
14

8
India
Narain Karthikeyan
1.19.772
15

9
China
Ho Pin Tung
1.19.779
7

10
South Africa
Adrian Zaugg
1.19.888
13

11
Brazil
Bruno Junqueira
1.19.902
14

12
Portugal
Alvaro Parente
1.19.918
5

13
New Zealand
Matt Halliday
1.19.932
14

14
Malaysia
Alex Yoong
1.20.154
14

15
USA
Jonathan Summerton
1.20.288
15

16
Italy
Enrico Toccacelo
1.20.308
15

17
Australia
Karl Reindler
1.20.809
8

18
Mexico
Salvador Duran
1.20.828
11

19
Canada
James Hinchcliffe
1.21.137
13

20
Lebanon
Allam Khodair
1.21.240
14

21
Great Britain
Robbie Kerr
1.21.256
9

22
Pakistan
Nur Ali
1.24.317
16

23
Singapore
Christian Murchison
-
-

A1 Team Singapore did not set a time in the afternoon practice session as they continued to work on the car after an incident in the morning session where the car sustained damage after spinning off and hitting the wall.

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