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Ready to tackle the Zhuhai circuit |
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Thursday, 13 December 2007 |
After two very exciting races on the Sepang circuit in Malaysia three weeks ago, the
A1GP teams are in Zhuhai this weekend for the first of the two rounds of the
World Cup of
Motorsport to be held on Chinese soil this season, the fourth of the
2007-08 championship.
A1 Team France is currently in second place in the overall classification eight points
behind
the leader, Switzerland, thanks to Loïc Duval’s two rostrum finishes in
Malaysia. In third place comes New Zealand fifteen points behind while Holland is
fourth twenty-two points in
arrears. For the French team this weekend’s mission is
clear: a top-three finish in both the Sprint and Feature races to close the gap to the
leader.
None of the twenty-two teams has raced at Zhuhai before, so everybody will
begin
tomorrow’s free practice sessions in the same boat. They have no telemetry
information and
their aim will be to learn the circuit and fine-tune their
set-up without wasting any time.
Unfortunately, A1 Team France will not be able to
take part in the two rookie sessions, as
Nicolas Prosy has been retained in Europe to
take part in a private test session for the DTM
Championship with Audi.
Zhuhai should be an interesting challenge for both drivers and engineers. The 4,3-km
circuit
is on the south coast of the country and is accessible by ferry from
Hong Kong. It was
inaugurated in 1996. In 1999, it was revamped by the famous
architect Hermann Tilke, who
has been responsible for other circuits like
Sepang (Malaysia), Shanghai (China) and
Istanbul (Turkey). The track provides
good overtaking opportunities and has two straights of 900 and 500 metres
respectively.
Loïc Duval: “After our excellent weekend at Sepang we’ve arrived in
China hugely
motivated. We’ve managed two second places on the trot and we’ve
just got to go one step
further to score a victory. And that’s what we’re out to
achieve this week-end. Nobody knows
the track and taming it will be a challenge
that we’re more than ready to take up.”
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