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China - A1 Team France stormed to the top of the time sheets in the third and final official practice session at Zhuhai International Circuit this morning in cool and breezy weather conditions, ahead of what promises to be a thrilling and incredibly close qualifying session in China this afternoon.
Loic Duval, who had limited track time yesterday due to spinning off in the afternoon and not being eligible to participate in the rookie session, knocked Canada off the top spot half way though the hour long session with a best lap of 1m24.315s around the 4.3km circuit.
The French racer was closely followed by USA's Jonathan Summerton who put in a stunning late charge to clock the second fastest time, ahead of China's CongFu Cheng who ended the morning third quickest, much to the delight of the local fans.
Having dominated the first half of the session, Canada's Robert Wickens finished fourth fastest while championship leader Switzerland's Neel Jani and German rookie Michael Ammermüller set the fifth and sixth fastest times respectively.
Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis was classified seventh while Jeroen Bleekemolen set the eighth quickest lap time of the morning in the Dutch car. New Zealand's Jonny Reid and Brazil's Sergio Jimenez ended the morning ninth and 10th quickest respectively. It was an incredibly close session with just 1.8 seconds separating the entire field.
All 22 teams now have to decide on their set ups before qualifying for the Sprint and Feature races starts at 14.15 this afternoon. Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a five minute break between each one. The fastest lap time set by each team's nominated driver in the first two qualifying segments will determine the grid for the rolling start Sprint race, while the fastest times set in the final two segments will determine how the 22 cars will line up on the grid for the standing start Feature race. Each driver is limited to one 'flying lap' per 15 minute session.
Official Practice Session 3
POS DRIVER A1 TEAM TIME GAP FIRST LAPS
1 Loic DUVAL FRANCE 01:24.315 - 27
2 Jonathan SUMMERTON USA 01:24.342 0.027 25
3 Congfu CHENG CHINA 01:24.418 0.103 27
4 Robert WICKENS CANADA 01:24.476 0.161 22
5 Neel JANI SWITZERLAND 01:24.583 0.268 22
6 Michael AMMERMÜLLER GERMANY 01:24.586 0.271 23
7 Oliver JARVIS GREAT BRITAIN 01:24.644 0.329 30
8 Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN NETHERLANDS 01:24.800 0.485 23
9 Jonny REID NEW ZEALAND 01:24.806 0.491 24
10 Sergio JIMENEZ BRAZIL 01:24.930 0.615 17
11 Narain KARTHIKEYAN INDIA 01:25.130 0.815 25
12 Alex YOONG MALAYSIA 01:25.180 0.865 22
13 Ian DYK AUSTRALIA 01:25.263 0.948 30
14 Edoardo PISCOPO ITALY 01:25.380 1.065 30
15 Tomas ENGE CZECH REPUBLIC 01:25.437 1.122 25
16 Adam CARROLL IRELAND 01:25.442 1.127 20
17 Adrian ZAUGG SOUTH AFRICA 01:25.545 1.23 16
18 Chris ALAJAJIAN LEBANON 01:25.718 1.403 29
19 David GARZA MEXICO 01:25.742 1.427 26
20 Satrio HERMANTO INDONESIA 01:25.742 1.427 24
21 Joao URBANO PORTUGAL 01:26.047 1.732 23
22 Adam KHAN PAKISTAN 01:26.162 1.847 24
Nominated drivers for Qualifying - A1GP Zhuhai, China (round 4 of 10)
A1 TEAM DRIVER
Australia Ian Dyk
Brazil Sergio Jimenez
Canada Robert Wickens
China CongFu Cheng
Czech Republic Tomas Enge
France Loic Duval
Germany Michael Ammermüller
Great Britain Oliver Jarvis
India Narain Karthikeyan
Indonesia Satrio Hermanto
Ireland Adam Carroll
Italy Edoardo Piscopo
Lebanon Chris Alajajian
Malaysia Alex Yoong
Mexico David Garza
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand Jonny Reid
Pakistan Adam Khan
Portugal Joao Urbano
South Africa Adrian Zaugg
Switzerland Neel Jani
USA Jonathan Summerton
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