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Ireland make positive start in Taupo |
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Friday, 18 January 2008 |
 Taupo, New Zealand, 17th January 2008: Belmayne A1 Team Ireland got off to a flying start in New Zealand today with Adam Carroll getting straight on the pace and finishing third and second in today’s practice sessions on his Taupo debut.
In the first half of the rookie session Adam clocked the quickest time, 1:17.314, ahead of Australia’s John Martin and Germany’s Christian Vietoris. The second 25-minute session was then spent bedding in brakes and looking at set-up changes but his earlier time was still good enough for third overall. Canada’s Robert Wickens ended the morning quickest with a 1:17.070.
During the afternoon hour-long session, Adam continued to push hard and got his time down to 1:15.799 which made him second fastest man of the day, just 0.25s behind Team France.
Adam Carroll: “I like the track although it’s quite bumpy through some of the faster corners and was really busy out there as its quite a short circuit but there’s pretty good grip on the racing line and we got some good laps in. Today has been pretty good on the whole, we tried a few things and went out on new set of tyres this afternoon but we didn’t really pull it altogether. We came in and made a small change and then I set my fastest time. I think everything we did after that was very positive and we’re moving in a good direction. I’m very happy with what we’ve done and ready for the rest of the weekend.”
Dan Walmsley, Race Engineer: “We’re very satisfied with today’s work but it’s crucial that we carry the momentum through to tomorrow’s qualifying sessions. We didn’t make the most of the good position we put ourselves in during practice in Zhuhai so it’s paramount that we capitalize on this tomorrow. The team is focused and we understand what we need to do, so there’s a really positive feeling that we can deliver a good result this weekend.”
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