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Australia - A1 Team France was on incredible form today, topping the time sheets
in the second of today's two free practice sessions at Sydney's Eastern Creek
Raceway as round six of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season got
underway in wet and overcast conditions.
The 25-year-old French driver Loic Duval, who landed in Sydney on Friday
morning and arrived at the track just one hour before the afternoon session
began, managed to sign-on and complete all the necessary technical briefings
required to take part in this weekend's A1GP event. Duval recorded the best lap
of the day on his first flying lap around the 3.93 km circuit, a blisteringly
quick 1m18.675s, slashing A1 Team Germany's lap record by half a second.
Canadian rookie Robert Wickens clocked the second fastest time of the day,
closely followed by Great Britain's Robbie Kerr in third and current
championship leader New Zealand's Jonny Reid in fourth.
Lebanon's Chris Alajajian was on superb form today, setting the fifth
quickest lap overall and the second fastest time of the hour this morning,
recording the nation's best ever time during a rookie and developing nations
session.
Home nation A1 Team Australia's John Martin set the pace in this morning's
rookie session on a drying track, putting in a series of competitive lap times
and taking the top spot. The 23-year-old, who finished the day seventh overall
behind the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen, is aiming high for qualifying
tomorrow in front of his home crowd:
'Obviously we won't be happy unless we're on pole tomorrow, but I think that
top five would be a reasonably good result for my second meeting. The car was ok
today but we made a few changes between the sessions. We had to wait for the
track to clear up a bit and then the China car spun so I didn't really get the
best lap on lap one, so I came straight back to the pits. Then when I went back
out after that the grip was never the same so I guess seventh isn't too bad, but
I would've loved to have been a bit higher up.'
France's Loic Duval, who set the fastest time of the day despite arriving at
the circuit just one hour before the session started, thinks there is still room
for improvement:
'It was a bit tight for me because I arrived here at 1pm on the track, 11am
at the airport, but I am quite happy. My lap was not perfect but still it was
enough to get the best lap time. This afternoon the car was not too bad. We
still have to improve a bit though, especially on my driving we have a bit to
do.'
A1 Team Australia seat holder Alan Jones was pleased with John Martin's
performance today:
'We are very pleased. When we tested John at Silverstone he showed promise.
Then he backed that up consistently when he did the rookie drives. Because of
that he has been rewarded with the lead drive and he hasn't disappointed. At New
Zealand he really didn't get a chance to get into his stride for one reason or
another, but we knew that there was an underlying thing there. New Zealand was
the first time John had experienced push to pass and the first time he'd done a
one lap dash on new tyres, so a lot of firsts for him. We knew that with that
under his belt he'd be good here and I think he proved that in the rookies this
morning.'
A1 Team Switzerland, title leader when the series arrived for round five in
New Zealand last month and defending champion Germany, struggled at Eastern
Creek today, finishing the day 12th and 14th respectively.
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