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Jarvis third in practice as action begins in Durban |
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Friday, 22 February 2008 |
 Durban, South Africa, Friday 22 February 2008: - Promising start for Oliver Jarvis and A1 Team Great Britain as the 24-year-old sets third fastest time in Free Practice
Round seven of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway today with teams participating in practice sessions at the challenging Durban street circuit in South Africa. Oliver Jarvis was in action for A1 Team GBR and drove in this afternoon’s one-hour session, in which he set the third fastest time.
Due to the nature of the circuit, the team took the decision not to bring a new rookie  driver and to forgo the rookie practice sessions. Therefore, the first time the team took to the track today was for the afternoon session. Jarvis has not driven the A1 car since the Zhuhai, China races in December, and is also working with a new race engineer this weekend as Richard Owen stands in for the injured James Goodfield.
Jarvis did have the benefit of having had driven in the rookie session last season so he had some track knowledge ahead of the session. The objective of the session was for Oliver to get comfortable with the car and the circuit, and to work on getting a good balance for qualifying, as well as working on race set-up.
Oliver made steady progress in his opening laps and then jumped into the top five half way through the session. On his 20th lap, 13 minutes before the end of the session he set a time of 1:19.207, putting him third fastest and just four tenths behind session leaders Team Netherlands.
Tomorrow will see Jarvis back behind the wheel making the most of the final one-hour practice session ahead of the afternoon’s all-important qualifying sessions for Sunday’s Sprint and Feature races.
Oliver Jarvis: “I think it was a very productive session. We were steady at the start and made good progress throughout to finish P3. It’s obviously not exactly where we wanted to be, but we’ve got Germany in front who did the rookie session, and the Netherlands who raced here last year. So if we can keep progressing at the rate we are then I’m sure we’ll be in good shape for qualifying.”
Katie Clements, Team Principal: “We are very pleased with  our practice position today, especially considering it has been two months since Oliver last drove the car. In addition to that we did not have the benefit of the rookie practice session, and we have a new race engineer for this event due to James’ injury. It all bodes well for tomorrow and we are confident ahead of qualifying.”
Saturday’s qualifying starts at 1415 local time (1215 GMT) with Sunday’s 20 minute Sprint race starting at 1100 local time (Sunday 0900 GMT) and the 70 minute Feature race starting at 1500 local time (1300 GMT).
Sky Sports will broadcast all the live action from Durban, from 12noon on Saturday 23 February on Sky Sports 3 and from 12noon on Sunday 24 February on Sky Sports 2.
Rookie Practice
Laps: N/A
Position: N/A
Fastest Lap: N/A
Free Practice 2 (Oliver Jarvis)
Laps: 22
Position: 3rd
Fastest Lap: 1:19.207 (+0.469)
A1 Team Great Britain is partnered by AquaSP, Playseats and Visit Britain.
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