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A1 Team Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque was on superb form today, topping the time
sheets in both of the official free practice sessions in Shanghai, as the
penultimate round of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway at
the Shanghai International Circuit in cool and cloudy conditions.
Twenty-two year old Albuquerque, who scored an impressive first podium finish
on his A1GP debut in Durban seven weeks ago, was the man to beat this afternoon,
setting a time of 1m35.223s around the 4.6km Chinese circuit. Having set the
pace early on in this morning's rookie driver and developing nations session,
Portugal's Albuquerque improved on his lap time by over a second this afternoon,
again in the opening minutes of the session, and held the top spot for the
remainder of the hour.
The Portuguese car was closely followed by New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who won
the Shanghai Feature race last year and has his sights firmly set on a repeat
performance on Sunday. Filip Salaquarda, who represented his nation in Shanghai
last year, was third quickest in the Czech car this afternoon while current
title leader Switzerland's Neel Jani finished fourth fastest overall, just ahead
of Germany's Michael Ammermüller in fifth.
Franck Montagny was impressive on his A1GP debut for France, clocking the
fourth fastest time on only his second run in the French car and ending the
afternoon seventh overall behind GBR's Robbie Kerr, admitted it had been a long
time since he had driven a car like this and he just needed a bit more time to
get used to it as he described it as 'quite nervous'.
Home nation China's Congfu (Franky) Cheng, who is not eligible to take part
in the rookie sessions, finished the day ninth fastest behind USA's Jonathan
Summerton.
The times have been close today, with just over a second separating the top
12 this afternoon, setting the scene for a tremendous qualifying session at the
Shanghai International Circuit tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.
Portuguese rookie Filipe Albuquerque, who was the man to beat today, is
aiming for his first A1GP pole position tomorrow:
'It's always good to do as many laps as possible because I'm a rookie in this
car. I'm still learning the skills to drive it and put it all together perfectly
and the more laps I do the better I get. The pace of the car is getting good,
especially with the new tyres and I think we are in the running for the pole. I
would prefer it for sure, but it's not going to be as easy as it looks. I'm
still working on the car but I'm not happy with the speed and I need a lot more.
We will see but definitely we are on the front run to get to the pole.'
China's Congfu Cheng, who finished the day ninth overall, reflected on the
first day of action in Shanghai and looked ahead to qualifying tomorrow:
'It's a pity that I didn't take part in the rookie session this morning
because I would have had more laps to get used to the set up of the car and the
new tyres and get more familiar with the circuit. I raced here last year though
and I will be able to give more information to my team tonight and during
practice tomorrow morning. The qualifying session tomorrow will be very
competitive and I'm sure we will be able to improve on today.'
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