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Solid start for Team Ireland in China |
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Friday, 11 April 2008 |
Belmayne A1 Team Ireland kicked off its weekend in the Far East with seventh in the rookie session and 14th in free practice at the Shanghai International Circuit today.
Despite predictions of rain, the sessions remained dry with Niall Quinn out in the rookie practice getting to grips with the tricky 16-turn layout
Niall ended the session a happy seventh on old rubber, with a couple of the teams up ahead on new tyres. Lead driver Adam Carroll took over for afternoon practice and spent the first few laps feeling his way around the track, before trying a few set-up changes towards the end of the hour-long practice. With the best of the tyres gone, Adam clocked a 1m 36.523s putting him 14th.
Niall Quinn: “It was a lot tougher than Mexico as the track is much trickier to learn so I was happy to be the top 10. The first complex is particularly difficult as it’s hard to find your markers and get the best line through it”.
Adam Carroll: “We tried a few set up changes while working through our program this afternoon. It’s a hard circuit so it took a while to get into it and learn my way round. There are a couple of blind corners and fast entries where the corner tightens up. We’ll get stuck in tomorrow and see what we can do”.
Dan Walmsley, Race Engineer: “It’s a promising start to the weekend. There were a couple of teams ahead of us who had new tyres left over from Mexico when we were on old rubber this morning, so that compromised our ultimate pace but Niall gave us some good feedback. “It’s quite a technical circuit so it took Adam a little time to find his way this afternoon. This meant that the best of the tyres had gone away from us so our times make us look less competitive than we actually are. I think we can comfortably be running in the top 10 and we’ll be looking to find that extra pace tomorrow morning”.
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