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Second row for the Celtic Tiger |
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Saturday, 12 April 2008 |
Belmayne A1 Team Ireland got off to a flying start today claiming fourth on the Feature grid for the penultimate round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Shanghai International Circuit.
After the unveiling of the team’s new livery earlier today, Adam Carroll steered the Celtic Tiger to Ireland’s best Feature qualifying start of the season, putting the Irish car on the second row alongside Portugal for the standing start Feature race.
In the earlier sessions Adam put in a best time of 1m 34.928s to take eighth for the rolling start Sprint race tomorrow morning on an extremely close grid. Switzerland claimed pole for both races, nearly half a second faster than anyone else, with the next seven runners in the Sprint covered by just 0.3s
Importantly for Ireland, Adam’s qualifying times put him ahead of Germany and the Netherlands for both races in China tomorrow. The two nations are just ahead of Ireland in the championship so a good points haul tomorrow could see Ireland jump up the standings heading into the season finale at Brands Hatch.
Adam Carroll: “I was working really hard in qualifying looking at the data to see where I could improve and I got some good laps in. We didn’t need to make any changes to the car, just maximize the tyres and put it all together. We’re happy to take fourth though so we’ll go from there and aim for another good result.”
Dan Walmsley, Race Engineer: “After P17 in free practice this morning we were probably the dark horses of the session as we knew there was a lot more time to come on new tyres. We didn’t quite string the lap together in Sprint qualifying but Adam put in a great lap on the final run to put us on the second row for the Feature. We saw in Mexico that Adam is a great racer and we have a great pit crew, so expect some fireworks tomorrow as we look to secure another podium finish to drive us up the championship table.”
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: “It’s very satisfying off the back of the win in Mexico to come to China and qualify fourth for the Feature race. It’s nice to see us getting the speed out of the car when it matters most, which hasn’t always been the case and it gives us a very strong chance of fighting for a podium tomorrow which is our objective after Mexico. It’s also particularly pleasing that we’re in front of a lot of the team’s we’re fighting with in the championship and that’s who we need to keep our eye on.”
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