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Home nation A1 Team Great Britain topped the time sheets in the second of Fridays two free practice sessions at Brands Hatch, as the final round of the
2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway at the legendary Kent circuit
in Great Britain in changeable weather conditions.
Despite spending some of the hour long session confined to the garage while
the team worked on the car, GBR's Robbie Kerr stamped his authority on the first
day of A1GP track action on home soil, setting a fastest lap of 1m14.891s around
the challenging 4.22 km / 2.62 miles Grand Prix circuit.
China's Congfu Cheng, who knows the Brands Hatch circuit well, set the second
fastest time of the day while Jonathan Summerton, who scored USA's maiden A1GP
race win last time out in Shanghai, set the third fastest lap time.
Current title leader Switzerland's Neel Jani enjoyed a trouble-free session,
finishing the afternoon in a comfortable fourth position, followed by Ireland's
Adam Carroll and India's Narain Karthikeyan in fifth and sixth place
respectively.
Championship rival A1 Team New Zealand got the weekend off to a strong start
this morning, with new boy Chris van der Drift - who has only taken part in one
rookie session prior to this weekend - topping the time sheets. Lead driver
Jonny Reid took over this afternoon and set the eighth fastest time overall
behind the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen in seventh.
Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque, who clocked the second fastest time this
morning, finished the day ninth overall, closely followed by France's Franck
Montagny, who has never driven the Brands Hatch circuit before, in 10th.
Great Britain's Robbie Kerr reflected on the first day of action on home soil
and looked ahead to qualifying tomorrow:
'We went out early on this afternoon and the car was reasonable but we had a
couple of little issues and rather than waste time and laps trying to solve it
gradually we decided to take the tyres off and go through everything properly.
We took our time and made a few changes then we got the car back together and
went out at the end of the session and went quicker. The car has definitely got
a good balance but there are still things we can improve on. We're fairly
confident but we're not going to predict anything. We've just got to go out
there and keep working at it. Qualifying is key in A1GP - if you're not there at
the top on that first flying lap, you're not going to be there at the end.'
image courtesy D. Watson
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