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GBR's Robbie Kerr put in a sensational performance to qualify in pole position
for Sunday morning's Sprint race at the A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain, much
to the delight of his home fans. The British racer will also start the Feature
race from the front row of the grid, lining up in second place alongside Narain
Karthikeyan, who has secured India's first pole position.
Sprint race qualifying
Twenty-eight-year-old Robbie Kerr
set the fastest lap in the closing moments of the second 15-minute qualifying
segment to snatch pole position for Sunday morning's Sprint race from
Switzerland's Neel Jani, who set the fastest lap during Q1.
USA's Jonathan Summerton, who was third fastest on Friday but struggled a
little bit this morning, put in a superb lap in Q2 to qualify second and demote
current title leader Switzerland to third. Ireland's Adam Carroll will line up
alongside Jani on the second row in fourth position while India's Narain
Karthikeyan and Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque will start from fifth and sixth
place respectively.
South Africa's Adrian Zaugg and France's Franck Montagny will line up behind
them in seventh and eighth place, followed by Germany's Michael Ammermüller in
ninth. Title contender New Zealand's Jonny Reid endured a difficult session,
qualifying Black Beauty in 10th position on the fifth row.
Feature race qualifying
Having secured the Sprint race
pole, GBR's Robbie Kerr took provisional pole for the Feature race during Q3,
only to be demoted to second when India's Narain Karthikeyan snatched the top
spot in the closing moments of the final qualifying segment, taking his nation's
first A1GP pole position.
Switzerland's Neel Jani, who only needs to finish seventh in one of the races Sunday to win the championship, and Ireland's Adam Carroll will line up on row
two in third and fourth position followed by Germany's Michael Ammermüller and
France's Franck Montagny in fifth and sixth place respectively.
South Africa's Adrian Zaugg and China's Congfu Cheng qualified seventh and
eighth while USA's Jonathan Summerton and the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen
complete the top 10 grid positions.
New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who needs to win at least one race tomorrow to be
in with a chance of overhauling Switzerland and taking the prestigious title
honours, could only manage 17th on the grid.
GBR's Robbie Kerr, who won the Brands Hatch Sprint race last year and is
aiming for a double victory tomorrow, said:
'We've been pushing really hard all weekend. We've got to be happy with the
result but it's just a shame we're not one place higher on the Feature race
grid. We got a bit caught out by waiting right till the last moment before we
went out. We wait so late purely so that other cars have driven round the
circuit before us - they clean it up and put some rubber down which gives us the
opportunity to get that extra bit of grip and a faster lap time. Everyone does
the same though so it's a hard call to get it right every time and unfortunately
we didn't get it quite right for the Feature race grid. We're happy with our
performance so far this weekend and we've just got to carry it on till
tomorrow.'
Narain Karthikeyan, who will start the Feature race from pole in the Indian
car for the first time, put his top grid position down to good team work and his
previous experience at the challenging Kent circuit:
'I've always done well here at Brands Hatch and it's one of my favourite
circuits. The car has been up there all weekend. We put the lap together and the
team has done a great job and the set up is not too far off. I think there will
be a lot of Indian fans here tomorrow so we'll see what we can do.'
photos courtesy D. Watson
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