Montagny hoping for rain

Franck Montagny

A1 Team France’s new driver, Franck Montagny, is hoping for rain this weekend because he reckons it could give him an advantage.

Montagny has been called up by France for the final two races of the season in an effort to bolster the squad’s title push. France presently lies third in the championship, 20 points behind leader Switzerland.

Some are predicting heavy rain over the course of this weekend – and the 30-year-old says he would relish such conditions as he learns the knack of driving an A1GP car quickly.

He finished a creditable seventh in free practice this afternoon, 0.6 seconds off the best lap set by Filipe Albuquerque’s A1 Team Portugal machine.

‘It was the first time in the car so I had to get used to it,’ Montagny said. ‘It’s hard to get a good set-up of the car and understand the tires.

‘You overdrive a lot and you don’t understand that you don’t have to be aggressive. It’s difficult to tell yourself to brake earlier and to carry more speed into the corners and be gentler.

‘But it’s ok, I’m quite happy – rain is coming tomorrow. If it is raining it would be good. I really like rain. I just like the experience of it and I could do well.

‘If it’s dry, it’s dry, but if it’s raining it would be alright. We did alright today and we are only two tenths from second position and we did our best time on lap 9. The goal is to win and I’m here to do the maximum I can. I’ll push as much as I can.’