Netherlands shows its hand

Jeroen Bleekemolen

A1 Team Netherlands became the team to beat going into qualifying, as lap times tumbled in final practice for Go-GP.org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa.

The times fell dramatically from yesterday as teams experimented with their one practice use of the PowerBoost lap they will get to use in qualifying this afternoon.

The functionality of the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car allows for the PowerBoost button to be available for an entire lap of qualifying, and teams will be allowed to use it for one of their four flying laps. The PowerBoost button gives an extra 60bhp on application, so the ability to use it throughout a lap is likely to make a significant difference to the car’s capability.

Bleekemolen's lap of 1 minute 28.128 seconds was the quickest lap of the weekend so far, with the Dutchman no doubt helped by the fact that he is the only driver to have previously raced at the 2.65-mile Kyalami circuit before.

Marco Andretti

The USA’s Marco Andretti was second, 0.290 seconds behind the Netherlands, with Daniel Morad third for the Lebanon, having been one of the form teams all weekend.

Portugal was fourth quickest ahead of France’s Nicolas Prost, on a track where his father Alain won the 1993 South African Grand Prix.

The session was interrupted early on after a high-speed crash to Ho-Pin Tung’s Chinese car, which ran wide at Turn 3 before going headfirst into the outer tire barrier. Tung was uninjured in the smash, although the Chinese A1GP Powered by Ferrari car sustained significant damage and was not able to get out on track for the rest of the session.

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