Danny Watts puts British team on top

Danny Watts

A1GP

Danny Watts tops the timesheets for A1 Team Great Britain in official practice as third round of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Sepang, Malaysia gets underway.

A1 Team Great Britain made a good start to its preparations for the third round of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today, with Danny Watts setting the quickest time in the first rookie practice session and then improving on that to take the fastest lap of the weekend so far in the afternoon’s one-hour practice at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

Danny hit the track this morning for the rookie practice session, which is split into two half hour segments. The British squad were on the pace straight away but Danny was still able to improve, setting his fastest lap of the session on the ninth of his 11 laps with a time of 1:51.096, putting him at the top of the timesheets. In the second rookie half hour, he set a lap two tenths slower than his segment one time, putting him third quickest of the session, with France and New Zealand ahead.

As usual, ex-Champ Car driver Neel Jani was right near the top of the timesheets

A1GP

In the one hour practice this afternoon, Danny went out at the start and set a stunning time of 1:50.038 on his first flying lap, which was never bettered, despite the improvement of the track conditions bringing the times closer towards the end of the hour. GBR will have a further one hour testing session tomorrow morning with the rest of the grid ahead of the afternoon’s crucial qualifying.

A1 Team France got off to a flying start in the rookie session with Nicolas Prost topping the timesheets right at the end of the session. His time of 1-minute 50.679s was nearly half a second quicker than anyone else.

Great Britain’s Danny Watts was second quickest, ahead of Earl Bamber on his return for New Zealand. India’s Armaan Ebrahim was fourth, just beating home nation Malaysia, who had Aaron Lim behind the wheel to start the day.

“Chengdu was mostly about bumps rather than turns but this track is really amazing," said Prost. “I was really looking forward to coming here because it's one of the nicest tracks in the world, and I think it was the first time we could get the real potential out the car, especially in the quick corners. Turns 5 and 6, the quick left and right, in particular were pretty good."

In hot and humid conditions, Great Britain topped the timesheets in the afternoon’s official practice session. Watts’ time of 1m 50.038s set on his second flying lap couldn’t be bettered during the hour practice.

Due to a gearbox problem, A1 Team Switzerland didn’t make it out on track during this morning’s session, but the lack of track time didn’t hinder Neel Jani. Last season, Jani had the perfect weekend claiming both pole positions and converting them into wins, so it was no surprise that after doing only nine laps today, he clocked a time of 1m 50.110s, just 0.072 adrift of Watts.

A1 Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan’s time of 1m 50.187s in the final minutes of the session was, just 0.149s from pole while Loïc Duval took over the wheel of the French car to finish the day fourth-quickest.

“With the extra running I got this morning I was always going to be there or there about," said Watts. “I think looking at the times, the top ten are very close and there's hardly anything in it. It will be the same story tomorrow so it will be very tight at the top."

Home nation Malaysia ended the day tenth. Fairuz Fauzy said: “There is a bit of pressure, but it’s good pressure. The last lap was a good run. We managed to do a bit of work on the car, as at the beginning of the session I was struggling with grip, especially on low speed corners. I was struggling to get the front to turn in and I got massive under steer. I was a second off the pace to begin with but during the session we did change the car and the last lap was a good one – only six tenths off the fastest.

Danny Watts: “It felt good today and we’re working hard for tomorrow now. In the rookie session I always knew I would be there or there about and this afternoon I expected the others to catch up. Looking at the times towards the end, the top ten are very, very close – there’s hardly anything in it. I think it will be the same story tomorrow and it’s going to be very tight at the top. Driving this car on this track is really amazing, with the aero, downforce and the braking – braking into the last corner is unbelievable. It’s now my second weekend in the car and last week I was racing Porsche and GT cars at Macau, so it’s a bit of a change. But I have learnt how to adapt quickly to new cars and I think that is showing in the results."

Saturday’s qualifying starts at 1415 local time (0615 GMT) with Sunday’s 25-minute Sprint race starting at 1100 local time (0300 GMT) and the 70-minute Feature race beginning at 1500 local time (0700 GMT).

Results

Rookie Practice