Monaco and Netherlands take pole positions in South Africa A1GP, formule, F1, formule 1, construct | Constructors F1

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Monaco and Netherlands take pole positions in South Africa A1GP, formule, F1, formule 1, construct | Constructors F1 Constructors F1

Monaco and Netherlands take pole positions in South Africa

Miroslav Sanytrák | 22.2.09 | A1GP

Gauteng, South Africa – The Netherlands and Monaco were the toast of Kyalami today as their respective drivers, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Clivio Piccione, claimed the coveted pole position spots for the Sprint and Feature races of round Five of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season, Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa. While it was pole number four for the Dutch driver it was the first ever for Monaco.

It proved to be an exciting qualifying afternoon at the 2.65-mile Kyalami circuit, which is 2000 metres above sea level. Both grids look very different thanks to the return of the PowerBoost qualifying rule, where teams got to choose when to engage an extra 60 brake horse power for the entirety of one of their four runs, and a big crash to Brazil’s Felipe Guimaraes in the final of the four qualifying segments. This accident caught the majority of the field out and prevented them from completing their final runs when the red flag was out.

A1 Team Portugal first took provisional pole position having gone fastest in the first segment of the day, however by the time the second Sprint qualifying segment had ended, Bleekemolen had made use of his PowerBoost lap to record a 1m 27.717 lap, 0.355s ahead of Albuquerque.

Reigning champion Switzerland will start the race third, with Neel Jani behind the wheel again showing good pace, recording a lap 0.436s adrift of Bleekemolen.

After a great start to the weekend, Lebanon had a disappointing time in qualifying. Morad looked to be on a good lap during the second segment while utilising his only PowerBoost of the session, but the car had a misfire and lost power ruining his final lap, also putting him out of Feature qualifying.

Monaco was also in good form, setting the fourth quickest time.

The stage was set for an epic Feature race qualifying, with many teams having not utilised their PowerBoost presses yet. In the first segment, Australia’s John Martin set the fastest time with a 1m 28.439s lap.

But the second qualifying segment came to an end a minute and a half early after Brazil‘s crash, with only five cars having chosen to go out setting a time prior to the accident.

Monaco, choosing to go early, had already recorded a time of 1m 27.269s before the red flag came out and therefore claimed the team’s first ever pole position in its debut season and at its ninth attempt.

Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy came back from a difficult day after losing all of today’s practice time due to an engine change earlier in the day. After also choosing to go out early, Fauzy’s time of 1m 27.405s puts him alongside Monaco on the front row.

New Zealand’s Earl Bamber will start third on his return to the team, having sat out his home race last month in Taupo.

A1 Team Germany made its season debut this weekend and will start the races in 11th and 15th with Michael Ammermüller back in the cockpit. Local South African driver Adrian Zaugg will start 8th and sixteenth.

A1 Team Mexico was excluded from Feature race qualifying for failing to stop at the weighing bay. The team will drop to the back of the grid from thirteenth.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s 2008 Formula 1 World Championship runner-up, Felipe Massa, also enjoyed his first visit to an A1GP event today, joining A1 Team Brazil for qualifying. Massa watched the sessions from the pit wall with team principal, and two-time F1 World Champion, Emerson Fittipaldi, before getting the opportunity to drive a hot lap of Kyalami in the A1GP Ferrari 599 safety car.

After qualifying Massa commented: “It’s really interesting visiting A1GP and I’ve enjoyed seeing the quality of the new car. The championship has a nice style. It’s quite competitive, so I’m happy to be here getting this first experience of watching A1GP. It’s an intelligent format to have countries against countries and a good idea.”

The drivers who had secured the top spots on the grid were even happier.

Sprint pole-sitter Jereon Bleekemolen commented: “I didn’t have a great lap, but it was still enough. It was good that we took at least one pole position.

“It’s always tricky with pit stops because anything can go wrong. I mean it’s the same for anyone so I think the guys are doing a great job so far, and they are getting very fast. Normally you shouldn’t be worried, but as a driver you want to do the job and finish the race in front so hopefully everything goes right.”

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque said: “I am really pleased with the pace because we were really on it. We were just slightly off pole position in the Sprint but I am not so happy in the Feature because we are seventh - that’s not what I want as we’re also behind Ireland and Switzerland. It’s always hard to overtake with experienced drivers, so it’s going to be hard for sure. But I will push so hard for it because I really need to start to get ahead of them if I want to continue to fight for the championship.”

Clivio Piccione was delighted to claim Monaco’s first pole position for tomorrow’s Feature race: “I think the whole thing for me was to be on form for the Feature race. We had a bit of a struggle at the beginning of the season but I think we found most of the problems, and now we’re back on the pace. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season – especially tomorrow.

“Monaco is such a small country and we have a huge heritage in motorsport and it’s great to have our Prince behind such a project. He has been following me since the beginning of my career and I’m very proud to have him on our side. The pressure is on. I mean, it’s a long race with two pit stops, so there are two major stages where it’s going to be tricky. It’s going to be pretty hot if it doesn’t rain tomorrow. It will be a tough race because I think it will be quite hard on the tyres but we’ll do our best and we’ll keep pushing.”

Malaysia’s Fauzy, who will line-up on the front row in tomorrow’s Feature race, commented: “We had a problem in Taupo with the engine; so we had a brand new engine fitted yesterday for the first rookie session but there was a problem so there was another last minute change today. We missed the practice session this morning so we were not sure which set up to use for the qualifying, and so just got the best information to put it together. I must say thank you to the team and Ferrari. They worked very hard to get the car ready for qualifying.”

The day began with two additional practice sessions aimed at giving the teams more time after slight delays in fitting additional parts to the cars to enable them to contend with Kyalami’s high altitude. Daniel Morad kept up Lebanon’s astounding pace this weekend in the first additional rookie session, with A1 Team China went fastest in the second session with Ho-Pin Tung.

A1 Team Netherlands became the team to beat going into qualifying topping the times in the final free practice session.

Additional Rookie Practice – drivers and developing nations only
POS TEAM DRIVER TIME GAP_FIRST LAPS
1 LEBANON Daniel MORAD 01:30.123 - 14
2 GREAT BRITAIN Danny WATTS 01:31.743 1.62 13 
3 AUSTRALIA Ashley WALSH 01:31.869 1.746 14
4 NEW ZEALAND Earl BAMBER 01:31.882 1.759 13
5 INDONESIA Zahir ALI 01:32.817 2.694 10
6 USA John R. HILDEBRAND JR. 01:33.031 2.908 17
7 SWITZERLAND Alexandre IMPERATORI 01:33.179 3.056 13
8 SOUTH AFRICA Gavin CRONJE 01:33.228 3.105 7
9 MEXICO Juan Pablo GARCIA 09:48.225 +8:18.102 4

Additional Practice session 2 
POS A1 TEAM DRIVER TIME GAP_FIRST LAPS
1 CHINA Ho Pin TUNG 01:31.3 - 21
2 BRAZIL Felipe GUIMARAES 01:31.4 0.041 23
3 ITALY Edoardo PISCOPO 01:31.7 0.354 10
4 LEBANON Daniel MORAD 01:31.8 0.497 9
5 USA Marco ANDRETTI 01:32.3 0.971 20
6 MEXICO Salvador DURAN 01:32.6 1.269 18

Official Practice session 3 
POS A1 TEAM DRIVER TIME GAP_FIRST LAPS
1 NETHERLANDS Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN 01:28.128 - 15
2 USA Marco ANDRETTI 01:28.418 0.29 20
3 LEBANON Daniel MORAD 01:28.515 0.387 9
4 PORTUGAL Filipe ALBUQUERQUE 01:28.618 0.49 22
5 FRANCE Nicolas PROST 01:28.702 0.574 20
6 MONACO Clivio PICCIONE 01:28.754 0.626 17
7 SWITZERLAND Neel JANI 01:29.014 0.886 16
8 IRELAND Adam CARROLL 01:29.083 0.955 15
9 BRAZIL Felipe GUIMARAES 01:29.251 1.123 21
10 AUSTRALIA John MARTIN 01:29.295 1.167 18
11 NEW ZEALAND Earl BAMBER 01:29.381 1.253 16
12 SOUTH AFRICA Adrian ZAUGG 01:29.475 1.347 17
13 MEXICO Salvador DURAN 01:29.543 1.415 21
14 INDIA Narain KARTHIKEYAN 01:29.813 1.685 15
15 GERMANY Michael AMMERMULLER 01:29.980 1.852 18
16 CHINA Ho Pin TUNG 01:29.994 1.866 3
17 ITALY Edoardo PISCOPO 01:30.031 1.903 14
18 GREAT BRITAIN Danny WATTS 01:30.250 2.122 12
19 INDONESIA Zahir ALI      
20 MALAYSIA Fairuz FAUZY      

Sprint Race Qualifying Results
Pos A1 Team Driver Time S1 Time S2 Time Gap First
1 NETHERLANDS Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN 01:28.900 01:27.717 01:27.717  
2 PORTUGAL Filipe ALBUQUERQUE 01:28.307 01:28.072 01:28.072 0.355
3 SWITZERLAND Neel JANI 01:28.687 01:28.153 01:28.153 0.436
4 MONACO Clivio PICCIONE 01:28.802 01:28.417 01:28.417 0.7
5 INDIA Narain KARTHIKEYAN 01:31.748 01:28.431 01:28.431 0.714
6 IRELAND Adam CARROLL 01:29.065 01:28.437 01:28.437 0.72
7 FRANCE Nicolas PROST 01:29.069 01:28.531 01:28.531 0.814
8 SOUTH AFRICA Adrian ZAUGG 01:29.216 01:28.890 01:28.890 1.173
9 MALAYSIA Fairuz FAUZY 01:30.798 01:28.904 01:28.904 1.187
10 ITALY Edoardo PISCOPO 01:29.751 01:29.253 01:29.253 1.536
11 GERMANY Michael AMMERMULLER 01:30.883 01:29.337 01:29.337 1.62
12 NEW ZEALAND Earl BAMBER 01:30.120 01:29.364 01:29.364 1.647
13 GREAT BRITAIN Danny WATTS 01:29.567 01:29.730 01:29.567 1.85
14 BRAZIL Felipe GUIMARAES 01:29.726 01:30.192 01:29.726 2.009
15 CHINA Ho Pin TUNG 01:31.142 01:29.758 01:29.758 2.041
16 MEXICO Salvador DURAN 01:33.898 01:29.884 01:29.884 2.167
17 USA Marco ANDRETTI 01:35.130 01:29.916 01:29.916 2.199
18 LEBANON Daniel MORAD 01:31.244 01:30.136 01:30.136 2.419
19 AUSTRALIA John MARTIN 01:31.117 01:30.414 01:30.414 2.697
20 INDONESIA Zahir ALI        

Feature Race Qualifying Results
Pos A1 Team Driver Time S1 Time S2 Time Gap First
1 MONACO Clivio PICCIONE 01:29.813 01:27.269 01:27.269  
2 MALAYSIA Fairuz FAUZY 01:29.032 01:27.405 01:27.405 0.136
3 NEW ZEALAND Earl BAMBER 01:29.995 01:27.569 01:27.569 0.3
4 AUSTRALIA John MARTIN 01:28.439   01:28.439 1.17
5 SWITZERLAND Neel JANI 01:28.521   01:28.521 1.252
6 IRELAND Adam CARROLL 01:28.593   01:28.593 1.324
7 PORTUGAL Filipe ALBUQUERQUE 01:28.773   01:28.773 1.504
8 BRAZIL Felipe GUIMARAES 01:28.878   01:28.878 1.609
9 NETHERLANDS Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN 01:28.926   01:28.926 1.657
10 GREAT BRITAIN Danny WATTS 01:29.092   01:29.092 1.823
11 FRANCE Nicolas PROST 01:29.155   01:29.155 1.886
12 CHINA Ho Pin TUNG 01:29.158   01:29.158 1.889
13 USA Marco ANDRETTI 01:30.655 01:29.487 01:29.487 2.218
14 GERMANY Michael AMMERMULLER 01:30.279 01:29.565 01:29.565 2.296
15 SOUTH AFRICA Adrian ZAUGG 01:29.884   01:29.884 2.615
16 ITALY Edoardo PISCOPO 01:30.063   01:30.063 2.794
17 INDIA Narain KARTHIKEYAN 01:30.505   01:30.505 3.236
18 INDONESIA Zahir ALI        
19 LEBANON Daniel MORAD        
20 MEXICO* Salvador DURAN     DSQ  

* Disqualified for failing to stop at weighing bay.

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