Alex Takes Pole For Team Malaysia In China Finale!

A proud moment for Malaysia...(click image to enlarge)

Team Malaysia in qualifying in China...(click image to enlarge)

A1 Team Malaysia with Alex Yoong snatched their first pole position for the final Sprint race of the 2005/06 A1 Grand Prix season this afternoon after the flag had dropped in the last of the four Qualifying sessions. A1 Team Great Britain’s Darren Manning, who led from the word go, was denied the opportunity to head up the grid in his first A1GP race by Yoong.

While Manning used his new tyres early in the four sessions of qualifying, Yoong saved his 2 sets of new tyres for the third and final session to pushed his aggregate time ahead of A1 Teams France and Great Britain, with a 1.51.846 flying lap after leaving the pits in the last few minutes of the session.

First time A1GP pole sitter Yoong, was pleased with his performance: ‘Today was really good, the car was brilliant, we made a couple of small improvements from yesterday. It’s a great day for A1 Team Malaysia. The team is brand new, and was only put together for A1GP, it has been a big effort for a lot of people. This will mean a lot to the people in Malaysia, which, like China, does not have a motorsport background.’

When asked during the post qualifying press conference Yoong declined to reveal what are the set-up tricks for China, joking, "I'm not going to tell you in front of these guys (Manning and Premat)!" But revealed enough that, "We did some great work over the two days to find the balance needed for not only the fast corners but the slow ones as well."

Former Macau GP winner and F1 test driver, Manning praised the A1GP Qualifying system for the excitement that it added to the day. ‘I thought it was all over after I was quickest in the first session but this qualifying system is different, it isn’t over until the last car crosses the line. It’s a really good result for A1 Team Great Britain. I made a small mistake just before the back straight, and lost too much speed. The back straight is very long and I lost a lot of time. Without that I think I would have been even closer to Alex. I have little experience as to how the Series is run, but we are doing ok, and I will be going out to win the race tomorrow.’

Alex Premat took to the track for the first time today, after his team mate, Nicolas Lapierre drove yesterday’s practice sessions. ‘Just before Qualifying I managed to do a few laps during third practice. So I had to learn the set up of the car and the circuit quickly. I made a few mistakes, but for tomorrow I think it will be perfect.’

A1 Team Malaysia turned out in the Shanghai International circuit with new sponsorship brandings on their car with FTEC computers, Royal Selangor Pewter, Visit Malaysia 2007 and MBF cards joining principal sponsor Proton.

Max Revson

A1GP Shanghai, China - Qualifying Results

Team/Driver/Aggregate Time

1 Malaysia Alex Yoong 3.43.700

2 Great Britain Darren Manning 3.43.888

3 France Alexandre Premat 3.44.392

4 Mexico Salvador Duran 3.44.560

5 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 3.44.656

6 Ireland Michael Devaney 3.44.724

7 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 3.45.206

8 Czech Tomas Enge 3.45.554

9 Australia Ryan Briscoe 3.45.683

10 Switzerland Giorgio Mondini 3.45.965

11 Canada Patrick Carpentier 3.46.254

12 S. Africa Stephen Simpson 3.46.430

13 New Zealand Matt Halliday 3.46.455

14 Pakistan Adam Khan 3.46.458

15 China Tengyi Jiang 3.46.543

16 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 3.46.737

17 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 3.46.864

18 Portugal Cesar Campanico 3.47.489

19 USA Phil Giebler 3.47.565

20 Lebanon Graham Rahal 3.47.714

21 Austria Mathias Lauda 3.48.036

22 Germany Sebastian Stahl 3.49.171