A1GP China: Less Than One Second Seperates Top 13 In Practice 2

Alex Yoong Just Four-Tenths From Fastest In Fifth

It's going to be a cracker of a qualifying tomorrow as less than one second seperates the top 13 in the just concluded second official practice in the Shanghai International Circuit in China this afternoon.

A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong, as usual, was not using up his new tyres in practices like the other top teams. He finished fifth less than four-tenths away from France's Micholas Lapierre who clocked 1m 51.972s.

Great Britain finished second with Mexico in third and Australia in fourth ahead of Malaysia.

Max Revson

A1GP: SHANGHAI - Official Practice 2

Pos/Team/Driver/On Lap/Time/Total Laps

1 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 9 1'51.972 19

2 GBR Darren MANNING 9 1'52.079 19

3 MEX Salvador DURAN 15 1'52.321 21

4 AUS Ryan BRISCOE 7 1'52.355 19

5 MAL Alex YOONG 17 1'52.371 21

6 IRL Michael DEVANEY 7 1'52.376 19

7 CAN Patrick CARPENTIER 17 1'52.38

8 228 CHN Tengyi JIANG 20 1'52.436 23

9 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 7 1'52.477 16

10 INA Ananda MIKOLA 9 1'52.701 20

11 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 8 1'52.703 19

12 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 8 1'52.858 19

13 CZE Tomas ENGE 4 1'52.960 23

14 ITA Enrico TOCCACELO 22 1'53.052 22

15 SUI Giorgio MONDINI 10 1'53.066 19

16 PAK Adam KHAN 10 1'53.200 16

17 POR Cesar CAMPANICO 22 1'53.423 23

18 USA Philip GIEBLER 3 1'53.564 20

19 AUT Mathias LAUDA 10 1'53.918 24

20 LIB Graham RAHAL 8 1'53.951 22

21 BRA Christian FITTIPALDI 10 1'54.073 15

22 GER Sebastian STAHL 10 1'56.172 20

Alex Yoong 2nd In Practice 1, Looks Forward To Strong Qualifying In China

A1 Team Malaysia which lies 10th in the A1 Grand Prix championship with one round to go in Shanghai, China got off to a good start with second in the first official free practice at the Shanghai International Circuit an hour ago.

The team's pre-event release quoted Yoong as saying, “Shanghai is a fairly new circuit and shares the same designer as for Sepang, Hermann Tilke so there are a number of characteristics which are similar, not least the high-tech, modern architecture of the facility. It’s another of the many new experiences for both me and the team, and an exciting challenge. I think very few of the drivers will have been here, so if we can be on the pace quickly there’s a good chance of a strong qualifying result.”

“As the first season of A1 Grand Prix draws to a close we are tenth in the championship standings, but, only sixteen points separate the fourth placed team and ourselves in tenth. The competition is so close we could improve on this if we can have two good race finishes. This will be our goal for the weekend.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia, announced new sponsors in the same release, “We’re aiming to finish on a high note at Shanghai. We had a second place podium in Indonesia and 12 top ten finishes, so we’ve had some good results and are capable of more. It’s only when you reach the final race weekend and look back at what has been achieved that you realise how far you’ve come. Putting together a new team, with a new car and racing competitively at eleven venues all around the world is a huge undertaking. A1 Team Malaysia has really proved to be an excellent team that have worked tirelessly to be part of the spectacle of A1 Grand Prix, and really deserve everything achieved so far. We’ll keep pushing this weekend and hope to be celebrating a successful end to the season on Sunday evening.”

“In addition to the prominent Proton branding on the A1 Team Malaysia car, we will feature 4 additional Malaysian brands on the car in China. We are in discussion for long-term commercial participation with a number of brands for the much-anticipated second season of A1 Grand Prix. The brands featured for this event include “Visit Malaysia 2007”, FTEC, MBF Cards and Royal Selangor. Their possible future long term inclusion in our programme highlights our strategy to promote Malaysia and Malaysian brands internationally and our focus on the development of national pride, both domestically at a grass roots level and within the corporate sectors.”

Max Revson

A1GP: SHANGHAI - Official Practice 1
Pos/Team/Driver/On Lap/Time/Total Laps
1 MEX Salvador DURAN 19 1'52.513 20
2 MAL Alex YOONG 14 1'52.721 17
3 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 16 1'52.733 17
4 IRL Michael DEVANEY 8 1'52.919 9
5 CAN Patrick CARPENTIER 17 1'52.989 18
6 AUS Ryan BRISCOE 16 1'53.229 21
7 GBR Darren MANNING 18 1'53.314 20
8 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 12 1'53.452 13
9 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 20 1'53.508 21
10 USA Philip GIEBLER 16 1'53.546 18
11 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 9 1'53.560 16
12 INA Ananda MIKOLA 16 1'53.626 17
13 PAK Adam KHAN 11 1'53.662 19
14 SUI Giorgio MONDINI 18 1'53.966 21
15 LIB Graham RAHAL 22 1'54.001 22
16 CZE Tomas ENGE 18 1'54.125 19
17 POR Cesar CAMPANICO 15 1'54.264
18 18 BRA Christian FITTIPALDI 19 1'54.841 20
19 ITA Enrico TOCCACELO 18 1'54.868 20
20 CHN Qinghua MA 3 1'55.087 12
21 AUT Mathias LAUDA 7 1'55.095 10
22 GER Sebastian STAHL 19 1'56.833 21

Le Mans Series: "Alex looked very good." said Jan Lammers

Alex Yoong in action with RfH Dome Mugen at Paul Ricard on Monday 27th Mar 06

Alex Yoong: "The Dome Mugen is quick and reliable."

RfH, the team owned by Jan Lammers and based in Katwijk started the 2006 Le Mans Series season in promising fashion. The team which will also compete the Le Mans 24 Hours in June with a Dome S101 Hybrid Mugen with Lammers and A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong sharing driving duties, was in the top-three on both days of the first official test of the season at Paul Ricard.

“From the first time we met, Alex fascinated me as a driver and a person. He’s got a pleasant character and above all he’s very competitive. At the beginning of the year we were looking for the ideal combination for a private team such as RfH: a paying but also highly competitive driver. When that turned out to be impossible and it became clear that I had to come up with the money myself I aimed at drivers that would be able to add some value to RfH and also to our new “football campaign”. Even though I wasn’t able to offer to pay Alex any money, and he couldn’t bring sponsorship immediately, he turned out to fit our bill. Alex has proven earlier and also during the test that he’s an asset to RfH and our Sportscar programme. It’s good to see that A1GP’s national philosophy brings people together,” Jan Lammers said to RaceXpress from France.

Lammers is pleasantly surprised by the results at Paul Ricard where RfH tests the new Dome for the first time.

“Because of our difficult financial situation our Sportscar programme was off to a slow start. At the moment we are accelerating though. We didn’t have high expectations coming to Paul Ricard but Alex, I and the whole team are pleasantly surprised by the way in which things seem to unfold. Everyone at RfH, Dome, Dunlop and Mugen works very hard and our cooperation turns out to be an enjoyable experience. Dome has entrusted RfH with the running of their factory car this year. During the winter months they did a lot of wind tunnel tests in Japan and using their knowledge and experience and combining that with our know-how we were able to come up with some modifications that had immediate result.”

“It’s all looking quite good, we are satisfied with our first results. We have the highest top speed of the pack with 315 kph and we still have a bit of a margin to improve that by some small aerodynamic changes without compromising too much on downforce. That’s a very pleasant thought when looking forward to Le Mans where top speed is paramount on the long straights. We’re faster than Pescarolo who were best in terms of top speed last year, and that’s great. Of course Audi will be our biggest rivals,” said Jan Lammers who was also in high spirits about the performance of his new RfH driver Alex Yoong: “Alex looked very good indeed.”

Alex said, "I'm very happy with the test and am pleased that I'm up there with the pace. The Dome Mugen is very quick and reliable - I think we should go well in the season."

Max Revson

Le Mans Series: RfH Team 2nd in Paul Ricard Test With Jan Lammers & Alex Yoong

Dome Mugen in soccer livery in action at Paul Ricard yesterday with Lammers...(click image to enlarge)

Jan Lammers' RfH Le Mans Series team with Lammers and Malaysia's Alex Yoong at the wheel completed a successful 2-day test at the Paul Ricard circuit with 26 other cars on the 26th and 27th Mar 2006.

The soccer liveried Dome-Mugen completed 126 laps on the second day (yesterday) to finish second with a time of 1m 45.594s. On day 1, it completed 88 laps with a time of 1m 46.738s in third.

The first round of the 2006 Le Mans Series will kick off in Istanbul, Turkey on the 9th April with the 1000km race in round 1 of the five round championship for 2006. The team will also take part in the classic Le Mans 24 Hrs. this year.

Yoong is at the moment on his way from France to Shanghai for the final round of the A1 Grand Prix - World Cup of Motorsport where he will step into the A1 Team Malaysia car to do battle against Lammers' A1 Team Holland and 22 other national teams to consolidate Malaysia's current top ten championship position.

Max Revson

Le Mans Series - Paul Ricard Test 27 Mar 06
Pos/Car No/Cat/Team/Car/Laps/Time

1 9 LMP1 Creation Autosportif/Creation-Judd 85 01:44.240

2 14 LMP1 Racing for Holland/Dome Mugen (Jan Lammers/Alex Yoong) 126 01:45.594

3 19 LMP1 Chamberlain/Lola AER 89 01:45.781

4 13 LMP1 Courage/Courage LC70 - Mugen 69 01:46.060

5 17 LMP1 Pescarolo/Pescarolo C60 - Judd 170 01:46.760

6 39 LMP2 Chamberlain/Lola AER 106 01:47.139

7 5 LMP1 Swiss Spirit/Courage LC70 - Judd 60 01:48.199

8 25 LMP2 RML/MG Lola EX 264 153 01:48.335

9 22 LMP2 Rollcentre/Radical SR9 - Judd 68 01:49.341

10 36 LMP2 Paul Belmondo Racing/Courage C65 - Ford 65 01:50.282

11 50 LMGT1 Larbre Competition/Aston Martin DBR9 107 01:52.293

12 72 LMGT1 Luc Alphand Aventure/Corvette C5-R 48 01:53.769

13 55 LMGT1 Oreca/Saleen S7R 128 01:53.838

14 70 LMGT1 PSI Experience/Corvette C6-R 129 01:54.012

15 67 LMGT1 Convers/Ferrari 550 103 01:54.093

16 61 LMGT1 Russian Age Racing/Aston Martin DBR9 117 01:54.278

17 6 LMP1 Lister/Lister Storm "LM" P1 Hybrid 23 01:54.300

18 71 LMGT1 PSI Experience/Corvette C5-R 104 01:56.361

19 76 LMGT2 Autorlando Sport/Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 100 01:58.668

20 84 LMGT2 Team ICER Brakes/Ferrari 430 GT 54 02:00.400

21 92 LMGT2 IMSA/Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 43 02:00.726

22 35 LMP2 Gforce/Courage C65 - Judd 5 02:00.772

23 44 LMP2 Kruse/Courage C65 - Judd 17 02:01.574

24 82 LMGT2 Team LNT/Panoz Esperante 39 02:02.093

25 81 LMGT2 Team LNT/Panoz Esperante 44 02:02.289

26 95 LMGT2 Raceport Peninsula TVR/TVR Tuscan 400R 25 02:07.756

Alex Yoong to compete in Le Mans with former Le Mans 24 Hr. winner, Jan Lammers

Alex Yoong will be driving in the Le Mans Series with Jan Lammers, the A1 Team Netherlands seat holder during the A1GP off season 2006. The first Le Mans series race is in Istanbul, Turkey 7, 8, 9 April 2006, the week immediately following the final A1 Grand Prix of Nations in Shanghai, China and from Turkey the Le Mans Series goes to Belgium (May 12-14), Germany (July 14-16), UK (August 25-27) and Italy (September 22-24).

In June, the series arrives at the small French town of Le Mans itself, where the silence of the French countryside will be shattered for the week of intense activities culminating in the Le Mans 24 hour race, the world’s biggest, oldest and most prestigious race attended by some 200,000 spectators, 2,500 members of the world’s media and watched by a TV audience of around 200,000,000. The “who’s who” of the business world of motorsport and the automotive industry attend this event.

Lammers is one of the most versatile racers of the modern era having driven everything from sports cars to Indy cars, most forms of single seaters, as well as touring cars and rally cars. His impressive career spans more than 3 decades including, uniquely, 2 stints in Formula 1 some ten years apart. He has competed in Le Mans sportscars for many years winning at Le Mans itself in 1988 and putting up impressive fights against the all-powerful manufacturer teams ever since.

He and Yoong have spent the last 6 months getting to know each other in the A1 paddock, and Lammers believes that Yoong is an ideal partner for the 2006 Le Mans Series season.

Lammers recalled, "One of the pleasures of this first A1GP season is that it really has brought people together through the A1GP “nation vs. nation” concept. One of the people that I have met and have been very impressed with is Alex Yoong and we are looking forward to working with him over the coming months.”

Yoong says of the opportunity… “I have always wanted to drive the Le Mans 24 hours and to be able to do it do it for the first time with such a well known and respected personality and driver such as Jan Lammers is an excellent opportunity. It has been a pleasure and a challenge to race against his team in A1GP and I look forward to racing with him through out the summer months.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia comments… “This announcement perfectly illustrates our long-term strategy to be competing in A1GP in the winter months and then to have a significant presence in sports cars and long distance races in the summer months. Our strategy is to work with some of our commercial and technical partners in motorsports environments throughout the calendar year in a way that is complimentary to our A1GP programme. This is a key part of our long term plan for the promotion of Malaysian brands for 2007 and beyond, as well as forming part of the build up to the second season of A1GP starting in September 2006.”

The funding for the project will be generated via a unique sponsor concept developed by RFH displaying a car that is covered in soccer balls!

Each ball or part of a ball can be bought for anything from € 100 up to € 5,000 depending on the location and whether it is a full ball or a part of it. High exposure ball locations cost € 5,000 and regular positions are € 2,500. The smaller pieces that are left on the car are ideal for the fans. Half a ball is half the price, a quarter ball is a quarter of the price and so on. This way the team can accommodate everyone and have a blend of sponsors.

Jan Lammers, “Basically the car will be covered with ‘enthusiasm’ as we learned from the great late Enzo Ferrari that ‘Nothing beats enthusiasm’. When I learned that the start of the Le Mans race was postponed by one hour to accommodate the end of a World Cup soccer match I realized the influence of World Cup soccer. I wondered ‘How will we get in the sports papers’? Well if you can’t fight them, join them…… So here we are.”

Jack Cunningham says… “Details of a specific Malaysia sponsor programme will be announced in April where balls will be available to Malaysian companies and to be shared by individuals. First of all, though, our focus is on Alex carrying out a testing programme with Jan early next week at the famous Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France and then our final event of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations 2005/6 series in Shanghai, where Proton sponsored A1 Team Malaysia will be putting all their efforts into beating A1 Team Netherlands!”

A1 Team Malaysia

A1 Team Malaysia Salvages Tenth From a Difficult Day

A1 Team Malaysia, with its best qualifying performance of the season yesterday, was able to add another point for the team’s World Cup of Motorsport points standings. The team takes away a tenth place finish in the Feature race and a retirement in the Sprint race, from the Laguna Seca, California event, the penultimate round of the A1 Grand Prix 2005-2006 season.

In the Feature race, the track was damp after earlier heavy rain and along with most teams, Malaysia opted to start the race on wet tyres. Starting from the back end of the grid after retirement in the Sprint race, Yoong had his work cut out to make it into the top ten, but he attacked from the start. After a quick pit stop to change to slick tyres as soon as regulations allowed, Yoong was off in pursuit of Series points. His attacking style and the lack of grip he experienced left him with a spin and an off-track excursion, but Yoong was relentless and committed. His hard work and endurance was repaid with a tenth place finish. While other front-running cars retired from track incidents, Yoong battled on to the end.

For the Sprint race, A1 Team Malaysia lined up fourth on the grid after the team’s best qualifying performance. Just ten minutes before the green flag the weather changed from bright sunshine to a hard downpour of rain, forcing all the teams to change from slick tyres to wets.

The torrential rain falling so close to the start left A1 Team Malaysia, along with all the other teams, no time to change the car setup for these weather conditions. Yoong took the start and with spray from cars ahead resulting in minimal visibility the experienced driver was able to hold position in the opening laps. As the race progressed he found the car had very little grip and consequently struggled to keep pace, then dropped back a few places before a spin put him into the gravel. He was unable to extract the car from the gravel, leaving him stranded and out of the race.

Yoong said at the end of the weekend, “The team worked exceptionally hard in difficult conditions and although we didn’t get the results we wanted, we did manage to salvage a World Cup of Motorsport point for the team.

We raced in the most difficult conditions of the season in the Sprint race and I fell victim to them. It was disappointing for us, as starting from fourth, we should have been able to finish strongly. In the feature race I struggled from lack of grip and had to work really hard to keep four wheels on track for the hour of racing. My perseverance was rewarded with a point though.”

Jack Cunningham, A1 Team Malaysia Team Principal added, “The weather really didn’t help us this weekend – less track time than usual hurt our race preparations and the torrential rain made the Sprint race a bit of a lottery. Still, taking away another top-ten finish is a small consolation. Twelve top ten finishes from twenty races shows our consistency. China is our final opportunity to record two more strong finishes and we’ll be going all-out for these in Shanghai.”

A1 Grand Prix now moves on to China in three weeks time for the final round of the Series, which will take place at the Shanghai circuit, a state-of-the-art facility, from 31 March to 2 April. 8TV is the official Malaysian broadcaster of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations series.

A1 Team Malaysia Release

RESULTS OF SPRINT RACE & FEATURE RACE

Great Teamwork Gifts Malaysia Best Ever 4th Qualifying Position

Alex on Malaysia's first ever second row start for Sprint race

A1 Team Malaysia achieved its best ever qualifying position today with 4th at the USA A1 Grand Prix in Laguna Seca Speedway near San Francisco today (Saturday).

Malaysia's Alex Yoong firmly attributed this success solely on the great teamwork which enabled a much improved setup to the car compared to the two practice sessions yesterday and this morning, saying, "The whole team collective have worked hard over the last two days to steadily improve the car's setup and a great improvement was found from the second practice session this morning to put us in this good position to score more points in the run-in to the championship."

"I'm very happy with this qualifying result but credit goes to the whole team." Yoong added.

Malaysia will line up alongside New Zealand on the second row with Mexico, who won its maiden pole position, and France on the front row.

Meanwhile A1 Team Malaysia has strongly refuted that pit-stop efforts have hampered better results for the team. The team's principal, Jack Cunningham and Yoong have both defended the team's pit-stop performance. "The crew cannot be blamed as the thread design on the wheel nut is not designed for tyre changing under high temperature in race condition." said Cunningham.

Yoong said that the other top running teams also had similar problems and added, "The team did very well in the pit-stops in Indonesia and Malaysia and were not the slowest in the last few races. Overall I'm happy with the crew's performance under these very arduous conditions."

Max Revson stands corrected.

Max Revson

USA Qualifying Results
A1 Team/Driver/Aggregate Time
1 Mexico Salvador Duran 2.30.744
2 France Nicolas Lapierre 2.30.895
3 New Zealand Matt Halliday 2.31.596
4 Malaysia Alex Yoong 2.31.810
5 Australia Ryan Briscoe 2.31.964
6 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 2.31.970
7 Portugal Alvaro Parente 2.32.042
8 Ireland Ralph Firman 2.32.098
9 Germany Timo Scheider 2.32.307
10 S. Africa Stephen Simpson 2.32.535
11 Lebanon Graham Rahal 2.32.560
12 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 2.32.571
13 Italy Max Papis 2.32.745
14 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 2.32.838
15 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 2.33.249
16 Switzerland Giorgio Mondini 2.33.299
17 USA Bryan Herta 2.33.602
18 Canada Patrick Carpentier 2.33.641
19 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 2.33.686
20 Austria Mathias Lauda 2.34.338
21 Pakistan Adam Khan 2.36.325
22 China Tengyi Jiang 2.37.715

Despite a regulation which allows A1 Teams to switch drivers between Qualifying and the Sprint race, all teams have decided to retain their qualifying selection and there will be no driver changes. The Sprint race will be contested over 50 miles lasting up to 30 minutes in duration. With a rolling start at 13.30 PST (Malaysian Time 5.30am Monday), tomorrow’s race will be run over 22 laps of the 3.6 km circuit.

The outcome of the race determines the grid positions for the Feature race which will start at 15.00 PST (Malaysian Time 7.00am Monday) with a standing start. The Feature race will be run over 100 miles (44 laps) lasting up to 60 minutes in duration.

A1GP USA: Official Practice Times

Alex in action at Laguna Seca's famous "cork-screw" - (click image to enlarge)

And Malaysian Live Telecast Times

Official Practice 1 Results
Pos/Team/Driver/LapTime/Gap First/Gap Prev
1 USA Bryan HERTA 1'18.620 - -
2 MEX Salvador DURAN 1'18.948 +0.328 +0.328
3 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 1'19.085 +0.465 +0.137
4 POR Alvaro PARENTE 1'19.169 +0.549 +0.084
5 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 1'19.176 +0.556 +0.007
6 LIB Graham RAHAL 1'19.318 +0.698 +0.142
7 CZE Tomas ENGE 1'19.445 +0.825 +0.127
8 IRL Ralph FIRMAN 1'19.458 +0.838 +0.013
9 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 1'19.501 +0.881 +0.043
10 BRA Christian FITTIPALDI 1'19.565 +0.945 +0.064
11 GER Timo SCHEIDER 1'19.603 +0.983 +0.038
12 MAL Alex YOONG 1'19.624 +1.004 +0.021
13 INA Ananda MIKOLA 1'19.731 +1.111 +0.107
14 GBR Robbie KERR 1'19.905 +1.285 +0.174
15 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 1'20.189 +1.569 +0.284
16 ITA Max PAPIS 1'20.190 +1.570 +0.001
17 AUS Ryan BRISCOE 1'20.585 +1.965 +0.395
18 SUI Giorgio MONDINI 1'20.758 +2.138 +0.173
19 PAK Adam KHAN 1'21.667 +3.047 +0.909
20 CHN Tengyi JIANG 1'21.823 +3.203 +0.156
21 AUT Mathias LAUDA 1'22.074 +3.454 +0.251
22 CAN Patrick CARPENTIER 1'22.464 +3.844 +0.390

Malaysian Live Telecast Times On Astro Star Sports

Qualifying (California Time - 11th Mar, Saturday, 2.15pm)
Star Sports Telecast Starts At Malaysian Time Saturday, 6.00am

Sprint Race Starts (California Time - 12th Mar, Sunday, 1.30pm)
Star Sports Telecast Starts At Malaysian Time Monday, 5.00am

"Laguna Seca, One Of Top 10 Drivers Track In The World"

A1 Team Malaysia USA Preview

The penultimate round of the A1 Grand Prix series takes place this weekend in Laguna Seca, California and A1 Team Malaysia is ready to take on its rival nations in a bid to secure more World Cup of Motorsport points. Driver for A1 Team Malaysia, Alex Yoong, is determined to record more top ten finishes and improve Malaysia’s seventh place position in the standings.

Laguna Seca is one of the most revered circuits in North America, featuring the unique Corkscrew. The complex of corners starts with a blind crest followed with the track dropping through 50 feet, and sweeping through a curling ‘S’ of turns and on to the front straight. The circuit lies in a natural bowl to provide elevation changes, sweeping corners and long straights; a track which Yoong anticipates will suit him.

“Visiting Laguna Seca is definitely one of the highlights of the A1 Grand Prix calendar for me,” says Yoong. “The circuit is on every driver’s ‘10 tracks I most want to drive’ list, all due to the appeal of the corkscrew. I don’t think I can gauge just how good it is as a corner until I get in the car, but roll on Friday practice, I can’t wait!”

“The job for me this weekend is to learn the circuit quickly and then start setting up the car for the track and weather conditions. We need to qualify well for the Sprint race, improve on the start position to get some points in the bag, then from a good Feature race starting spot, have a good pitstop strategy, run cleanly and bring the car home in the points again. With only four races left, we’ll definitely be going for it.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia, says of the race weekend, “We’ve had our ups and downs in this first season of A1 Grand Prix, and we have made steady progress as we have gained experience, the excellent team of mechanics, engineers and support staff have gelled and built the strong framework needed for a successful team. In an ideal world, we’d like to finish the season with four strong points results and hopefully.”

The Californian round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series will be held this weekend, 10-12 March. This tenth event will be followed by the season finale to be held at Shanghai circuit, China from 30 March – 2 April.

8TV is the official Malaysian broadcaster of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations series.

A1 Team Malaysia Release