UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > A1GP: Piquet tops final practice

Brazil fastest on Saturday morning

Day two at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations Australia began well for Team Brazil with Nelson Piquet setting the fastest time during the final practice session.

Piquet once again set a stunning pace and recorded a best time just two tenths short of his Eastern Creek lap record set on Friday.

In second position, and with fastest time of the weekend behind Piquet, was Team Malaysia’s Alex Yoong.

The result was the best practice performance so far this season from Yoong and launched him into Saturday’s battle for pole position.

Similarly tipped to fight during the qualifying runs is Team France’s Nicolas Lapierre despite slipping to 11th during the third run.

However the result was of little concern to Lapierre who limited his workload in an attempt to conserve tyres.

Tyre conservation was on the mind of many men with the highly competitive Salvador Duran (Mexico) completing just four laps and Sean McIntosh (Canada) completing none at all.

Dark clouds threatened more rain however the circuit remained dry for the duration of the hour.

There were still a number of incidents however including a major off for Team USA’s Bryan Herta.

This weekend marks Herta’s first single-seater drive in two years and thus far he has struggled to come to grips with the A1 racer.

Adrian Stul (Germany) and Mathias Lauda (Austria) were the other men to spend time off the circuit.

* Driver changes. Both Italy and Australia evaluated two drivers on Friday before making a final decision on who would race at Eastern Creek.

Enrico Toccacelo – who drove the spare Minardi in the second half of the Formula One season – got the nod for Italy while Australian team director Alan Jones made the tough call of replacing his son with Will Davison.

Written: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 01:46:21