UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > A1GP: Lapierre on pole

France head grid at Eastern Creek

Nicolas Lapierre put Team France on pole position for the A1 Grand Prix of Nations Australia with two stunning laps during qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

Team Brazil’s Nelson Piquet started the session short-priced favourite after setting a new Eastern Creek record on Friday afternoon.

However Lapierre made easy work of demolishing Piquet’s practice effort of 1:19.266 with two new records in the 1:18’s during his first two flying runs.

Such was the Frenchman’s advantage that the team elected not to run the car during the fourth segment meaning they spared a set of new rubber ahead of Sunday’s first race.

Piquet and Brazil were also outpaced by Alvaro Parente (Portugal) and Neel Jani (Switzerland).

Parente made a slow start to qualifying before launching up the order with two lightning quick laps which were also in the 1:18’s.

Jani’s fourth and final effort was enough to move him up two positions to third and also made him the only other man to manage two laps in the 1:18’s.

Piquet was unable to lap below 1:20 until his final run which was – despite being in excess of a second down on Lapierre’s best – enough to recover him two positions to fourth.

Michael Devaney made one of the recoveries of the session when he moved up from outside the top ten to sixth on his final run.
The lap slotted Team Ireland in behind their traditional rival, Team Great Britain, who were again competitive thanks to the improving Robbie Kerr.

Sean McIntosh put Team Canada in seventh, ahead of Jos Verstappn (Netherlands), Alex Yoong (Malaysia), Salvador Duran (Mexico), and Enrico Toccacelo (Italy).

* Cheap fix. Neel Jani suffered a bout of food poisoning after arriving in Australia earlier this week.

The Team Switzerland driver suffered with fevers, and through practice and qualifying was unable to complete more than four laps in succession.

However Jani – who qualifyied third for Sunday’s sprint race – is confident he’ll be able to last the distance at Eastern Creek on race day.

How, you may wonder? ‘Eat some hamburgers’, Jani revealed to a news conference when quizzed for his proposed solution.

* Hairpin troubles. Turn nine is proving quite a headache for the contingent of 24 A1 Grand Prix drivers.

Despite their experience ranging from Formula One to IRL, nearly all were caught out by Eastern Creek’s tight downhill hairpin.

Neel Jani’s fastest lap – set in the fourth qualifying segment – included a massive lock up at the turn leaving many wondering how quick he may have gone if it wasn’t for the mistake.

Nicolas Lapierre, Will Davison, Bryan Herta, and Enrico Toccacelo were the other experienced heads to be seen with smoke pouring from the front-right tyre during their qualifying runs.

* What could have been?. Alex Yoong and Team Malaysia were left wondering what may have been at the conclusion to qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

The former Minardi F1 driver was on one of the fastest laps of the day when he caught Team Mexico’s Salvador Duran at Eastern Creek’s slow turn six chicane.

Yoong was forced to heavily brake and dive off line, and despite the troubles he still completed the lap just a second down on Nicolas Lapierre and in ninth position.

The consolation prize, if only small, for Yoong was that the man he replaced in position nine was his Mexican frustration Duran.

* Experience counts. Experience counts – for little. That is what Team USA discovered on Saturday afternoon when Bryan Herta qualified a lowly 22nd.
Herta, apart from Jos Verstappen, is the most experienced head in the A1 paddock with his resume including Formula One, Indy Racing League, Champ Car, and American Le Mans.

However despite this wealth of experience the American has struggled to come to grips with the A1 racer in his first outing at Eastern Creek.

The weekend has been marked by lock ups, offs, and spins, rather than the outright pace many had expected.

Grid Positions:

1: France 2: Portugal
3: Brazil 4: Switzerland
5: GB 6: Ireland
7: Canada 8: Netherlands
9: Malaysia 10: Mexico
11: Italy 12: Germany
13: Australia 14: New Zealand
15: S Africa 16: Czech Republic
17: Pakistan 18: Russia
19: Japan 20: China
21: Lebanon 22: USA
23: Austria 24: India

Written: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 05:12:03