UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > A1GP: Jani storms to pole

Team Switzerland on top in Malaysia

Tropical storms affected qualifying for the A1 Grand Prix of Nations Malaysia at Sepang on Saturday.

Heavy rain began to fall mid way through the session, which saw Neel Jani claim pole position for Team Switzerland.

Jani made the best of the dry track which only lasted for the first of the four 15 minute segments.

The Swiss ace’s early time of 1:54.441 – coupled with a second competitive effort on a greasy track – was enough to secure the top position ahead of Alexandre Premat in the Team France entry.

Premat was rated as the heavy favourite for race honours on Sunday however he fell almost half a second short of Jani’s best time on day two.

Team Ireland’s Ralph Firman converted strong practice pace into an equally impressive grid position with the third fastest time.

Robbie Kerr put Team Britain in P4, while Matt Halliday of New Zealand secured P5.

Jos Verstappen couldn’t repeat Firman’s feat and slipped to sixth fastest despite recording the benchmark in two of three practice runs.

The Dutchman was a staggering two seconds off Jani’s overall time leaving a question mark over his capabilities of mounting a challenge on race day.

The team to suffer the most from the treacherous conditions was Australia whose pilot Will Davison will line up a disappointing 24th and last.

Davison was on track for a better result before spinning his A1 racer on the damp Sepang circuit.

Sprint race grid
01. Switzerland Jani
02. France Premat
03. Ireland Firman
04. Britain Kerr
05. New Zealand Halliday
06. Netherlands Verstappen
07. Malaysia Yoong
08. Brazil Piquet
09. Portugal Parente
10. Italy Toccacelo
11. Indonesia Mikola
12. USA Herta
13. South Africa Simpson
14. Pakistan Kahn
15. India Ebrahim
16. Germany Scheider
17. Mexico Diaz
18. Czech Enge
19. Japan Shimoda
20. Austria Lauda
21. China Jiang
22. Canada McIntosh
23. Lebanon Beschir
24. Australia Davison

Written: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:04:24