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
