A1GP news

Ireland enjoys best qualifying

Ireland achieved its best qualifying result of the season so far in Durban, South Africa, with Richard Lyons 7th on aggregate and 4th fastest overall on individual lap times. The Team Ireland driver was 2nd fastest in Friday practice and 5th fastest this morning, however an accident just before the end of final practice saw the green car hit the barriers. 

The Team Ireland mechanics had to use the two hour break between practice and qualifying to replace the front and rear suspension on the left hand side of the car, plus the front wing, completing the rebuild just in time for qualifying. Lyons' first qualifying lap on new tyres was completely ruined by traffic, slow cars effectively blocking his path in two places, but he recovered to set his best laps on his final two runs, dipping into the 1:17s bracket. 

Richard Lyons commented, "I am actually disappointed with 7th because we have shown we can run in the top 6 here all weekend. My first qualifying run was ruined by traffic, my second was on used tyres and then on the third run we had a red flag so had to abort the lap and try again on the same tyres. Anyhow, it was good to get into the 1:17's as that was the pace at the front. Tomorrow's going to be a tough race - there are so many incidents here that it's going to be a question of survival."

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