A1GP news

Team GB hoping for first win

A1 Team Great Britain celebrated a return to the podium last weekend as a trademark performance from Robbie Kerr around the streets of Durban captured second place for the team in Round 8 of the 2006/07 A1GP.

For the team's Chief Engineer, James Robinson, Robbie's podium was a welcome relief and a just reward for the hard work put in by the squad over the course of the weekend. Robinson, who has had an impressive career record boasting engineering success in Formula One and Le Mans, believes that a first win for Team Great Britain is a strong possibility before the season's close.

Kerr's Feature race podium has so far proven to be the highlight of the 2007 leg of the nation versus nation series as a run of bad luck and mechanical failures has blighted the British team's championship aspirations. Kicking off the year in New Zealand, contact in the Sprint and a mechanical retirement in the Feature left the team pointless with only a solitary score for tenth place following at the next round in Australia.

Throttle and gearbox problems throughout Friday's practice and Saturday's qualifying sessions dogged the team last weekend in South Africa. Despite this Robbie Kerr rose to the challenge, qualifying eleventh on the grid for the Sprint before going on to race from ninth in the Feature all the way to second for the team's first Feature podium since Round 4 in Indonesia - Great Britain currently holding fourth in the Nations Standings.

"Given our normal level of performance we were obviously disappointed with what had happened in qualifying," said Robinson.

"Sitting outside the top-ten is definitely not the norm for us. Robbie scoring the podium was surprising but very rewarding at the same time."

Robinson feels that, despite the team's lack of performance this season, the nature of the series allows any team to spring a surprise. Moreover, buoyed by the team's podium, he thinks an end of season win is not out of the question.

"The beauty of A1GP is that on any given weekend any individual has the capacity to take pole position and win the race, such is the quality on offer in terms of the competition, so the German team might not have it all their own way as the season concludes.

"I see no reason why the British team can't score its first win before the end of the season and again why we can't potentially be successful on home soil at Brands Hatch next month," he added.

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