A1GP news

Germany makes do with third

A1 Team Germany started the ninth round of the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport in Mexico by running constantly in the leading group: Christian Vietoris, who contests a complete race weekend for the Willi Weber managed squad for the first time, recorded the second fastest time in both "rookie sessions" sessions at the "Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez" and claimed third place among the field of 22 nations in the subsequent free practice session.

The "star of tomorrow" from Gönnersdorf in the Eifel region of Germany felt immediately at home on the circuit located at an altitude of 2,285 metres close to Mexico City. "As usual, we walked around the circuit on Thursday to examine it in detail", says the 17-year old youngster. "However, you only really notice the significant effect of the bumps in the car at higher speeds."

Christian Vietoris recoded the second fastest time of 1m29.324s in the first "rookie session" only 0.185s behind the Briton Oliver Jarvis. The British driver was once again fastest in the second session with 0.647s advantage over the German team, which set a best time of 1m29.244s.

The subsequent one-hour practice session was not only reserved exclusively for series newcomers, but also for every other competitor. Christian Vietoris circulated the 4.42 kilometre circuit in 1m28.244s. A mere 59 thousandths of a second separated him from the second placed Oliver Jarvis for much of the session before New Zealander Jonny Reid squeezed him down to third place after setting the best time of 1m28.174s.

"We fitted new tyres at the beginning of the session", explains Vietoris. "I set the fastest lap on the fresh tyres on the second lap, which wasn't perfect, as I ran into traffic in the final sector." To prepare for qualifying the German and his team of technicians working for David Sears Motorsport must thoroughly analyse the data overnight to optimise the set-up of the 520 hp A1 GP race car and fine tune the car even further in Saturday's free practice. "We still haven't stopped the car's tendency to understeer in fast corners", explains Vietoris.

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