A1GP news

Ireland face uphill challenge

Ireland's John O'Hara and Richard Lyons completed the first day of practice for Sunday's A1GP event in Shanghai, China, with both drivers completing a series of set-up changes as the team tries to improve its competitive at this, the penultimate round of the World Cup of Motorsport.

With morning fog delaying the Rookie Session, O'Hara took to the track and worked through changes which ultimately saw him set the 18th fastest time with a 1:39.489. Lyons achieved the same position in his first practice session, although with track conditions improving in the afternoon lap times fell and the Hillsborough driver's best time of 1:37.370 was set on his last lap.

The only incidents of the day occurred during the Rookie Session when John O'Hara suffered a trip across a gravel trap, causing no damage, and also had two spins as he tried to come to terms with the tricky middle sector. Lyons, O'Hara and race engineer John Booth will now evaluate today's running before deciding on a set-up for the car ahead of final practice tomorrow morning.

John O'Hara commented, "I was a bit frustrated not to set a better time today, but the session went very quickly as usual and I had a couple of moments which lost me some momentum. The track was extremely dusty and dirty this morning so grip levels were very poor."

Richard Lyons added, "We've got quite a bit of work to do. Although we made a number of changes and I could feel their effect on the car, the lap times weren't really changing. Oversteer is my biggest problem, both into and out of corners, so there's a lack of grip that's holding us back."

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