A1GP news

Dutch struggle to fourteenth

In the official A1GP qualifying for tomorrow's Sprintrace A1 Team Netherlands has had to settle for a fourteenth grid position. In the four runs Renger van der Zande, who competed in his second A1GP qualifying, set an aggregate time of 3'12.426.

During the final free practice, A1 Team Netherlands was, just like earlier this weekend, inside the top ten. Renger van der Zande set a ninth fastest time, seven tenths from the front.

The first qualifying run resulted in a thirteenth place for the team. Van der Zande managed to improve in session 2 and climbed to twelfth place. But A1 Team Netherlands had to give up one place one run later and despite the fact that Renger managed to set his fastest lap of the weekend in the fourth and final run, the team dropped to fourteenth place.

With that grid position A1 Team Netherlands will have a fierce battle on it's hands to get the maximum result and best chance on points in the Feature race.

A1 Team Netherlands Rookie Renger van der Zande had counted on a better result beforehand; "Very disappointing. This we certainly did not expect. This weekend we do not have the pace yet to be able to battle with the front runners, but I feel we also do not belong in fourteenth position. I have not been able yet to set a really fast time in a single flying lap, I found out that this is something I have to get used to. In other racing disciplines you have got more laps to set your time, now it has to be in your very first flying lap. We made some changes in the second and third run, but that did not bring improvement. We reversed that for the final session and that worked somewhat, I also had a better run myself. We will have to see if we can move to the front tomorrow".

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