A1GP news

Netherlands unhappy with qualifying performance

A1 Team Netherlands will start the final Sprintrace of the A1GP season tomorrow from an eighth grid position. In the four runs this afternoon Jeroen Bleekemolen set an aggregate time of 2.30.144.

With that A1 Team Netherlands did not have the desired result, but as far as laptimes go it was an improvement compared to the free practice this morning, where the team finished in tenth.

In the first qualifying run A1 Team Netherlands had some bad luck. First the session was suspended with a red flag, just as Jeroen Bleekemolen had started his outlap. After the restart Bleekemolen encountered heavy traffic on the track and set an eleventh fastest time.

In the second run Bleekemolen improved his lap time and A1 Team Netherlands moved up to ninth. After the third run, in which A1 Team Netherlands again set a faster time, the team stayed in ninth. The fourth and final run made A1 Team Netherlands gain one more spot, with Bleekemolen putting his fastest laptime of the weekend on the clocks.

After qualifying Jeroen Bleekemolen was not pleased with the eighth grid position. He said: "I wanted to be comfortably inside the top of the field, to get a better start of the race. But, we are not there. Eighth is not really bad, but it certainly isn't good. We had some bad luck in the first run, with the traffic, but in the final two runs we had a clear track. Compared to this morning, we have made up quite a bit.

"Now we are half a second off the pace. We need to find that as well, which won't be easy. The red flag in the first run was a shame. My tires were just warmed up and I was just speeding up. Luckily I was able to set better times in the final two runs, but it does disturb your rhythm. Tomorrow we will try to move forward as much as possible, in A1GP you never know where you end up. It could be that nothing happens and you finish in eighth, but you can also win the race. We will go for it and try to get two good starts again, like we managed with the last few."

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