A1GP news

Dutch celebrate Brno pole

A1 Team Netherlands will start the A1GP Feature race at Brno tomorrow from pole position. In the deciding qualifying segment Jeroen Bleekemolen set a time of 1'44.649 and with that was convincingly quickest. 

It is the second ever pole position in A1GP for A1 Team Netherlands after the Beijing street race last year. In the final free practice A1 Team Netherlands had already shown that it was competitive this weekend, with Jeroen Bleekemolen setting a second fastest time.

After that it was time for the qualifying. In the first Sprint race session A1 Team Netherlands was still in second, right behind South Africa. The second run Bleekemolen went out on used tyres, but spun just before entering his flying lap. Unfortunately A1 Team Netherlands could not hold second place and will start the Sprintrace from fifth on the grid. 

Of course Jeroen Bleekemolen was extremely happy with his pole position; "I am very happy that I was able to do it this time. We did take pole before, but that was not a real qualifying. It is looking good for us for the races I think, also on the used tyres we are amongst the front runners constantly this weekend. I see no reason why we should not be able to fight for the win tomorrow. We are going to give it all tomorrow and see where we end up. Q3 did not go completely as planned. We were still in first, but I was expecting the others to go much quicker. Fortunately we were able to set another very good lap time in Q4 which was enough for the pole position. During the Sprintrace qualifying I tried to push very hard on used tyres and lost the car entering the straight. The others used two sets of new tyres for the Sprintrace qualifying,we did not. After that spin we really did not change the car very much, so far this weekend we are competitive. We were already confident about being in the top for both races. Compared to last year we have grown quite a bit as a team and it shows here."

Jan Lammers spoke of a superbly executed job; "Pole position is always a bit like victory without points, but it is super for the team's motivation. A superbly executed job as well. First you spin off track and as a driver you are then vulnerable and it can affect your confidence. Jeroen kept his cool perfectly as did everyone else. They also kept thinking sensibly and calm. It goes too far to say that we dominated, but this was a very convincing pole. Really on pace and on a track which last year did suit us the least all season. Now we have to do the hardest part though and translate this pole into victory tomorrow. We will keep doing what we were doing so far and hope that we can receive the most important prize tomorrow."

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