A1GP news

Switzerland stars in qualifying

A stunning last-minute charge from Neel Jani gave A1 Team Switzerland pole position in the Feature race for tomorrow's inaugural Huatai A1GP Zhuhai in China. Meanwhile Michael Ammermuller thinks pole for tomorrow morning's Sprint race will give A1 Team Germany a crucial edge over its rivals.

The German rookie was the star of qualifying for the Sprint encounter, but Jani, driving the championship-leading Swiss car, grabbed pole for the Feature to ensure he's on the front row for both races.

Sprint race qualifying
Ammermuller set the fastest lap during the second 15-minute qualifying segment to snatch pole position for the Sprint race from Ireland's Adam Carroll, who was quickest around the 4.3km Chinese circuit in Q1.

Jani - still on a high after winning both races at the previous A1GP event in Malaysia - will line up alongside Germany on the front row after a superb late charge during Q2 demoted Carroll and China's CongFu Cheng to third and fourth places respectively.

Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis and Czech Republic's Tomas Enge will line up on the third row of the grid in fifth and sixth places respectively.

Feature race qualifying
Switzerland went one better in the final qualifying segment to secure pole for the Feature race ahead of Great Britain, which will line up alongside Jani on the front row.

India's Narain Karthikeyan put in a sensational lap in Q4 to secure third position on the grid, and the terrific race pace he has shown in previous events suggests he will be a man to watch tomorrow.

Karthikeyan was closely followed by France's Loic Duval, who will start from fourth. Germany took the fifth spot, while home nation China's CongFu Cheng continued to impress the home fans by qualifying in sixth position.

Cheng's starting positions for the two races made this China's best combined qualifying performance to date.

Ammermuller was delighted with his first pole position in only his second A1GP appearance and is looking forward to taking on the challenging Zhuhai circuit tomorrow morning.

"We did a good job to get first place in qualifying and it's a great result for the whole team," said the 21-year-old. "We were struggling a bit in free practice but then we got a really good car and we were quite dominant in the first qualifying. The track got a bit worse towards the end and we weren't in the top three but still I think it's a good result. It's better to be first in the first race because it's a short race and quite difficult to overtake, and in the second race it's all about strategy and anything is possible."

Jani was similarly pleased with Switzerland's qualifying performance, and was amazed at how competitive the four qualifying segments were: "We had another great qualifying, but it's very tight this time and all very close, every little mistake can put you three spots back. I'm very pleased because yesterday we had a lot of brake problems so the team did a great job to get it solved for today."

Great Britain driver Jarvis was happy to be near the sharp end of the grid for both events. For the first time he was ineligible to take part in the rookie sessions - because he has now driven in more than six A1GP races - so he had less time to get used to the unfamiliar circuit.

The 23-year-old said: "The free practice and qualifying sessions have been pretty tough. Like Neel said, the track adheres to very close times, so a small mistake can make a big difference. It's also very difficult to get a full lap together, there's a lot of heavy braking zones and it's very easy to make a mistake. We've struggled a little bit so far but hopefully we can have very good races and score a lot of points."

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