A1GP news
Switzerland takes both poles
12 April 2008Neel Jani continued his sensational form to qualify the Swiss car in pole position for tomorrow's Sprint and Feature race at the A1GP Shanghai, China.
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Sprint race qualifying
Twenty-four-year-old Neel Jani set the fastest lap in the closing moments of the second 15-minute qualifying segment to take pole position for tomorrow morning's Sprint race from Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque, who set the fastest lap during the first segment and has been in superb form yesterday.
Canada's Robert Wickens, who only arrived in China yesterday due to prior testing commitments in Europe, put in an impressive performance to qualify third. India's Narain Karthikeyan, will line up alongside Wickens in fourth while New Zealand's Jonny Reid qualified in fifth position on the third row, a relatively disappointing result for the title contenders.
USA's Jonathan Summerton, who finished on the Feature race podium last time out in Mexico, will start the race from sixth alongside Reid while Malaysia's Alex Yoong and Ireland's Adam Carroll will line up behind him in seventh and eighth place respectively on row four. Germany's Michael Ammermuller and Great Britain's Robbie Kerr complete the top ten grid positions.
Feature race qualifying
Having secured the Sprint race pole, Switzerland's Neel Jani stormed to the top spot again in the Feature race, improving on his provisional pole time set in the third segment by half a second to make it another double pole position for the Swiss team.
With Switzerland's nearest challengers in the title battle, New Zealand, France and GBR, all experiencing disappointing qualifying sessions, Jani has put the Swiss car in a perfect position to increase his team's lead and stamp Switzerland's authority on the championship.
Jani has now notched up seven pole positions during his A1GP career and secured two double poles this season. His performance today means the Swiss star now holds the record for the most number of pole positions secured by a single A1GP driver, beating five which was previously held jointly by him and Adrian Zaugg.
'The team did a great job,' Jani said. 'We were struggling a little bit for the first run in qualifying but then we made a change and from then on we had fantastic pace. We don't know about the weather for tomorrow - it might rain which could change everything. If I get a good start there is nothing to worry about. I don't need to win at the moment, I just need points and that's what I'm going for. If I can win, even better!'
Jonathan Summerton continued to impress in the USA car and will line up alongside Jani in second place on the front row. Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque leapt up the order during the final qualifying segment to snatch third position and he will be joined on the second row by Ireland's Adam Carroll, who shot up to fourth place in the closing moments of the final segment.
India's Narain Karthikeyan and Malaysia's Alex Yoong will start the Feature race from fifth and sixth place respectively while New Zealand's Jonny Reid could only manage seventh on the grid. GBR's Robbie Kerr will line up alongside him in eighth and the pair will be followed off the grid by South Africa's Adrian Zaugg in ninth and France's Franck Montagny, who was flying this morning, in tenth.
Home nation A1 Team China's Congfu Cheng endured a difficult day, qualifying in 15th for the Sprint race and 20th for the Feature, having battled with technical problems relating to the suspension system on the Chinese car.
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