A1GP news

Morad tops timesheets after first free practice

A1 Team Lebanon's Daniel Morad topped the timesheets at the end of the first day of practice for the Go-GP.org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa. Morad put the best lap in right at the end of the late afternoon session in the hot Kyalami sunshine recording a blistering lap of 1m 30.816 seconds.

The lap smashed the 10-year-old lap record at the circuit, with a time more than four seconds quicker than the previous best, set in 1998 in a Ferrari 333 SP driven by Mauro Baldi. "The circuit is getting quicker and quicker as more laps are done and the tyres are getting much more grip," Morad said in the post session press conference.

"I only really got to drive half of the session, but I made up for lost time. In the end I put in a very good lap. I knew this circuit will be challenging because of the elevation change and I really love it. It's one of the best A1GP circuits."

It was doubly impressive, because it was more than half-a-second quicker than the next best lap of the day, set by championship returnee, Germany's Michael Ammermuller. The 2006/07 champion team is making its season debut in this weekend's event, and despite his time away, Ammermuller showed the same pace that allowed him to be capped 14 times last season.

Championship leader Ireland was classified third fastest, with Adam Carroll less than two tenths of a second behind Ammermuller in second. Jeroen Bleekemolen was fourth quickest on his return to the A1 Team Netherlands car. The Dutchman is the only driver in this weekend's field to have previously raced at the circuit, having taken part in a sportscar race while A1 Team Netherlands was racing Chengdu, with teammate Robert Doornbos behind the wheel.

Filipe Albuquerque was fifth quickest for Portugal ahead of the home favorite Adrian Zaugg for A1 Team South Africa. Neel Jani was seventh for Switzerland, ahead of Australia's John Martin, Monaco's Clivio Piccione and New Zealand's Earl Bamber rounding out the top ten.

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