Official Practice, Round 1 – A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Circuit Park Zandvoort, Holland

Zandvoort, Holland (September 29, 2006) – A1 Team Great Britain rounded off a competitive Friday as the 2006-07 season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport kicked off with Yorkshire’s Darren Manning steering the British entry to the second fastest lap time in the official practice session.

Building on Oliver Jarvis’ fourth fastest effort in the rookie session earlier in the afternoon, Manning proved to be on the pace straight out of the box setting his best lap, a 1m28.040s, on just his second tour of duty round the 2.6-mile Circuit Park Zandvoort.  Bettered only by A1 Team Canada at the end of the hour long run, A1 Team Great Britain heads into tomorrow’s qualifying session buoyed by its performance following its third place finish in last year’s A1GP Nations Standings.

A1 Team Great Britain Team Principal, John Surtees:

“Oliver (Jarvis) did exactly what we expected from him today and undertook a very unselfish first practice session working on things for the team.  He only had two flying laps but still placed it fourth overall.  Darren then took over and showed that the set-up was pretty good by going quickest on just his second lap before A1 Team Canada pipped us to fastest lap.”

Darren Manning:

“Oliver did a great job in the rookie session, he was fast which helped set us up for this afternoon’s run.  You really just get one, maybe two, good laps on the new tyres and I managed to bang in a pretty decent lap.  I still think there’s some time to be found but we’re right up at the sharp end which is the best way to prepare for qualifying.”

Oliver Jarvis:

“I had to do some work for the team early in the first session which didn’t really allow me to get the best out of the tyres but it should ultimately help Darren over the weekend.  We finished third but I’m sure if we’d gone for a new tyre run at the end we’d have been right up there.  Overall I’m really pleased with how things went and I think the team should be looking good for a strong performance.”

Official Practice (1 Hour Session)
1       Canada   James Hinchcliffe        1:28.994
2       GREAT BRITAIN   Darren Manning  1:29.040
3       South Africa    Adrian Zaugg    1:29.267
4       Germany  Niko Hulkenberg 1:29.873
5       Switzerland     Sebastien Buemi 1:30.059

Rookie Practice (2 x 25 Minute Sessions)
1       France   Loic Duval      1:30.328
2       Netherlands     Jeroen Bleekemolen      1:30.946
3       Switzerland     Sebastien Buemi 1:31.282
4       GREAT BRITAIN   Oliver Jarvis   1:31.308
5       Canada   James Hinchcliffe        1:31.473

Sunday’s A1GP Sprint race starts at 11am CET with the Feature race starting at 3pm CET.