Brands Hatch thread

[Gilles lives!]

Originally Posted by bella

agreed, we can say whatever we want about the management, but the previous evolution of cars was pretty spectacular. i remember standing out there the first year gobsmacked at nelsinho piquet's car control at westfield. hopefully it'll be worth the trek again this year!

I'm sure it will Bella, most of last year's crop were pretty spectacular going through there sideways over the bump, Karthikeyan, Carroll and Kerr highly ! I'm sure that this year's crop will be just as entertaining and let's hope that 'speedy' Dan C find a bit of pace at his home circuit too .

I hope that the series gets another 'full' season after this year's disaster, I'll be watching if it does making sure I stay away from all the politics though.

[Petrol Head]

Originally Posted by kerrmanningjarv

Yes, going to Ferrari on the back of big losses was a poor decision... they could have waited a few years more, S3 was the most stable season yet.

Let's see what happens in the future... but let's get this weekend over with first.

I said the same thing when it happened. The Lola/Zytek car was fine but in typical A1 style they got far too excited about last years stable season. I don't know why, but I actually miss the old car!

Anyway, I will be there at Brands and I hope it survives beyond this weekend. The concept is good and it is fun to watch, so it would be a huge shame.

[Gilles lives!]

I see that the timetable has changed now for tomorrow, there is no rookie practice in the morning. There are now however three sessions from 12.40-13.10 and 13.30-14.00 (both labelled practice 1 ?) and a strangely late 16.40-17.40 (practice 2). Will have to change my itinerary now !

[strider]

The first 'two' sessions are actually the rookie session split in two as normal and the session at the end of the day is P2 when the big boys start to play.

If I were cynical, heaven forbid , I'd say the reason for the revision is the delay in getting everything ready for the weekend, but let's hope it goes ahead as planned now.

[Gilles lives!]

Yeah I thought that sounded about right, still surprised at the late practice 2 time though.

[kerrmanningjarv]

In Kyalami, the practices turned out to be exceedingly late too, and then they admitted it was a "logistical problem". Here, no such admittance, they only say the cars will be out on track later.

[kerrmanningjarv]

This is (I think) the final driver list:

AUS: Martin
BRA: Guimaraes
CHN: Cheng / Tung
FRA: Prost
GER: Ammermuller
GBR: Clarke / Steele
INA: Hermanto
IND: Karthikeyan / Sureshwaren
IRL: Carroll / Quinn
ITA: Liuzzi
LEB: Morad / Auby
MAL: Lim
MEX: Duran
MON: Piccione / Bahlsen
NED: Bleekemolen / Retera
NZL: Bamber
POR: Albuquerque
RSA: van der Merwe / Morgado
SUI: Jani / Imperatori
USA: Hildebrand

Bold = Race driver
Red = Rookie driver
Italics = Reserve driver

[strider]

Liuzzi didn't make the rookie sessions for some reason. Maybe he knows Brands; he certainly knows the car by now.

Times here. Prost going well, under the lap record, I think.

[Kiwi3]

Liuzzi isn't eligable for rookie sessions as he has F1 experience, but an exception was made in Portugal for some reason.

[kerrmanningjarv]

I was going by this Ghinzani quote in Team Italy's preview:

"We have already registered Liuzzi at the rookie session in order to gain time in the car preparation."

[Kiwi3]

Not sure then. There was a regulation at the start of the season revising the definition of a rookie as someone who had not yet got to GP2 kind of level (cannot remember the exact details) but perhaps that has been forgotten.

Going by practice two results Team USA should keep this Hildebrand chap in the car next season.

Advantage Adam Carroll so far in the championship showdown, with Kartikeyan doing well.

Netherlands have been so strong recently and top again today with Bleekemolen.

[strider]

Times from Practice 2. I don't know what the Dutch have found with their car, but I'm sure the other teams would love to know. After Doornbos's fine showing in Portugal, Bleekemolen was flying today, 2 seconds under the lap record, set with the old cars, obviously.

Adam Carroll and Narain Karthikeyan were next up, NK being famously a Brands expert.

[Last2LiftOff]

Nice day there.

A1GP Qualifying LIVE

[strider]

Sprint Race Qualifying:

Pos Driver                  Team               Time          Gap
 1. Adam Carroll            Ireland            1m11.615s
 2. Salvador Duran          Mexico             1m11.653s  +0.038
 3. Jeroen Bleekemolen      Netherlands        1m11.992s  +0.377
 4. JR Hildebrand           USA                1m11.994s  +0.379
 5. Fiipe Albuquerque       Portugal           1m12.040s  +0.425
 6. Earl Bamber             New Zealand        1m12.108s  +0.493
 7. Narain Karthikeyan      India              1m12.109s  +0.494
 8. Neel Jani               Switzerland        1m12.212s  +0.597
 9. Satrio Hermanto         Indonesia          1m12.658s  +1.043
10. John Martin             Australia          1m12.745s  +1.130
11. Daniel Morad            Lebanon            1m12.889s  +1.274
12. Nicolas Prost           France             1m13.011s  +1.396
13. Dan Clarke              Great Britain      1m13.019s  +1.404
14. Clivio Piccione         Monaco             1m13.260s  +1.645
15. Michael Ammermuller     Germany            1m13.329s  +1.714
16. Vitantonio Liuzzi       Italy              1m13.549s  +1.934
17. Felipe Guimaraes        Brazil             1m13.584s  +1.969
18. Aaron Lim               Malaysia           1m13.686s  +2.071
19. Alan van der Merwe      South Africa       1m13.854s  +2.239
20. Franky Cheng            China              1m13.861s  +2.246

Feature Race Qualifying:

Pos Driver                 Team             Time          Gap
 1. Adam Carroll           Ireland          1m10.902s
 2. Clivio Piccione        Monaco           1m11.085s  +0.183
 3. Jeroen Bleekemolen     Netherlands      1m11.146s  +0.244
 4. Neel Jani              Switzerland      1m11.338s  +0.436
 5. Nicolas Prost          France           1m11.543s  +0.641
 6. Earl Bamber            New Zealand      1m11.633s  +0.731
 7. John Martin            Australia        1m11.930s  +1.028
 8. Cheng Cong Fu          China            1m12.180s  +1.278
 9. Filipe Albuquerque     Portugal         1m12.270s  +1.368
10. Narain Karthikeyan     India            1m12.397s  +1.495
11. JR Hildebrand          USA              1m12.662s  +1.760
12. Alan van der Merwe     South Africa     1m12.730s  +1.828
13. Salvador Duran         Mexico           1m12.740s  +1.838
14. Dan Clarke             Great Britain    1m12.756s  +1.854
15. Daniel Morad           Lebanon          1m12.766s  +1.864
16. Michael Ammermuller    Germany          1m12.797s  +1.895
17. Felipe Guimaraes       Brazil           1m13.048s  +2.146
18. Vitantonio Liuzzi      Italy            1m13.131s  +2.229
19. Satrio Hermanto        Indonesia        1m13.560s  +2.658
20. Aaron Lim              Malaysia         1m14.203s  +3.301

So far so good for Adam Carroll, especially in qualifying for the sprint race, when he didn't use boost but still beat several good drivers who did.

[RichardRenes]

Sooooo... did Switserland attempt to do a Schuhmacher and try to entice a red flag?

I'd say they did... but that is my opinion. Neel Jani rarely, if ever, makes mistakes... convinient he had to do that now wasn't it?

Glad that didn't work, but basically angered he is not yet punished for it

[Thundersports]

I sadly agree Richard.
However I was very impressed with Adam Carroll i'll be behind them Sunday.

[Peat]

If they did, they did a damn sight better job at making it look convincing than schumey ever did.

Im heading down there tomorrow, cant wait!

Notable performance for me was JR Hilderbrand. Just another in the coffin of Marco's F1 dream...

[strider]

Originally Posted by RichardRenes

Sooooo... did Switserland attempt to do a Schuhmacher and try to entice a red flag?

I'd say they did... but that is my opinion. Neel Jani rarely, if ever, makes mistakes... convinient he had to do that now wasn't it?

Glad that didn't work, but basically angered he is not yet punished for it

Absolutely not. No question about it. This is A1GP not F1 and Jani is not a Schumacher. His car is clearly not right this weekend.

Fantastic sprint race podium from my point of view, could hardly be better.

Report and results here.

[Lam Pak]

congfu cheng suits china. ho pin tung rip. astromega rip.

byebye a1 gp season 4. hope china say byebye to astromega.

[NAC]

Well done Team Ireland - Nice win

[MagnetON]

The racing was rather boring but have to admit I'm very, VERY happy with the outcome! Go Team Ireland!

[Kiwi3]

I found on Sunday morning that Star Sports has been dropped from the satellite package that is beamed into China, therefore I missed the race.

If anyone knows where I can source a copy of the coverage then please let me know.

[RichardRenes]

There was no end-of-season ball yesterday as it seems .

[bella]

and how do you think they'd manage to organise it in the week or so they had between deciding it would be the final round of the season and the sunday night? i would expect any prizegiving to be after the planned mexico date...

[RichardRenes]

It was, at one time, the planned final round, so.....

Appearantly, I seem to credit the A1GP management with skills they don't have.