A1GP
Brands Hatch: Alexandre Imperatori championship report
SWITZERLAND ON TOP OF THE WORLD Alexandre Imperatori entered in racing history last week end when he helped Switzerland, in quality of rookie, to become the new World Champion of Motorport when Neel Jani took a podium in the final ...
Published: May 7, 2008, 12:52 AM
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SWITZERLAND ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Alexandre Imperatori entered in racing history last week end when he helped Switzerland, in quality of rookie, to become the new World Champion of Motorport when Neel Jani took a podium in the final race.
Following his top performances in the rookie sessions of Zhuhai and Shanghai, Alexandre was recalled to represent his country in the final rookie session of the season.
While the team approached the event with a comfortable lead, the focus was on not making mistakes and end on a positive note. For Alexandre, the experience was a bit special also as this was his first rookie session of the year on a circuit he never drove at before:
"It will be a good test to see where we stand in Brands Hatch as I will have to learn the track, but the circuit looks awesome and I cannot wait to drive it".
But before the action took place on the track, Alexandre and Jani, the team's two drivers, were invited to take part in a friendly cricket match with the Kent team under the cameras of the medias.
On friday morning, Alexandre had a regular program to go through with engineer James Robbinson to prepare the brakes for the races. Once the brakes were finished, Alex would have a few laps to set a time and get an initial feel of the setup. After his second flying lap, the young rookie set the fastest lap with a 1.16.428 but had to pit in a lap later to check on a potential gearbox glitch with effectively shortened his run. In these later stages of the first 25 minutes session, Portugal and New Zealand took the opportunity to slip past and Alexandre ended up in a very good third place at the checkered flag.
In the second 25 minutes segment, Alexandre had to bed brakes in again but already matched his best time as he kept learning the track: 1.16.480. It looked good for the young swiss to take a podium spot again but in the flying run, heavy traffic effectively ruined any opportunity to set a good time and Switzerland finished the session in 4th overall.
Alexandre Imperatori: "The feeling with the car felt good and in later stages of the session I was getting to grips with the track so it is a shame so many cars went off in front of us because otherwise I think we could have been quite a bit quicker. But anyways, the result is already positive, and the most important was to prepare the car well for Neel to take the championship this week end."
"I would like to take this opportunity to express my biggest thanks to Max Welti for entitling me with his trust once again and for giving me a chance back in Zhuhai. Another thanks goes to James Robbinson who has been of a great help in the learning process.".
Max Welti: "Alex could have been quicker towards the end of the second session, had he not been held up in traffic. The most important thing is that he brought the car back in one piece after the 27 laps."
The next A1GP season will start in Mugello next september with complete new chassis and engines. The partnership with Ferrari should also ensure an improved level of competition.
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