Brno: Team Germany Friday notes

A1 Team Germany shines in Brno with best time in free practice

Good start for the Willi Weber managed A1 Team Germany at the second race weekend of the season in Brno: nominated driver Christian Vietoris set the best time of the day with a lap of 1m45.336s in second free practice in the 550 hp race car of the German team around the 5.4 kilometre undulating track in the Czech Republic and was more than half-a-second faster than his closest rival in a field of 22 cars.

Although the 18-year old "star of tomorrow" only knew the circuit from a test in a Formula BMW car back in 2005, he was fast from the very start. Vietoris headed the time screens in the morning during the "Rookie" practice session reserved exclusively for series newcomers.

"Although we lost half an hour due to a small technical problem we were able to work through our test plan, since the car was well balanced from the word go," reported Vietoris. "The circuit has many fast sections but also challenging combinations of corners. If you don't find a good line there you can lose a lot of time. On the other hand it's possible to overtake there. I tested exactly where I have to brake there today and found a good rhythm."

Vietoris will be back in action on Saturday morning in third free practice. "We want to further optimise the set-up on used tyres." Tomorrow afternoon the qualifying sessions for both of Sunday's races are on the agenda for the driver from Gonnersdorf. "I am expecting to see quite an improvement tomorrow after assessing today's performance. The strong performance today has done the team the world of good after the mediocre weekend at Zandvoort. You really notice how motivated they all are."

-credit: a1gp.germany