Dubai: Team Canada qualifying report

A1 Team Canada struggled through practice sessions this weekend but by qualifying all the elements were beginning to get back on track. Driver Sean McIntosh was suffering from a cold which put him at slightly below 100% fitness and the car wasn't handling as well as the team would have liked.

During qualifying itself, a red flag ended the first session prematurely when the Mexican car spun off the track restricting the majority of teams to three runs. Conditions had changed since morning practice and high winds brought sand onto the track which left the cars struggling for traction. Teams then had just three sessions to set their times to determine grid positions. With having had a challenging time on the track before the session, the team were suitably content with a top ten slot.

Sean McIntosh:
"I definitely would have liked to have been higher up but considering the way things have been going this weekend, we've been struggling a little bit here and there, so by moving into the top ten at least we're in a position to score some more points tomorrow. We made a positive change to the car from practice to qualifying which took a bit of getting used to but overall I'm pleased. It would have been better to have had the first session to learn a bit instead of learning on the new set of tyres but I took what the car gave me and now we need to find a bit more for the race. Starting from 9th will be interesting - it's tough going into the first corner in the middle of the pack as I found out in Australia when I was involved in an accident that put me to the back. I just need to watch out and make it through."

-a1team.canada-