Monterrey: Team Canada Friday report

Patrick Carpentier received a wet weather welcome to the A1 Grand Prix of Nations as he made his track debut driving for A1 Team Canada in today's official practice sessions at Parque Fundidora, Monterrey ahead of Round 9 of the 'World Cup of Motorsport' this Sunday, 26th February.

Stepping into the Canadian entry, piloted to victory at the previous round by Vancouver's Sean McIntosh, Patrick faced less than perfect conditions to debut in as a constant drizzle throughout the day kept the 3.38km track ultra-slick. As a result both hour-long practice sessions were littered with red flags as a variety of drivers were caught out by the damp. With four career Champ Car starts at Fundidora, Patrick needed no introduction to the circuit but despite his previous experience today marked the 34-year-old from Quebec's first taste of the track in the wet.

Recording 20 laps in the first session, Carpentier made an immediate impression placing seventh overall on the timesheets with a lap of 1m39.939s. In the second outing he was limited to just 16 laps setting a best time of 1m41.623s before the session was cut short with 10 minutes remaining.

Patrick Carpentier: "The car's pretty similar to what I've driven before, it's perhaps a little more nervous at the rear but we were up there in first practice. I think I spun the tires too much though and that had a definite impact in the final session. There was no back-end grip which was too bad as I wanted to keep us up there on the timesheets. We'll give it another shot tomorrow and see how it goes!"

-team canada-