Sentul: Saturday practice report

A1 Team Mexico Takes the Heat in Sentul

The heat and humidity of Indonesia seems to suite A1 Team Mexico, as in the final practice session before qualifying for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport race at the Sentul track it was Salvador Duran who set the quickest time. His 1min 17.586secs lap, at an average of 184kph, was half a second quicker than that set by the reigning A1GP Champions, A1 Team France, on Friday.

A1 Team Great Britain's Robbie Kerr was again second quickest with just eight hundreths of a second separating him and the Mexican driver. Again the top drivers' times were close, but perhaps the biggest surprise was the time set by A1 Team USA, with third placed Phil Giebler being nearly a second quicker than he was on Friday.

The session was the last opportunity the drivers had to set up their cars for qualifying, with several pushing them to the limit, missing their braking points and heading into the gravel traps. Among those to make such excursions were A1 Team Malaysia and A1 Team New Zealand. The times set in the four qualifying segments this afternoon are the ones that count and no doubt local hero, A1 Team Indonesia driver, Ananda Mikola, will be hoping to set a time in the region of a high one minute sixteen seconds that he has predicted could be pole.

Qualifying for tomorrow's Sprint race is due to start at 14.15 local time this afternoon.

-credit: a1gp