Sepang: Driver nominations for qualifying

Sepang - Tyre choice played an important part in the fastest lap times for the final official practice session of the Malaysia A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Sepang International Circuit presented by Astro, with the top eight teams on the timing sheet all having opted for new rubber.

A1 Team China was perhaps the biggest surprise, putting in the third fastest lap of the weekend knocking 2.433 seconds off his overall fastest lap time set in yesterday's second official practice session. With Tengyi Jiang having raced at Sepang before, his true potential is starting to show as he gets to grips with the A1 race car.

Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a 10 minute break between each. Only one driver per A1 Team is allowed to take part in Qualifying but that driver must have completed at least three timed laps in an Official Practice session. Each driver is limited to three laps - effectively one "flying lap" - per session and must record at least two times, an aggregate of which will determine that A1 Team's position on the grid for Sunday's Sprint race. The grid for the Feature race will be determined by the outcome of the Sprint race.

<pre> Nominated drivers for Qualifying

A1 Team                 A1 Driver
Australia               Will Davison
Austria                 Mathias Lauda
Brazil                  Nelson Piquet Jr
Canada                  Sean McIntosh
China                   Tengyi Jiang
Czech Republic          Tomas Enge
France                  Alexandre Premat
Germany                 Timo Scheider
Great Britain           Robbie Kerr
India                   Armaan Ebrahim
Indonesia               Ananda Mikola
Ireland                 Ralph Firman
Italy                   Enrico Toccacelo
Japan                   Hayanari Schimoda
Lebanon                 Khalil Beschir
Malaysia                Fairuz Fauzy
Mexico                  Luis Diaz
Netherlands             Jos Verstappen
New Zealand             Matt Halliday
Pakistan                Adam Khan
Portugal                Alvaro Parente
South Africa            Stephen Simpson
Switzerland             Neel Jani
USA                     Bryan Herta

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