A1GP

Sepang: Series Friday practice report

Great Britain Top Friday Practice In Malaysia Sepang, Malaysia -- Round three of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway at the Sepang International Circuit this morning with France's Nicolas Prost starting the day as the quickest rookie and ...

Published: Nov 23, 2008, 10:55 PM

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Great Britain Top Friday Practice In Malaysia

Sepang, Malaysia -- Round three of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway at the Sepang International Circuit this morning with France's Nicolas Prost starting the day as the quickest rookie and Great Britain's Danny Watts ending the day quickest overall in Malaysia.

A1 Team France got off to a flying start in the rookie session with Nicolas Prost topping the timesheets right at the end of the session. His time of 1-minute 50.679s was nearly half a second quicker than anyone else.

Great Britain's Danny Watts was second quickest, ahead of Earl Bamber on his return for New Zealand. India's Armaan Ebrahim was fourth, just beating home nation Malaysia, who had Aaron Lim behind the wheel to start the day.

"Chengdu was mostly about bumps rather than turns but this track is really amazing," said Prost. "I was really looking forward to coming here because it's one of the nicest tracks in the world, and I think it was the first time we could get the real potential out the car, especially in the quick corners. Turns 5 and 6, the quick left and right, in particular were pretty good."

In hot and humid conditions, Great Britain topped the timesheets in the afternoon's official practice session. Watts' time of 1m 50.038s set on his second flying lap couldn't be bettered during the hour practice.

Due to a gearbox problem, A1 Team Switzerland didn't make it out on track during this morning's session, but the lack of track time didn't hinder Neel Jani. Last season, Jani had the perfect weekend claiming both pole positions and converting them into wins, so it was no surprise that after doing only nine laps today, he clocked a time of 1m 50.110s, just 0.072 adrift of Watts.

A1 Team India's Narain Karthikeyan's time of 1m 50.187s in the final minutes of the session was, just 0.149s from pole while Loic Duval took over the wheel of the French car to finish the day fourth-quickest.

"With the extra running I got this morning I was always going to be there or there abouts," said Watts. "I think looking at the times, the top ten are very close and there's hardly anything in it. It will be the same story tomorrow so it will be very tight at the top."

Home nation Malaysia ended the day tenth. Fairuz Fauzy said: "There is a bit of pressure, but it's good pressure. The last lap was a good run. We managed to do a bit of work on the car, as at the beginning of the session I was struggling with grip, especially on low speed corners. I was struggling to get the front to turn in and I got massive under steer. I was a second off the pace to begin with but during the session we did change the car and the last lap was a good one -- only six tenths off the fastest.

-credit: a1gp

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Read also :

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Previous article Sepang: Team GBR Friday notes

Next article Sepang: Qualifying segment 2 times

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

More from

Earl Bamber



Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup

IMSA

IMSA

Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup



The unselfish anchor behind Jack Aitken’s first IMSA GTP title, Earl Bamber reflects on 2026 campaign

IMSA

IMSA

Petit Le Mans

The unselfish anchor behind Jack Aitken’s first IMSA GTP title, Earl Bamber reflects on 2026 campaign



'Team Cadillac' strategy delivers dual IMSA manufacturer titles for General Motors

IMSA

IMSA

Petit Le Mans

'Team Cadillac' strategy delivers dual IMSA manufacturer titles for General Motors

Latest news



Kimi Antonelli: "Weird" spin and car instability cost F1 Brazilian GP win

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

22 min

Kimi Antonelli: "Weird" spin and car instability cost F1 Brazilian GP win



Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc summoned to stewards after F1 Brazilian GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc summoned to stewards after F1 Brazilian GP



Jorge Martin will be "almost 100% fit" in Portugal as heroic Qatar display keeps title hopes alive

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

1 h

Jorge Martin will be "almost 100% fit" in Portugal as heroic Qatar display keeps title hopes alive



Five quick takeaways from Brazilian GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

2 h

Five quick takeaways from Brazilian GP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts

Subscribe