Taupo: Teams nominate qualifying drivers

SUPERPOINTS A1GP TAUPO, NEW ZEALAND DRIVERS NOMINATED FOR QUALIFYING

Taupo - It was all change at the top of the timing sheets for the final practice session of the SuperPoints A1GP Taupo, New Zealand with the home team topping the table ahead of Germany and Ireland.

New Zealand moved up from eighth place in the first two official practice sessions, shaving over two seconds off yesterday's overall fastest lap, clearly showing the effect that home crowd support can have on a team. The addition of new engineer, Gary Anderson, appears to be paying off so far for A1 Team Ireland who is now looking set to add to its one championship point scored in Malaysia, with a strong start to this weekend's campaign.

While the likes of Ireland and India are no doubt delighted with their performance here this weekend, earlier championship leader, A1 Team Mexico and Brno race winners Malaysia have found themselves towards the bottom of the table, over one and a half seconds off the pace.

Nominated drivers for Qualifying - SuperPoints A1GP Taupo, New Zealand

                                    A1 Team

                                     Driver

                                   Australia

                                 Karl Reindler

                                     Brazil

                                 Raphael Matos

                                     Canada

                               James Hinchcliffe

                                     China

                                  Ho-Pin Tung

                                 Czech Republic

                                   Tomas Enge

                                     France

                                   Loic Duval

                                    Germany

                                Nico Hulkenberg

                                 Great Britain

                                  Robbie Kerr

                                     India

                               Narain Karthikeyan

                                   Indonesia

                                 Ananda Mikola

                                    Ireland

                                 Richard Lyons

                                     Italy

                                Enrico Toccacelo

                                    Lebanon

                                  Alex Khateeb

                                    Malaysia

                                   Alex Yoong

                                     Mexico

                                 Salvador Duran

                                  Netherlands

                               Jeroen Bleekemolen

                                  New Zealand

                                   Jonny Reid

                                    Pakistan

                                    Nur Ali

                                   Singapore

                              Christian Murchison

                                  South Africa

                               Alan van der Merwe

                                  Switzerland

                                Sebastien Buemi

                                      USA

                                Ryan Hunter-Reay

Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a 5 minute break between each. Only one driver per A1 Team is allowed to take part in Qualifying and 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.

-credit: a1gp