Team Ireland Silverstone test 2007-08-29

Firman completes good test for Team Ireland

Ralph Firman returned to the cockpit of the Team Ireland A1GP car for the first time since the 2006 USA A1GP today, completing an extensive test for the team and setting the 7th fastest time of the afternoon with a lap of 1m11.269s. He also set the fastest overall time in Sector 2 of the Silverstone International circuit. Following Adam Carroll's strong showing for the team yesterday, Firman used this morning to reacclimatise himself to the 550bhp A1GP car and continued the set-up work started by Carroll.

Further changes allowed Firman to set his quickest time in the afternoon, just over half a second behind the Team Great Britain entry. The Team Ireland crew will now analyze the data and engineering feedback from the test prior to the next official A1GP scheduled to take place at Silverstone on September 18th/19th.

Ralph Firman; "We had a good test today, made some good changes to the car and it felt a lot better in the afternoon, particularly once we tried new tyres. There is more time to come from me and I think with some further set-up work and fine tuning we can find another few tenths to be right on the pace. Overall very good and there's no doubt that the team is looking pretty strong."

Mark Kershaw, Team Owner; "This was a very productive test for the team and confirmed that the hard work undertake over the summer has paid off. This time last year we were struggling for performance in pre-season testing, but both Adam and Ralph have put us towards the sharp end of the field which is all that matters at this stage."

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport commences with the A1GP, Netherlands, at Zandvoort Park on September 30, beginning an 11-race schedule which will see the Irish team compete with over 20 other nations for the title. The team will announce its driver line-up after the final pre-season test.

-credit: team ireland