Sepang – A1 Team Germany’s Nico Hülkenberg has set the benchmark for this weekend’s Astro A1GP Sepang, Malaysia, setting the fastest times in today’s two practice sessions. The 19-year-old set a stunning lap time of 1:51.789secs on his first flying lap, over three seconds quicker than last season’s Sepang pole time. In a session interrupted by rain, Hülkenberg was over one second faster than China’s Congfu Cheng and New Zealand’s Jonny Reid.

Hülkenberg’s lack of experience of the 5.5km track clearly did not hamper his speed as he also posted the fastest time in the morning’s session to pip South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg to the top by just 0.025secs. He repeated the impressive performance in the afternoon’s one hour free practice session, clearly stating his determination to repeat his Zandvoort race win in October. “I think it was a good lap, but I have a car that is good not only for one lap but it is consistent,” Hülkenberg commented, “As a driver you have to look after your tyres for a long race, and I am looking forward to that, but practice is always something different and qualifying as well. However, today we looked pretty good. The heat is the big theme and I think it will be getting tough for the driver at the end of the races. I am looking forward to it and think we have a great car.

Speaking at the press conference after the final session, Hülkenberg looked forward to racing on the fast, flowing Sepang after the tricky, tight Beijing circuit, “This is a big difference to Beijing and another challenge. I liked Beijing a lot. I heard people who didn’t like it but I liked the walls as it was like being in a cage, man against man and I liked the track a lot as you could push. However, here there is just one line and if you go off it mistakes are easy to make.”

A1 Team China’s Congfu Cheng, sixth fastest in the morning’s session, posted the second quickest time in the second practice, but his preparations were shortened after just a handful of laps when he ran wide into a gravel trap and became stuck. Cheng’s early speed however proved key when the heavy rain fell midway through the hour and lap times dropped. New Zealand’s Jonny Reid, back in the car for the first time since Brno, had a successful day’s running, setting the fourth fastest time in the earlier practice and third in the afternoon.

Home team Malaysia also had a strong showing, with Fairuz Fauzy third in the morning’s classification, just 0.060secs slower than Hülkenberg. Team-mate Alex Yoong completed limited running before the rain fell to set the sixth quickest time, “It is a disadvantage at the moment not being in the practice session but I hope as the weekend goes on it will prove not to be a disadvantage. Certainly for today it will be a disadvantage as for those who do not do the earlier session we do not get the best out of the tyres. In Nico’s case he had a morning session and he came out and was strong, “ Yoong credited the young German on his stunning performance, “There is nothing to take away from Nico’s lap. It was really a stunning lap and I don’t think anyone could imagine beating that even if we had done the session. From driving we will find more time so I am sitting here thinking of that more than anything at the moment.”

Yoong admitted the rain had interrupted his running, “When the rain came it started on this side of the circuit so I got it in the middle of turns five and six and there was a big moment because the rain comes down here very fast, but you just have to expect it really. I think you just can’t plan for the rain as it happens so fast here and stops so quickly as well. You have just got to plan to be as flexible as you can and try to react to every change that happens.” Qualifying could be a lottery, he suggested, “I think the people may be watching the cars go round but I can assure you the team members will be watching the sky.

The action resumes tomorrow with a further free practice session and four 15 minute qualifying segments between 14.15 and 15.30 that will determine the grid for Sunday’s Sprint race. With a high chance of rain, results will be unpredictable and strategy will be even more important than ever.


Official Practice Session 1

     A1 Team    Driver    Time    No. Laps
1    Germany    Nico Hülkenberg    1:54.311    6
2    South Africa    Adrian Zaugg    1:54.336    11
3    Malaysia    Fairuz Fauzy    1:54.371    7
4    New Zealand    Jonny Reid    1:54.471    11
5    Great Britain    Oliver Jarvis    1:54.948    16
6    China    Congfu Cheng    1:55.039    6
7    Czech Republic    Jaroslav Janis    1:55.255    11
8    Netherlands    Renger van der Zande    1:56.003    12
9    Brazil    Raphael Matos    1:56.030    12
10    Singapore    Christian Murchison    1:56.352    18
11    Australia    Karl Reindler    1:56.701    15
12    Mexico    Sergio Perez    1:56.756    13
13    Indonesia    Moreno Soeprapto    1:57.182    14
14    Ireland    John O'Hara    1:57.397    8
15    Italy    Michele Rugolo    1:58.241    12
16    Lebanon    Khalil Beschir    1:59.005    12
17    Pakistan    Nur Ali    2:02.254    14


Official Practice Session 2

     A1 Team    Driver    Time    No. Laps
1    Germany    Nico Hülkenberg    1:51.789    15
2    China    Congfu Cheng    1:52.986    6
3    New Zealand    Jonny Reid    1:52.998    13
4    Switzerland    Neel Jani    1:53.431    15
5    USA    Phil Giebler    1:53.779    15
6    Malaysia    Alex Yoong    1:53.884    16
7    Brazil    Raphael Matos    1:53.947    17
8    Great Britain    Robbie Kerr    1:54.075    19
9    South Africa    Adrian Zaugg    1:54.361    14
10    France    Nicolas Lapierre    1:54.373    16
11    Czech Republic    Tomas Enge    1:54.426    15
12    Mexico    Salvador Duran    1:54.899    19
13    Canada    Sean McIntosh    1:54.923    19
14    Australia    Ryan Briscoe    1:54.975    13
15    Ireland    Michael Devaney    1:55.018    17
16    Netherlands    Jeroen Bleekemolen    1:55.062    20
17    Indonesia    Ananda Mikola    1:55.654    18
18    Singapore    Christian Murchison    1:55.735    3
19    Italy    Enrico Toccacelo    1:56.164    14
20    Lebanon    Khalil Beschir    1:57.051    17
21    India    Armaan Ebrahim    1:57.312    21
22    Pakistan    Nur Ali    -    -

Ford Performance Racing's Jason Bright took a narrow win in the first race of the inaugural Desert 400 in Bahrain.

Bright took the win after early leader Garth Tander had to deal with other cars in pit lane as he exited his pit stop, Tander's difficulty compounded with the car stalling as he went to leave his pits.

Tander closed in on Bright, but was unable to find a way past, finishing less than half a second behind him at the finish.

Todd Kelly finished third, one place ahead of younger brother Rick, who took fourth place from James Courtney at turn four with three laps remaining.

Craig Lowndes continued to struggle for pace, finishing the race in ninth. One place ahead of him in eighth was Mark Winterbottom, who had started the race seven places behind him, Lowndes one of three drivers to gain a place on the grid after Greg Murphy was demoted to tenth for a technical infringement.

With tarmac runoffs there was only one safety car period, but there was still a couple of significant incidents, the first bringing out the safety car and ending uncle and nephew Brad and Andrew Jones' race.

A later incident at turn four effectively ended the race of both Dick Johnson Racing cars of Will Davison and Steven Johnson when they were involved in a collision with Jason Bargwanna.

Rick Kelly's strong result has reduced the title challengers from seven to five as Jason Bright and Steven Richards can no longer win the title. Meanwhile Kelly's lead over Lowndes has increased to 90 points.

Pos  Driver                   Car
1.  Jason Bright             Ford Falcon BA
2.  Garth Tander             Holden Commodore VZ
3.  Todd Kelly               Holden Commodore VZ
4.  Rick Kelly               Holden Commodore VZ
5.  James Courtney           Ford Falcon BA
6.  Steven Richards          Holden Commodore VZ
7.  Mark Skaife              Holden Commodore VZ
8.  Mark Winterbottom        Ford Falcon BA
9.  Craig Lowndes            Ford Falcon BA
10.  Jamie Whincup            Ford Falcon BA
11.  Paul Dumbrell            Holden Commodore VZ
12.  Greg Murphy              Holden Commodore VZ
13.  Russell Ingall           Ford Falcon BA
14.  Cameron McConville       Holden Commodore VZ
15.  Jason Bargwanna          Ford Falcon BA
16.  Lee Holdsworth           Holden Commodore VZ
17.  Max Wilson               Ford Falcon BA
18.  Steve Owen               Holden Commodore VZ
19.  Warren Luff              Ford Falcon BA
20.  John Bowe                Ford Falcon BA
21.  Marcus Marshall          Ford Falcon BA
22.  Jack Perkins             Holden Commodore VZ
23.  Jason Richards           Holden Commodore VZ
24.  Dean Canto               Holden Commodore VZ
25.  Chris Pither             Holden Commodore VZ
26.  Paul Morris              Holden Commodore VZ
27.  Steven Johnson           Ford Falcon BA
DNF  Will Davison             Ford Falcon BA
DNF  Jose Fernandez           Ford Falcon BA
DNF  Brad Jones               Ford Falcon BA
DNF  Andrew Jones             Holden Commodore VZ

Neel Jani showed a return to his form from last season to take the sprint race pole position for Switzerland at Sepang.

The Toro Rosso test driver struggled on his return to A1GP action at Beijing earlier this month, and he admitted that it had taken time to adapt to the car after a season spent driving Formula One cars.

"This is actually my first qualifying session of the season because we didn't get to qualify in China," he said. "It's very hard to drive these cars, but this is a track I like.

"To be quick you have to find a way to slide these cars without losing time, it requires more skill to drive these cars than in F1."

Jonny Reid will line up alongside Jani on the front row for New Zealand, and both teams decided not to run in the final session to save tyres.

Reid will be wary of Nico Hulkenberg who starts in third place for Germany. The pair started from the front row at Brno earlier this season and collided on their way to the first corner.

Hulkenberg was one of several drivers under investigation by the stewards after the session due to a collision he had at turn two with Michael Devaney in the Irish car.

Robbie Kerr did a solid job to secure fourth on the grid for Great Britan, while Cheng Cong Fu put the Chinese car in the top five.

Jeroen Bleekemolen showed an improvement from practice for the Netherlands to qualify sixth, ahead of a slightly disappointed Alex Yoong at the Malaysian team's home race.

"The car wasn't behaving how we thought it would," said Yoong, "and when we made a lot of changes it still didn't do what we expected.

"We also saved our new tyres for the later runs, but the track conditions turned out to be better at the start of qualifying."

Adrian Zaugg will start eighth for South Africa, but the Zandvoort race winner is another driver under investigation for an incident that held up Phil Giebler in the American car.

Canada's Sean McIntosh qualified ninth for his first A1GP race of this season, just ahead of reigning champions France, who took a double win in Malaysia one year ago.

Championship leaders Mexico had a session to forget, and Salvador Duran will start in the middle of the field for Sunday morning's sprint race.

Australia were another team that struggled, and their progress was hindered by a high speed off at the esses towards the end of the lap for Ryan Briscoe in the third session.

The car suffered front suspension damage, but the Alan Docking Racing crew worked hard to get it fixed in time for Briscoe to complete his final run.

Pos  Team            Driver            Time
1.  Switzerland     Neel Jani         3:43.014
2.  New Zealand     Jonny Reid        3:43.305 + 0.291
3.  Germany         Nico Hulkenberg   3:43.381 + 0.367
4.  Great Britain   Robbie Kerr       3:43.941 + 0.927
5.  China           Congfu Cheng      3:44.884 + 1.870
6.  Netherlands     J. Bleekemolen    3:44.932 + 1.918
7.  Malaysia        Alex Yoong        3:45.068 + 2.054
8.  South Africa    Adrian Zaugg      3:45.238 + 2.224
9.  Canada          Sean McIntosh     3:45.352 + 2.338
10.  France          Nicolas Lapierre  3:45.410 + 2.396
11.  USA             Philip Giebler    3:45.843 + 2.829
12.  Mexico          Salvador Duran    3:46.155 + 3.141
13.  Ireland         Michael Devaney   3:46.220 + 3.206
14.  Czech Republic  Tomas Enge        3:46.407 + 3.393
15.  Brazil          Raphael Matos     3:46.745 + 3.731
16.  Singapore       C. Murchison      3:47.194 + 4.180
17.  Australia       Ryan Briscoe      3:47.711 + 4.697
18.  Indonesia       Ananda Mikola     3:48.249 + 5.235
19.  India           Armaan Ebrahim    3:48.388 + 5.374
20.  Italy           Enrico Toccacelo  3:49.175 + 6.161
21.  Lebanon         Khalil Beschir    3:50.137 + 7.123
22.  Pakistan        Nur Ali           3:59.081 +16.067

Switzerland's Neel Jani took a lights-to-flag win in the A1GP sprint race at Sepang, despite strong pressure from Germany's Nico Hulkenberg.

Pole sitter Jani took the lead at the start ahead of New Zealand's Jonny Reid with Germany's Nico Hulkenberg third, before Hulkenberg went around the outside of Reid into second place, the two making slight contact which affected Reid as the laps wound down.

Further down the order Brazil, Indonesia, the Czech Republic and Italy were involved in contact. The Brazilian car was sent back out after pitting for repairs, while the other three cars were out after limping back to the pits.

Up at the front of the field, Hulkenberg was just a second behind Jani throughout the race but was unable to wrestle the lead away from the Team Switzerland driver.

Finishing behind the leading trio was hometown favourite Alex Yoong for Team Malaysia, with Great Britain's Robbie Kerr and France's Nicolas Lapierre completing the points-paying positions.

Second place for Germany has moved them into the series lead by three points after Mexico's Salvador Duran struggles continued, finishing the sprint race in eleventh place.

Pos  Team              Time
1.  Switzerland       19:06.289
2.  Germany           +   1.203
3.  New Zealand       +   3.601
4.  Malaysia          +  11.826
5.  Great Britain     +  12.858
6.  France            +  13.731
7.  Netherlands       +  16.097
8.  Canada            +  17.358
9.  Usa               +  18.292
10.  China             +  21.207
11.  Mexico            +  22.572
12.  Australia         +  23.628
13.  South Africa      +  24.686
14.  Ireland           +  25.433
15.  Singapore         +  33.516
16.  India             +  35.184
17.  Lebanon           +  45.218
18.  Pakistan          +1:35.573
19.  Brazil            +1:39.417
20.  Indonesia         +  9 Laps
21.  Czech Republic    +  9 Laps
22.  Italy             +  9 Laps

Sepang – A1 Team Germany’s rising star Nico Hülkenberg has fulfilled his early weekend promise with a dominant victory in the Astro A1GP Sepang, Malaysia Feature race. The 19-year-old German talent finished more than 42 seconds ahead of A1 Team Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr and defending champions France in a race shortened by heavy rain.

The heavens opened half an hour before the start of the race, forcing a start behind the safety car as standing water remained on the track. Hülkenberg however proved himself to be as adept in wet conditions as he is in the dry as he pulled off a bold overtaking manoeuvre on polesitter Neel Jani at Turn Four to seize the lead. Seeing Jani was slow out of Turn Three, Hülkenberg ran onto the kerb to squeeze past the Swiss on the inside and take the lead. Willi Weber’s star protégé then stormed away from the field to pull out a three second lead by the end of the first lap. He was never challenged from that point on; his only drama coming on lap 18 when he stalled during a pit stop. With a 19 second lead however, Hülkenberg’s position was never in jeopardy and he returned to track in front.

“It wasn’t too bad at the start as it was not so wet any more, but when we went out for the installation lap at 14.20 when the pit lane opened. That was incredible - I have never seen so much water in my life and I spun off on the straight as there was just no chance to drive the car as it was aquaplaning all the time. That was a bit crazy. When we started the race it was quite wet but the car was okay to handle. I like the wet and have no problems with it. When I overtook Neel it was out of Turn Four I think he had a little bit of problems with traction, a little bit of wheelspin, I was a bit smooth on the throttle in second gear and then I had better traction and could pass him. I stalled the car as I was just not smooth enough with my clutch and then the engine stalled. My mechanics had a very good reaction time and pushed me and I started the car by clutch.”

Robbie Kerr demonstrated complete confidence and car control to move from fifth on the grid to second at the flag fall. Kerr caught Malaysia’s Alex Yoong off the start and fought hard to find a way past. On lap 10 the Briton took a long line through Turn 13, which gave him the inside line going into the pit straight and using all available road and grip, Kerr forced his way through into fourth. With Yoong out of the way Kerr then set his sights on third-placed New Zealander Jonny Reid. Racing wheel-to-wheel down the pit straight, Kerr again took the inside line into Turn One, but Reid was not to be pushed out easily and kept his nerve, his line and his position. Undeterred, Kerr challenged again on the following turn and, with good traction and grip, made the move stick to move into third.

“It was absolutely soaking in the first few laps and it was particularly bad back in fifth position where you couldn’t see too much because of the amount of spray. The first few laps were getting used to the track for learning where all the puddles were and such like and then through the race just being able to pull up on Malaysia quite easily and then playing with them a little bit to get Alex to move where I needed him to be to make the overtaking move. Nicolas Lapierre was a little bit close to me behind at that point in time, but I then managed to pull clear in the middle part of the race and was really quick, catching Jonny quite quickly. He braked very early the first time I got alongside him, came into the last corner and I went down the inside of him. I was quite surprised how early he did brake but from then from that point I was just directly behind him and pushing him hard to make a couple of mistakes and then squeezing through.”

Kerr pushed to close the gap to second-placed Jani and eventually found his chance on lap 20 when Jani spun at Turn 14 and lost time while Kerr was making a routine pit stop. Kerr exited the pit lane just seconds before Jani powered down the straight to snatch second. “The team did an excellent pit stop and the team came on the radio telling me to push, push because we had a chance of second position and that was what I did keep consistent lap times, quicker than Neel, and it worked and I squeezed ahead. We had a problem with the car, throughout the race, getting worse and worse towards the end when France was catching up, but I was happy to be in second position and it is great to come back into the series after a break and looking forward to Indonesia.”

Kerr is confident the team will be on the pace at the next round in Sentul, Indonesia, “We are going to push for the win in Indonesia. I am sure the car will be better than it was last year. The competition is going to be harder and I am sure we are going to be on that top step some time soon.”

Third-placed France moved steadily through the field as the track dried, going ahead of Malaysia on lap 12. There was brief contact between the two as Lapierre took an aggressive inside line through a turn, but no damage was sustained and the Frenchman eventually made the move stick round the back of the circuit. He moved ahead of Canada into fourth on lap 22 and took advantage of a mistake in Turn Two by Neel Jani the following lap to move into the final podium slot.

“The most important thing was the second race. I think at the end Neel was a bit straining with his tyres. My tyres were fine and I was just pushing and coming back like a second a lap and then I went past him. It was okay but the main problem was we lost a lot of time at the beginning of the race because we were sixth and could not see anything and were stuck behind Malaysia and we lost 20 or 30 seconds there. Then we came back and I think we had a good pace but we need to start on the front if we want to win a race. We have struggled a bit this year with the new tyres but Indonesia is a track where we qualified second last year, I know the track and Nico will not have the rookie session any more so there are plenty of things which will help us.”

Home nation A1 Team Malaysia seemingly had a race of two halves, as Yoong dropped down the field before the pit stop. With a new set of tyres, a rejuvenated Yoong then scythed through to close to the tail of a five-way battle for seventh with South Africa, Ireland, Singapore, Netherlands and USA by lap 19. Yoong and South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg had light contact at the entrance to Turn Two as Yoong squeezed through, but both emerged unscathed. Yoong made careful use of the PowerBoost to close down on Ireland down the pit straight and take Michael Devaney on the entrance to the first corner.

Again Yoong used his PowerBoost to go ahead of Singapore’s Christian Murchison and then Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen, within striking distance of seventh-placed Phil Giebler in the USA car. Giebler however moved ahead of Jonny Reid into sixth, leaving Yoong to ease in front of the New Zealander into seventh. Yoong put his second half performance down to changing the tyre pressures on the second set of rubber, “It was so bad at the start,” commented Yoong. “I just had people passing me so we dropped the tyre pressures for the second set and the car was transformed and I could really attack. It’s really been a race of what ifs, but that’s Motorsport.”

Ireland and Singapore battled for the final points scoring position until the end of the race, with Devaney coming out on top to secure the Irish team’s first points of the season. Brazil were however excluded from the final results after Stewards deemed the team had taken its mandatory pit stop outside the allocated pit stop window. Germany’s win puts the team back at the head of the teams’ championship, six points ahead of Great Britain, who are the only nation to have scored in all four Feature races this season. Malaysia move up to third in the standings, while Mexico drop to fourth.