A1 Team Netherlands has had a very encouraging start of the A1Grand Prix of Nations Australia at Eastern Creek. In the two free practice sessions of today Jos Verstappen set a sixth and fourth fastest time, with lap times of 1’21.526 and 1’21.882 Verstappen showed a consistent performance throughout the whole free practice.
Verstappen never drove at Eastern Creek before, but learned this new circuit quickly. In total the A1 Team Netherlands driver completed 27 laps. With the fourth place in the second session A1 Team Netherlands scores its best result in free practice of this season.
Jos Verstappen; “The circuit is quite nice, but very bumpy. There is a huge bump between turn three and four. Also the asphalt is very slippery, that’s a bit of a shame. But the track is quite challenging, especially the first corner. That one you take flat out and you can make a difference there. After a few laps the car began to suffer from a bit of oversteer. At the moment we are working to get that under control, because it’s a very big factor during the race. In general I’m pleased with the result, but everybody is very close. Tomorrow will be very exciting”.
A1 Team Netherlands team principal Jan Lammers also was pleased with the team’s result of the first day at Eastern Creek.
Jan Lammers; “We seem to be on course reasonably well. Especially in the beginning Jos was in the top of the time sheets straight away and that is quite encouraging for qualifying tomorrow, but then we have to be there in the very first lap. Everybody used their tyres to the absolute maximum today, so at the end the lap times were quite a bit slower than in the first session. The Friday always is a bit hard to judge, because you don’t know how much fuel others are running for practice. It’s still a bit premature, but despite that I think that we have got a reasonable shot at the podium here for both races”
Tomorrow there will be a third and final free practice session in the morning, before the four qualifying sessions start in the afternoon. A1 Team Netherlands off course is aiming to improve on the last qualifying position at Estoril, where Verstappen started fifth.
Press release
A1GP Team Netherlands
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