Jimenez hits the track for A1 Team Brasil in Zhuhai

The action began today at the Zhuhai International Circuit in China for round four of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. Sergio Jimenez was at the wheel of the A1 Team Brasil car on his first visit to the track in today’s two practice sessions.

Today’s focus was for Sergio to get to grips with the 4.3km circuit and find a good set-up for the track. In this morning’s two-part rookie practice session Sergio was quickly on the pace, topping the timesheets for much of the first 25-minute segment with his lap time of 1:24.216, until Team Germany set a time just eight hundredths of a second faster on the chequered flag. Sergio put in another solid performance in the second segment, eventually finished third quickest behind Teams Germany and Canada.

Sergio continued his work in the afternoon’s one-hour practice. He completed 17 laps with a quickest time of 1:24.248, just under a second off the pace of Team Ireland, who finished the session fastest. All teams will have one further hour of practice tomorrow morning before qualifying.

Sergio Jimenez: "It hasn’t been bad today. We started very well in the rookie session and set the second fastest time. At this track it is hard on brakes and everyone will have a problem, especially in the feature race.

When we started this afternoon’s practice, with new tyres, we used old pads and it wasn’t good; I couldn’t brake so we didn’t get a proper lap.

After that we changed the brakes but the tyres were old so we couldn’t set a good lap time. The position this afternoon is not where we will be tomorrow, it will be much better."

Practice Summary

Laps: 11 Position: 2nd Fastest Lap: 1:24.216 (+0.084)

Laps: 13 Position: 3rd Fastest Lap: 1:24.436 (+0.301)

Laps: 17 Position: 9th Fastest Lap: 1:24.248 (+0.969)

- Rebecca Banks, A1 Team Brasil -  photo A1GP