Practice starts in Zhuhai for A1 Team Lebanon

A1 Team Lebanon took to the Chinese track in Zhuhai for the opening day of practice at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Zhuhai, China. The fourth round of this season takes place at a new venue for the Series, and the first of two visits to the country. Drivers Khalil Beschir and Chris Alajajian will be representing the nation, and as the only Arab team in the Series, representing the wider Arab world too.

In the first official practice session this afternoon Beschir used the time to acclimatise himself to the A1GP car at this circuit. He worked with the engineers to develop the balance of the car and its overall setup in efforts to improve on lap times. During the course of the afternoon Beschir lapped consistently, making progress through the session and finishing with 21st quickest time.

He said of the opening day, "Overall I’m satisfied with our performance this afternoon. I always enjoy representing my country by driving the Lebanese car in the A1GP Series.

It’s a very competitive series and there’s a wide range of driving skills within the field, so we’re pitted against a mix of highly experienced European drivers and others from countries like ours where motorsport is not so developed and there is less of a heritage in the sport.

We’re battling with these and gradually making progress which is a positive position."

Trevor Bale, Team Manager, A1 Team Lebanon adds, "Khalil drove consistently today. It’s a fairly straightforward circuit, but the slower corners are challenging. We’ll be reviewing the data from today’s session and working with Marc Hynes, our driver coach, to look at the areas in which Khalil can gain some time.

We made some changes towards the end of the session and this resulted in some improvements, and we’ll be looking to continue to make progress tomorrow with Chris taking over the car in the morning."

The team were limited to running in only one session today, following a Sporting Regulation infringement, with the drivers testing at this circuit prior to the event which is not allowed within the A1GP rules.

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Zhuhai, China, continues tomorrow. Chris Alajajian will be behind the wheel of the A1 Team Lebanon car for the final morning practice session.

The team will then select the driver for the remainder of the weekend. On Saturday afternoon there will be a qualifying session to set the grid for the two races.

These take place on Sunday with a morning Sprint race and afternoon Feature race. All the A1GP action can be seen live on Al Jazeera Sport across the Middle East. Ends.  

- Alison Hill -  photo A1GP