Mixed Emotions for A1 Team GBR in China

A1 Team GBR finished 4th and 13th in a day of mixed emotions as Danny Watts and Oliver Jarvis took to the Zhuhai International Circuit in China for the first time today.

The British squad got off to a positive start with new recruit Danny Watts in the car for the Rookie sessions. Danny has a great deal of experience having been crowned Formula Renault UK Champion in 2002, and winning races in both British Formula 3 and the Porsche Carrera Cup.

Although having tested the A1GP biofuel powered car in the off-season as part of the series’ Think Greener Racing Campaign, this was the first time he’d been behind the wheel for his nation and he did not disappoint.

His feedback was excellent, which with the circuit being new to the calendar was even more important than usual and he put in consistently fast times to end the session 4th quickest overall with a time of 1:24.217. For the afternoon, the GBR car was handed back to A1 race-winner Oliver Jarvis.

Compared to some of the other front-runners in the official session, Olly was on the back-foot having not had the benefit of the Rookie track time therefore was not able to make the most of the new tyres at the start of the session as he was focused on learning the circuit.

The team worked through a number of different set-ups throughout the hour which ultimately weren’t completely right for the track and driver but the team will be back in positive form tomorrow morning as they prepare for qualifying.

Danny Watts: "Having only experienced the biofuel-powered development car for A1GP, for me it was a fantastic feeling to be a rookie driver for my own nation. Out on the circuit, the car felt easy to drive and was consistent. There was one small area where we had to find a little bit more with the car, but overall it was competitive. Ultimately I’m pleased that I was inside the top 4 on my first outing."

Oliver Jarvis: "It was a disappointing session as P13 obviously isn’t where we want to be. We had a few issues with the car, though our old tyre pace towards the end of the session wasn’t so bad, we really need to work on the car set-up on new tyres. We’ll sit down, look at the data and keep working hard overnight to improve before tomorrow. However we’ve been in this position before in Zandvoort and we came out okay there with a win!"

Katie Clements: "Danny did a fantastic job this morning giving the team valuable feedback and putting in some consistently fast laps. In the second session, Olly was unable to make the most out of the new rubber at the start since he hadn’t had the benefit of the earlier rookie session to learn the track, and unfortunately we experienced a few issues with the car throughout the session.

However the team will work through these and come back tomorrow with a confident approach ahead of qualifying." Saturday’s qualifying starts at 1415 local time (0615 GMT) with Sunday’s 20 minute Sprint race starting at 1100 local time (0300 GMT) and the 70 minute Feature race starting at 1500 local time (0700 GMT).

Sky Sports 1 will broadcast all the live action from China from 0600 on Saturday 15 December and Sunday 16 December.

GBR - Rookie Practice 1 Laps: 26 Position: 4th Fastest Lap: 1:24.217 GBR - Free Practice 2 Laps: 19 Position: 13th Fastest Lap: 1:24.653

- Victoria Henley - photo A1GP