A1 Team France confirms its form

A1 Team France’s weekend got off to a good start on the Sepang circuit and the team confirmed its promising form today during qualifying for Sunday’s sprint and long races. Loïc Duval will start from second and fourth positions, which boosts his chances of making a fighting return to the championship with a couple of podium finishes.

During the first two segments of qualifying to determine the sprint race grid, A1 Team France was the only one able to provide serious opposition to pole position setter, the Swiss Team. Loïc finished only 2/10s behind Neel Jani and will be on the front row tomorrow. In the next two segments, which determine the grid for the long race, the team went for bust.

After setting the second time once again the French engineers decided to change the set-up to gain that little extra pace. Unfortunately, its bet did not pay off and Loïc could only set the fourth-quickest time. However, these solid performances bode well for the rest of the weekend after which A1 Team France intends to have moved up in the overall classification.

Olivier Panis, Sporting Director: "A1 Team France has made an excellent start to the weekend, and today it confirmed the promising performance we saw yesterday. The car is well balanced and it is very competitive on used tyres, which could prove decisive in the long race. We’re well placed to fulfil our weekend’s mission: namely, to score two podium finishes and close the gap to the leaders."

Loïc Duval, Driver: "I’m fairly satisfied overall with today and above all I’m happy to be back with the team with a couple of good performances after the Brno race that I had to miss. Today we did the job. I’ll be starting from second place in the sprint race after getting very close to the Swiss team. We then took a set-up gamble for the last part of qualifying, but the car developed severe oversteer and I made a couple of little mistakes.

The weekend’s aim is to score as many points as possible as the championship still has a long way to go. Switzerland is competitive this weekend, but it’s not our main rival on a long- term basis. I think it’d be wiser to keep a close eye on Great Britain and New Zealand. I’ve driven a good few races for the A1 Team France.

I’ve been on the podium on several occasions, but I can’t wait to win for the team. I’ll do all I can to score a victory this weekend."

- Agnes Carlier -  photo A1GP

. photos are online on www.automobilsport.com under PHOTOS- A1GP