Eastern Creek: Team Pakistan Saturday notes

Steady progress for Pakistan at Eastern Creek

The action continued for A1 Team Pakistan today, at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Sydney, Australia. Taking part in the sixth round of the season at the Eastern Creek Raceway just 40 km from Sydney, Adam Khan was on track to qualifying the Pakistan car for the Sprint and Feature races. After a tough session the team had posted two 18th fastest laps to line up in this position for both races.

In a qualifying system unique to A1GP, the teams take part in four qualifying segments. The fastest lap from the first two segments sets the team's position for the Sprint race, and the fastest lap from the second two segments sets the grid slot for the Feature race.

While all the other A1GP teams waited until the last possible moment to set their flying laps, A1 Team Pakistan avoided the traffic and was the first team out on track in the first qualifying segment. Having made a number of adjustments after the mornings qualifying session, Khan improved his time by nearly half a second to take provisional 17th place on the Sprint race grid. Determined to improve his time further, Khan pushed hard in the second segment and on new tyres went almost a second quicker. However as the remaining A1 Teams took advantage of the improving track conditions and new tyres, Khan's time left the team in 18th place - the position Pakistan will take for the 20 minutes Sprint race.

Focus returned to the Feature race as the third qualifying segment got underway. Pushing to find the limit on the changing track, Khan ran wide, but managed to regain control to finish the lap with 17th fastest time. Taking to the track on new tyres for his final flying lap in the fourth qualifying segment, Khan was the first A1GP driver to set a time, taking advantage of the empty track. Although he also improved his time in this segment, the highly competitive field also dropped their lap times to leave Pakistan in 18th place.

Reflecting on qualifying, Khan said, "It was okay, although I thought we'd be a bit higher up, but it's so close here, you make a tiny mistake and you fall down the order. I was a little disappointed with my second qualifying attempt for the Feature race; we'll look at the data to see where I lost the time as we will be looking to improve further before tomorrow.

"We qualified ahead of India which is always satisfying, and we have got some good drivers behind us and some good drivers just in front of us. We always aim to make up places in the race and there's a lot of racing ahead of us tomorrow when you can move up the field, so we'll be aiming towards the top ten tomorrow."

Danny Watts, Driver Coach for A1 Team Pakistan, reviewed the day saying, "We decided to go out early in each qualifying segment as the temperature was rising, and from that respect tactics worked and Adam stayed clear of any traffic. We've got some good drivers behind us on the grid, Adam has made a big step forward and the times are a lot closer to the ultimate pace. As a whole we've very pleased and looking forward to the races tomorrow."

John Allen, Team Manager, A1 Team Pakistan added, "I think that was a good effort from Adam today. I don't think the actual position on the grid reflects the hard work and effort and the progress that has been made. If you look at the times we're only six tenths off tenth position, we're closing the gap and if we keep closing the gap, we'll be looking at fighting for points in the near future. It was a solid drive for Adam; he made a slight mistake in qualifying for the Feature race, but that is all part of being a young driver and the learning process. I'm looking forward to tomorrow - with another good start and some sensible racing, we could be looking at the points again."

-credite: team pakistan