Mexico City: Team Pakistan Saturday notes

Pakistan make progress in Mexico

A1 Team Pakistan was on track today for final practice and qualifying at the A1GP, Mexico City. Taking his place behind the wheel, Adam Khan was one of 22 drivers representing their nation at the eighth round of this 10 round season.

Taking to the track for the final practice session of the weekend, Khan completed 19 laps around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this morning. The A1 Team Pakistan driver made significant improvements around the bumpy circuit, especially in the challenging final sector. The team's efforts were enough to record the 14th fastest time of the session, just half a second off the fastest time of the morning, in one of the most competitive sessions of the season.

In A1GP's unique qualifying system, 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.

Taking to the track for the first qualifying segment on old tyres, Khan could only manage 20th quickest. On new tyres for his second qualifying run, the 22 year-old racer pushed hard to improve his position and made a significant improvement to secure 15th on the grid for the Sprint race.

Taking part in the third qualifying segment, Khan continued the positive momentum to take provisional 10th place on the Feature race grid. With just one opportunity left to better his place for the Feature race, Khan was on the limit on his final qualifying lap and ran wide at the final corner, damaging his lap time. With other teams posting improving their times, Pakistan will line up 17th for the 70 minute Feature race.

Reflecting on qualifying, Khan said, "I've got mixed feeling about our performance in qualifying. I was pleased with my second and third qualifying laps, and having been provisionally 10th on the Feature race grid, I was hoping to maintain or improve my position in the final qualifying segment. Unfortunately I think I lost quite a bit of time on the final corner on my last lap, the back of the car seemed to run wide, and it took quite a bit of effort to keep the car pointing in the right direction! I know we are quicker than our grid position suggests, so I'm aiming to make up plenty of places on the first lap. We've got a lot of racing ahead of us tomorrow so anything can happen."

Pakistan team manager John Allen added, "Adam did a very good job in final practice this morning to make a number of improvements and make up a lot of time in the final sector. That put us in good stead for the qualifying session.

"We continued to make good progress in the first two qualifying segments and I was pleased with 15th place for the Sprint race, but I think our performance in the final qualifying segment was a little disappointing. Adam has demonstrated he is very quick on old tyres, so I think he will be able to make up some places in the race."

The Mexico round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport will be shown in Pakistan on Geo Super.

-credit: a1teampak.com