Rookies lead the way in Mexico

Rookie drivers Oliver Jarvis and Renger van der Zande set the pace in the final practice session for this morning’s A1GP Mexico City, Mexico this morning with Great Britain and the Netherlands topping the timing sheets and setting a strong challenge for the regular race drivers.

In a shake up of yesterday’s results, India, Brazil, the Czech Republic and Portugal all made dramatic improvements to move up the timing sheets with the usual race leaders New Zealand and Germany coming in fourth and 11th respectively. The 2006/07 championship title is within reach of both teams and a strong performance from Germany could see them leave Mexico City with the title sown up. Both will be looking to improve on this morning’s performance ahead of this afternoon’s Sprint race qualifying session.

For Great Britain and the Netherlands, qualifying will pose new challenges to both drivers with neither having taken part in this stage of an A1GP weekend before. Van der Zande is also set to take part in his first A1GP race, driving in tomorrow’s Sprint race before handing the wheel back to main driver Jeroen Bleekemolen for the Feature race.

The teams now have to decide on their set up before qualifying for the Sprint race begins at 14.15 this afternoon. Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a five minute break between each. Only one driver per A1 Team is allowed to take part in Qualifying and that driver must have completed at least three timed laps in an Official Practice session. Each driver is limited to three laps – effectively one “flying lap" – per session and must record at least two times, an aggregate of which will determine that A1 Team’s position on the grid for Sunday’s Sprint race. The grid for the Feature race will be determined by the outcome of the Sprint race.