Congfu Cheng admitted that A1 Team China’s Friday ranking of 18th out of the 19 competing nations was down to him taking time to become readjusted to driving a powerful single-seater.

He finished 1.656 seconds off the time set by Neel Jani’s A1 Team Switzerland car, after taking over the team’s 600bhp racer from Ho-Pin Tung, who drove in the opening rounds of the World Cup of Motorsport.

“The new-style A1GP car is really nice to drive,” Cheng told A1GP.com.

“As I have spent 2008 racing in Formula 3, the last time I was in a powerful car was at Brands Hatch for the final round of A1GP’s third season, so it felt quite unfamiliar at first and took me a while to become accustomed to the power again.

“Actually, I did drive the new A1GP car, but that was back in August on the Silverstone national circuit and conditions were wet, so that didn’t really count.”

Cheng was upbeat though, saying he is confident he will find time in final practice tomorrow morning ahead of qualifying.

“I have a lot of work to do to catch up,” he added, “and I’m going to sit down with my engineer and work out where I’m falling short. I reckon that all I need is more track time to learn this new car.”