Daniel Morad and A1 Team Lebanon didn’t just blow the cobwebs off their A1GP car, they blew away all but one other nation in today’s practice session in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Taupo, New Zealand. And this brilliant performance was achieved by a team of mechanics that had no sleep. Morad was definitely wide awake today as he stormed his way to a top spot in the practice sessions.

The team were forced to work through the night on Thursday as a new engine needed to be fitted. Morad showed his appreciation for their efforts in the best way possible, topping the morning time sheets.

Morad led the way in the opening session of the weekend, heading the timesheets for most of the rookie session, and in the second part of the rookie session, he continued to be one of the top three drivers. In the afternoon it was the main race drivers behind the wheel and once again Morad showed he had lost none of his determination during the long break since the last event. He was the leading driver for much of the session, just being pipped to the top spot by Switzerland, only 0.135 seconds quicker than the Lebanese driver.

When he stepped out of the car in the afternoon Morad said of his day, “Awesome! It’s great to be back in the A1GP car and fantastic to have put in second quickest lap, I’m very, very happy! My thanks go to the crew for making sure that I had a car to drive today by working all night. And it’s not as if they get the day off after that, there’s a full weekend ahead without any down time. I’m just pleased that I could produce a good performance to reward all their efforts.”

A1 Team Lebanon ambassador, Billy Karam, said of the team’s best opening day performance, “Daniel is really taking the team to another level and showing that he has the talent that is needed to compete in A1GP. We saw this at Sepang in qualifying. Although we weren’t able to translate this into a points finishing result, I’m sure it is only a matter of time. We couldn’t have had a better start to 2009, we now need to continue the momentum through the rest of the weekend.”

Morad and reserve driver, Jimmy Auby, started their New Zealand weekend with two promotional activities for the Taupo event. Maori warriors greeted the drivers before they were given a lesson in how to perform the traditional Haka welcome dance. They also visited the Huka Falls, with the drivers swopping horsepower for jetboat power to admire the scenery of the waterfall.

A1 Team Lebanon and Morad will be back on the race track tomorrow for final practice and qualifying.