South Africa made a solid if unspectacular start to the fourth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Taupo, New Zealand today. Cristiano Morgado, making his debut in A1 Team South Africa’s Vulindlela, was a creditable seventh fastest in the opening practice session for rookie and developing nation drivers.

The Formula Volkswagen star completed 36 laps in the two-part session on Friday morning with a best lap time of 1 min 20,447 sec, which was 1,195 sec off the best time posted by Switzerland’s Alexandre Imperatori.

Race engineer Humphrey Corbett commented: “I was very impressed with Cristiano’s performance this morning – he did a great job first time out. As you would expect from a 29-year-old, he displayed a very mature approach.”

Morgado expressed himself satisfied with his performance, “but I would have liked some more time in the car. It is great to drive, but I needed more laps around the Taupo circuit. This has been an all-new experience for me and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. The Ferrari-powered A1GP car is awesome. The circuit conditions, apart from being new to me, were very dry and dusty. There are a lot of corners and it’s quite technical.”

Adrian Zaugg: “We were quickest in the final sector, but we need a bit more time in the first two sectors, particularly the first sector. We have made some changes to the car to stabilise the rear end on entry to the turns and hopefully we will make more progress in this direction tomorrow. This will see us gain time by being able to brake later and carry more speed into the turn. We are also looking for a bit on the exit. Overall I’m very positive for tomorrow.”

Mike Carroll, team manager: “Adrian picked up a bit of fever on his long trip to New Zealand and unfortunately has not been sleeping very well. Nevertheless he has set the quickest final sector time in today’s first practice, which is no mean feat. He has the pace, as we all know; with just a little more, primarily in the transient areas from the driver/car combination, we should be in good shape this weekend.”

Saturday’s qualifying will be broadcast live on SABC3 from 1330 to 1600 and Sunday’s sprint and feature races will be broadcast from 1300 to 1730 (the recorded sprint race will be screened from 1300 while the feature race will be live from 14h00).