A1 Team Lebanon with driver Daniel Morad, head to South Africa this week for the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. This season the series will race at the famous Kyalami circuit in Johannesburg, after three years on the South African coastline of Durban. The culture and history of the Kyalami Circuit alongside the challenging nature of the circuit, should make for an action packed race weekend for A1GP. The event has already attracted the attention of the local Lebanese population, with a strong contingent set to fly their national flag trackside.

During the last race in Taupo, New Zealand the promise shown by A1 Team Lebanon failed to deliver the points the team were so eagerly anticipating. A mechanical failure in the Sprint race compounded with retirement from the Feature was a devastating blow after Daniel Morad had been one of the top performing drivers in each of the sessions ahead of the two races. Now the focus turns to the challenge of the Kyalami circuit and the chance of scoring points for the Lebanese nation.

The world famous Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit is gearing up to host all the thrills of a sporting showpiece with the first staging of A1GP. Kyalami – which means “my home” in isiZulu is 24 km north of central Johannesburg in the province of Gauteng. The circuit lies at a high altitude of 5000ft above sea level, the will potentially reduce the horsepower of the 600bhp A1GP cars Powered by Ferrari.

Morad said ahead of the weekend, “I’m really looking forward to getting in the car this weekend in Gauteng. We showed we had strong pace in Taupo, but the incidents in the races caused us to go home without our much needed points.

“Kyalami circuit looks great and will be a real challenge in the A1GP cars Powered by Ferrari. The track has slow corners, fast corners, chicanes; it’s got it all, so I’m really looking forward to getting to grips with it. My goal is to leave Kyalami with points, it’ll be a challenge due to the competitive nature of A1GP, but we know that we have the pace to achieve top ten positions, so this is what we will work towards.

“It’ll be an interesting race weekend at Kyalami due to the fact that this is a new track to the series, like Chengdu earlier in the season, it could throw up some unexpected results. Success is all down to who gets to grips with the car quickest, so more emphasis is on the Friday practice sessions.”

Billy Karam, Ambassador for A1 Team Lebanon added, “The team are working well so far this season, we have achieved our first points and have been frequently running towards the top ten. As we reach the half way point we must start to push even harder for the points. The other teams are constantly improving and we need to match, if not improve in relation to them.”

The A1GP Gauteng, South Africa event runs from 20-22 February, kicking off with the rookie driver and developing nations’ sessions on Friday from 10.45 to 11.15 and again from 11.35 to 12.05. All teams can take part in the later practice session from 14.00 to 15.00. Final practice and qualifying for the Sprint and Feature races will take place on Saturday with the two races scheduled to run on Sunday at 11.00 and 15.00 respectively.