A1 Team South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg got his A1GP weekend off to a promising start at Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit on Friday afternoon with sixth fastest time on the first practice day for Sunday’s GO-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa, round five of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

It was an historic first appearance of this unique series, that pits nation against nation in identical Powered by Ferrari single-seater cars, at the home of South African motor racing and many of the drivers voiced their approval of the 11-turn layout of the 4,26-km circuit.

Lebanon’s Daniel Morad emerged as a surprise early pace-setter for Sunday’s Sprint and Feature races with a fastest lap of 1m 30,816s on a hot and sunny Highveld afternoon. He was 0,496s faster than Germany’s Michael Ammermuller and 0,684s ahead of series leader Ireland’s Adam Carroll. Making up the top five were Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen) and Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque).

Zaugg, with a best time of 1m 31,881s, commented: “I started the session just feeling out the car and checking some things, as I usually do.

Once I got a good feel for the car we made a few improvements. Towards the end I was just kind of building up as things moved in the direction I wanted, so I started to push a bit more to see what lap times I could do.

“It’s a great circuit for me,” he continued. “It’s one of the best circuits I have ever raced on so far. We have blind corners here – fast sweeping corners and then slow corners. In fact they change with each and every lap because everyone was short cutting and throwing gravel, so each lap was quite different. It was great fun driving on this circuit.

“I would say Kyalami is even more challenging than Durban was. Even though there are no walls here, I think it’s difficult and is an old school circuit with plenty of run-off. It’s a real proper circuit.”

Earlier in the afternoon, France (Nicolas Prost) topped the time sheets at the end of the one-hour practice session for rookie and developing nation drivers with a best time of 1m 33,149s. New Zealand (Earl Bamber) was next best with a lap of 1m 33,576 sec and third fastest was Germany (Michael Ammermuller). Gavin Cronje, making his third appearance as the designated rookie driver for A1 Team South Africa in Vulindlela, was seventh with a best lap time of 1m 34,615s.