A1 Team Indonesia began their race weekend preparations in the A1GP Algarve event at Portimao, Portugal today. Zahir Ali returns to the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car for his second weekend of race driving for the team. He started with the morning rookie and developing nation session, finishing 11th quickest, then drove in the afternoon session with the regular drivers, posting 17th fastest lap.

It was the first opportunity for Zahir to experience the unique characteristics of the km circuit, driving in warm, cloudy conditions and taking on the challenge of driving at a new location. The young Indonesian driver, in his second outing of racing for the team in the A1GP car, undertook a number of technical tasks at the beginning of the session. After taking a few laps to familiarise himself with the circuit, he focused on preparations for the remainder of the weekend. In the second half of the session Zahir pushed the car further as he continued with the race preparation programme and finished 17th quickest.

Zahir concluded of his day, “It was a really nice track, very modern environment and a good challenge for me. It’s only the first day and so I had to learn the track first and then we started to make set up changes. It’s a good place to learn as there are so many different types of corner. I learned a lot about the car and the track, now we need to start preparing for qualifying.”

Bobby Issazahde, Team Manager, A1 Team Indonesia added, “We’re going in the right direction. You have to remember we’re experimenting a bit. It’s the first time we’ve been able to work with Zahir, as South Africa was blighted with technical problems. We did a geometry change on the rear which gave us some good information on what to do for tomorrow. There’s so many corners here, if you have a problem you have a big disadvantage. I think we’ll improve tomorrow. We need to make some small changes, as the car was very nervous, but we know the direction to take.”

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Algarve, continues tomorrow, with further practice and final qualifying. The Sprint and Feature races take place on Sunday, with the A1GP event taking the honour of being the first major international motor racing to be held at the facility.