With only two practice sessions before qualifying today the lack of good track time has proven to be one of the factors determining the team’s grid positions for both races tomorrow. From the first practice lap on Friday A1 Team Australia driver John Martin has worked with many changes to the car trying to find the perfect setup for the qualifying and Sunday’s racing.

Martin’s engineers Rob Arnott and Ash Edwards continued to analyse the car’s movements on the track trying to find a solution with Martin’s input to a perfectly balanced racecar. On top of that the Team were trying to solve a lack of grip and braking problems with the Michelin tyres taking longer to heat up impeding the need for more grip to increase overall speed for faster lap times. Up to and including the earlier practice session today, Martin’s brakes locked up on several corners of the track affecting any improvements to track position although the car’s overall balance was finally sorted by the end of qualifying today, bringing some good news for both races tomorrow.

During the Sprint race qualifying, Neel Jani from A1 Team Switzerland experienced an engine problem on track causing the red flag to be shown. With the session concluded, all other cars had to return to their pit and wait to be sent out for the second part of that Sprint qualifying. It was then Rob Arnott with Alan Jones and Adam Gotch decided together to let Martin go out on track in the middle part of the second part of the session, hoping to avoid any other red flags. John Martin was on a perfect lap when he made a slight error on turn 12 losing valuable time to end Sprint qualifying in 17th position. After being nine tenths of a second off the lead car today, Martin ended up with a gap of 3.53 seconds to pole sitter Tonio Luizzi for A1 Team Italy.

The Feature Race qualifying session was a better one overall, obvious to the team that Martin was a lot happier with his race car as he placed 6th in the first part of that session. The decision was made to let the majority of cars set their times allowing A1 Team Australia to leave the pit with the best possible setup. Another good lap until Martin lost time in the last sector of the lap to drop his grid position into 12th, being 1.524 seconds behind pole sitter Robert Doornbos of A1 Team Netherlands.

Alan Jones A1 Team Australia Seatholder: “John has not had the track time we had planned for this weekend to set the car up for a better grid position than we have ended up with today. This is a very difficult track and it’s highly technical, challenging and quick. You need the perfect setup early and we’ve taken right up to the end of qualifying to finally sort the car. Tomorrow anything is possible, we’re confident of points”

John Martin: “I made a mistake at turn 12 and that caused me to drop down the order for the Sprint qualifying. The issues with balance and grip have been tough to sort. We have a chance for points tomorrow and that’s our goal. The car is now 95% perfect”

Rob Arnott: “We haven’t had the best day today though we’ve now got the car sorted out and with a few clever changes we have the goods to grab some points. John’s feedback has been superb and we just need to run two perfect races tomorrow with a crew who are the best at pitstops”