A1 Team Indonesia, with Zahil Ali driving in his second race weekend, will line up in 15th position for the Sprint race and 18th place in the Feature race at the Vodafone A1GP, Algarve.

A1 Team Indonesia finalised their preparations for the afternoon qualifying session in the morning practice hour. Zahir worked with the engineers to develop the car’s set up and find a good balance. This highly competitive series produced close lap times and Zahir’s lack of experience in the Indonesian car put him at the back of the field, yet well in touch with his rivals. A busy track time after numerous red flag stoppages made it difficult for Zahir to sample his PowerBoost, so while other drivers had a clear lap of extra horsepower, the Indonesian team’s quick lap time was set without this benefit.

In the first segment of the four that make up the qualifying session only four cars posted a lap time before a stranded China car caused a red flag. Indonesia was one of the four to post a time with a solid lap time, although some of the remainder of the field were able to take to the track. Indonesia were lying 12th after the first run, and with a red flag in the second segment which caused a flurry of cars to take to the track, Indonesia finished in 15th place, to take this place for the Sprint race.

The Feature grid setting sessions were highly competitive with the majority of the nations using their PowerBoost, including Indonesia. Zahir improved his lap times throughout the session and posted 18th fastest lap for the finale race of the weekend.

Zahir said after qualifying, “It was my first A1GP qualifying session as we missed out in South Africa as we had car problems. I’ve never done this type of qualifying with the individual lap runs, so it was a new experience for me and one that isn’t easy. I learned from it; I didn’t get the most out of my PowerBoost and I think if I had done then we could have been a few places higher up the grid for the Feature race. It will be difficult to make the points in the Sprint race, but we showed in Kyalami that it’s possible in the Feature race.”

Bobby Issazadhe, Team Manager added, “I’m quite happy with the result. Although our position on the two grids is not fantastic, it’s been a big improvement for us. Everything we were hoping to achieve yesterday we did today, so although we were late we’ve made progress. Our race pace should be okay, the times are close and we’re going in the right direction.”

The fourth season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport features eight races on a calendar which sees the teams travel across the globe competing for national honours.