Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Canada tops practice 1 at Zandvoort

Sister teams Canada and Great Britain fired a warning shot at their rivals on the first day of the second A1 GP season at Zandvoort

Series debutant James Hinchcliffe put Canada at the top of the timesheets, just a fraction ahead of Britain's Darren Manning.

Hinchcliffe had the Canadian entry in the top five throughout Friday's first practice before topping the times with a 1:28.994 lap in the fastest session late in the afternoon.

"It's an amazing result for the team," said the Champ Car Atlantic star. "They just gave me a good car."

British F3 front-runner Oliver Jarvis put forward his bid for the Great Britain drive with third fastest time in the morning before Manning took over in the main session.

Star of the 'Rookie Sessions' (held in two parts early in the afternoon), however, was Loic Duval.

Having only driven the car briefly last year, Duval set the pace for France on the Rookie timesheets, finishing 0.6 seconds ahead of the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen, who stepped in to replace Jos Verstappen.

The French entry fell to eighth in the final session in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre, but Duval was still confident the car would be a contender.

"The set-up was already good this morning," he said. "I'm happy to hand the car to Nicolas because I don't know this championship and I am confident for him."

DAMS's continued presence at the front of A1 GP was also emphasised by the pace of the South African team. Now with DAMS support, Adrian Zaugg took the car to third with a time of 1:29.267, over half a second clear of Germany's Niko Hulkenberg.

Switzerland's chances appear healthy, despite the loss of DAMS and the absence of Neel Jani from Zandvoort.

Sebastien Buemi was fifth fastest in the early session and was able to maintain that pace later on, ahead of Mexico's Salvador Duran.

Bleekemolen ended the day in seventh and could not hold back his enthusiasm for the Dutch fans, who turned out in their thousands despite the absence of Jos Verstappen.

"It's incredible to see how many people have turned up," Bleekemolen said. "You can hear them when you're in the car and I could see all the flags."

Official practice results:

Pos  Team             Driver              Time               Laps
 1.  Canada           James Hinchcliffe   1:28.994            23
 2.  Great Britain    Darren Manning      1:29.040 +  0.046    3
 3.  South Africa     Adrian Zaugg        1:29.267 +  0.273   20
 4.  Germany          Niko Hulkenberg     1:29.873 +  0.879   25
 5.  Switzerland      Sebastien Buemi     1:30.059 +  1.065   24
 6.  Mexico           Salvador Duran      1:30.339 +  1.345   21
 7.  Netherlands      Jeroen Bleekemolen  1:30.382 +  1.388   19
 8.  France           Nicolas Lapierre    1:30.844 +  1.850   16
 9.  New Zealand      Matt Halliday       1:31.123 +  2.129   22
10.  Brazil           Tuka Rocha          1:31.462 +  2.468   19
11.  China            Congfu Cheng        1:31.568 +  2.574   23
12.  Ireland          Michael Devaney     1:31.602 +  2.608   20
13.  USA              Philip Giebler      1:31.898 +  2.904   24
14.  Malaysia         Alex Yoong          1:32.172 +  3.178   22
15.  Australia        Ryan Briscoe        1:32.271 +  3.277   19
16.  Czech Republic   Tomas Kostka        1:32.483 +  3.489   26
17.  Italy            P. G. Alessandro    1:32.737 +  3.743   21
18.  India            Armaan Ebrahim      1:33.865 +  4.871   13
19.  Indonesia        Ananda Mikola       1:33.922 +  4.928   17
20.  Lebanon          Basil Shaaban       1:34.448 +  5.454    4
21.  Singapore        Denis Lian          1:37.508 +  8.514   13
22.  Pakistan         Nur Ali             1:45.461 + 16.467   16
23.  Greece           Stelios Nousias     No time              1

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Driver line-up for Zandvoort
Next article Legge back behind the wheel

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe