Reid thrills home crowd with pole
Home favourite Jonny Reid thrilled the Taupo crowd by taking pole position for tomorrow's A1GP sprint race
The Team New Zealand driver came out on top of the first half of qualifying at the ultra-windy circuit. He was joined on the front row by fellow last-minute runner Adrian Zaugg (Team South Africa).
"I'm very confident about the race tomorrow," said Reid. "Adrian is a strong battler, but I've got the home support and I really want this one!"
Qualifying for the feature race followed a similar pattern, with the teams reluctant to send their cars out in the difficult conditions until the last minute. At the very end it was free practice king Loic Duval (Team France) who clocked fastest time, with Reid only managing fourth this time.
Between them for the longer race will be Christian Vietoris (Team Germany) and Neel Jani (Team Switzerland). The latter, who leads the championship, will be happy enough with this after a mistake ruined his sprint race qualifying and left him 11th.
He was far from being the only driver to err. The track had become slower since this morning's practice session, with several drivers caught out throughout qualifying.
Zaugg's feature race qualifying was another big example - the sprint race front row man ended up aborting his lap after a series of big mistakes.
Sprint race starting grid:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Jonny Reid New Zealand 1:15.241 2. Adrian Zaugg South Africa 1:15.522 + 0.281 3. Loic Duval France 1:15.628 + 0.387 4. C.Vietoris Germany 1:15.724 + 0.483 5. J.Bleekemolen Netherlands 1:16.036 + 0.795 6. J.Summerton USA 1:16.101 + 0.860 7. Adam Carroll Ireland 1:16.182 + 0.941 8. Robert Wickens Canada 1:16.201 + 0.960 9. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1:16.386 + 1.145 10. Sergio Jimenez Brazil 1:16.408 + 1.167 11. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:16.423 + 1.182 12. Edoardo Piscopo Italy 1:16.472 + 1.231 13. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1:16.731 + 1.490 14. Joao Urbano Portugal 1:17.147 + 1.906 15. John Martin Australia 1:17.309 + 2.068 16. Cheng Cong Fu China 1:17.340 + 2.099 17. Chris Alajajian Lebanon 1:17.682 + 2.441 18. David Garza Mexico 1:17.809 + 2.568 19. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1:17.811 + 2.570 20. N.Karthikeyan India 1:17.961 + 2.720 21. Satrio Hermanto Indonesia 1:18.421 + 3.180 22. Adam Khan Pakistan 1:18.635 + 3.394
Feature race starting grid:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Loic Duval France 1:15.296 2. C.Vietoris Germany 1:15.331 + 0.035 3. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:15.476 + 0.180 4. Robert Wickens Canada 1:15.588 + 0.292 5. Jonny Reid New Zealand 1:15.618 + 0.322 6. Joao Urbano Portugal 1:15.620 + 0.324 7. Adrian Zaugg South Africa 1:15.651 + 0.355 8. J.Bleekemolen Netherlands 1:15.795 + 0.499 9. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1:15.895 + 0.599 10. J.Summerton USA 1:15.898 + 0.602 11. Sergio Jimenez Brazil 1:16.024 + 0.728 12. John Martin Australia 1:16.106 + 0.810 13. Adam Carroll Ireland 1:16.115 + 0.819 14. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1:16.198 + 0.902 15. David Garza Mexico 1:16.313 + 1.017 16. Edoardo Piscopo Italy 1:16.524 + 1.228 17. Chris Alajajian Lebanon 1:16.556 + 1.260 18. Cheng Cong Fu China 1:16.761 + 1.465 19. N.Karthikeyan India 1:16.791 + 1.495 20. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1:17.526 + 2.230 21. Adam Khan Pakistan 1:17.556 + 2.260 22. Satrio Herman Indonesia 1:18.106 + 2.810
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