Doornbos fastest in Algarve practice
Robert Doornbos topped the A1GP free practice times for Team Netherlands as the series ran at the Algarve circuit for the first time
The versatile IndyCar, Superleague and A1GP racer lapped just over four seconds slower than the top Formula 1 winter test time set on the slightly shorter version of the track that is being used this weekend. The layout misses out the full track's first chicane.
Behind the Netherlands car was the impressive New Zealand teenager Earl Bamber, who was just 0.058s shy of the fastest time.
A great late effort moved Team Monaco and Clivio Piccione into third, denying series newcomer Vitantonio Liuzzi a top-three slot on his Team Italy debut.
Filipe Albuquerque was fifth fastest for Team Portugal, despite bringing out the red flags with an early spin, while championship leader Team Switzerland was sixth with Neel Jani.
Another A1 newcomer, Team Germany's Andre Lotterer, slotted in seventh, just ahead of Team France's Nicolas Prost, who had earlier topped the rookie session times.
Team Brazil was forced to miss the session after Bia Figuereido suffered a massive shunt in the rookie session when she crashed head on into the tyres at Turn 1, in an accident similar to the one suffered by Heikki Kovalainen in last year's Spanish Grand Prix. She was fortunately unhurt in the high-speed impact.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Robert Doornbos Netherlands 1:31.962 2. Earl Bamber New Zealand 1:32.030 +0.068 3. Clivio Piccione Monaco 1:32.242 +0.280 4. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy 1:32.568 +0.606 5. Filipe Albuquerque Portugal 1:32.570 +0.608 6. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:32.635 +0.673 7. Andre Lotterer Germany 1:32.762 +0.800 8. Nicolas Prost France 1:32.894 +0.932 9. Daniel Morad Lebanon 1:33.019 +1.057 10. John Martin Australia 1:33.221 +1.259 11. Adrian Zaugg South Africa 1:33.379 +1.417 12. Narain Karthikeyan India 1:33.448 +1.486 13. Marco Andretti USA 1:33.500 +1.538 14. Adam Carroll Ireland 1:33.732 +1.770 15. Fairuz Fauzy Malaysia 1:33.745 +1.783 16. Ho-Pin Tung China 1:34.087 +2.125 17. Zahir Ali Indonesia 1:35.064 +3.102 18. Salvador Duran Mexico 1:56.253 +24.291 19. Felipe Guimaraes Brazil no time 20. Dan Clarke Great Britain no time
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments