Ireland fastest in practice 1
Team Ireland driver Ralph Firman topped the times in first free practice for round eight of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations in Indonesia on Sunday
The former Jordan Formula One racer's fastest lap around the 3.95km Sentul circuit near Jakarta was more than half a second clear of his nearest rival at the end of the wet session interrupted by four red-flag stoppages. His 1:28.458 compared with local driver Ananda Mikola's 1:29.006 best aboard his CMS-run Team Indonesia car.
Firman said: "That was a good start and will give me confidence for the rest of the weekend. This appears to be a nice little circuit, but it is made up of a lot of different surfaces, which makes it very tricky in the wet."
Mikola also commented on the slippery conditions.
"It doesn't look like it, but the circuit is very slippery," he said. "I don't think my knowledge of the track will be so important because the wet line is the same as the dry line."
Robbie Kerr jumped to third in the times in the closing stages of the session in the Arden-run Team Great Britain car.
"I wouldn't say the track was getting drier, just that everyone was getting used to the track," he said. "It's like an ice rink out there."
Alvaro Parente, Christian Jones and Sean McIntosh rounded out the top six in their respective Portuguese, Australian and Canadian entries. Nicolas Lapierre was ninth fastest in the Team France car after heading the times for the first half of the session.
Pos Driver Country Time Laps 1. Ralph Firman Ireland 1'28.458 15 2. Ananda Mikola Indonesia 1'29.006 +0.548 17 3. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1'29.028 +0.570 17 4. Alvaro Parente Portugal 1'29.372 +0.914 17 5. Christian Jones Australia 1'29.551 +1.093 24 6. Sean McIntosh Canada 1'29.737 +1.279 25 7. Neel Jani Switzerland 1'30.166 +1.708 17 8. Stephen Simpson South Africa 1'30.205 +1.747 18 9. Nicolas Lapierre France 1'30.295 +1.837 9 10. Matt Halliday New Zealand 1'30.385 +1.927 30 11. Hayanari Shimoda Japan 1'30.444 +1.986 23 12. Jos Verstappen Netherlands 1'30.517 +2.059 15 13. Christian Fittipaldi Brazil 1'30.571 +2.113 25 14. Timo Scheider Germany 1'30.610 +2.152 20 15. Salvador Duran Mexico 1'30.730 +2.272 11 16. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1'30.801 +2.343 6 17. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1'31.308 +2.850 19 18. Armaan Ebrahim India 1'31.393 +2.935 29 19. Basil Shaaban Lebanon 1'31.822 +3.364 22 20. Tengyi Jiang China 1'32.963 +4.505 23 21. Philip Giebler USA 1'33.459 +5.001 8 22. Mathias Lauda Austria 1'34.518 +6.060 9 23. Max Busnelli Italy 1'37.191 +8.733 5
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