Ireland sets the pace in practice 3
Ralph Firman set the pace for Team Ireland after the first dry practice session for tomorrow's A1 Grand Prix event at Durban in South Africa
The former Grand Prix driver put in a late lap to edge his contemporary Jos Verstappen and Team Netherlands into second.
Verstappen's lap also came in the dying moments, as did third-placed Team Switzerland's.
After the whole of Friday was plagued by rain, drivers were still finding time around the concrete-lined street track - a different challenge under today's cloudless skies and hot sun.
Once again, however, numerous teams were caught out and red flags almost doubled the length of the session.
Team USA's Phil Giebler erred and damaged his left-rear, Team Australia's Will Davison had an off and Alvaro Parente (Team Portugal) lost a front wing. Mexico, Lebanon and Pakistan were also on the accident list.
Team Brazil were able to repair Nelson Piquet Jr's damaged car from yesterday, with the GP2 regular still working his way up to the pace today - he finished 15th.
Series leaders Team France and Team Switzerland also started tentatively after limited running yesterday, but made it to 4th and 3rd respectively by the end.
The home team's driver Stephen Simpson will have some work to do before this afternoon's qualifying session - he is eleventh and 1.4 seconds off the pace.
Pos Driver Country Time Laps 1. Ralph Firman Ireland 1:19.535 22 2. Jos Verstappen Netherlands 1:19.814 + 0.279 24 3. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:19.957 + 0.422 22 4. Alexandre Premat France 1:20.132 + 0.597 20 5. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1:20.306 + 0.771 21 6. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1:20.472 + 0.937 23 7. Alvaro Parente Portugal 1:20.572 + 1.037 14 8. Sean Mcintosh Canada 1:20.612 + 1.077 23 9. Philip Giebler Usa 1:20.712 + 1.177 22 10. M. Busnelli Italy 1:20.889 + 1.354 21 11. Stephen Simpson South Africa 1:20.981 + 1.446 21 12. Timo Scheider Germany 1:21.054 + 1.519 22 13. Matt Halliday New Zealand 1:21.078 + 1.543 23 14. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1:21.185 + 1.650 15 15. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil 1:21.235 + 1.700 22 16. David Martinez Mexico 1:21.408 + 1.873 21 17. Ananda Mikola Indonesia 1:21.593 + 2.058 17 18. Adam Khan Pakistan 1:22.135 + 2.600 17 19. Basil Shaaban Lebanon 1:22.138 + 2.603 17 20. Will Davison Australia 1:22.570 + 3.035 3 21. Mathias Lauda Austria 1:22.834 + 3.299 20 22. Tengyi Jiang China 1:23.262 + 3.727 21 23. Armaan Ebrahim India 1:23.645 + 4.110 21
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