Kerr fastest in Friday practice

Kerr, who watched Oliver Jarvis score Team GB's long-awaited first A1GP win at the previous round in Mexico, leapt to the top of the times with 10 minutes of the session to go.

It capped a promising day for Team GB following Oliver Turvey's impressive first A1GP outing in the earlier rookie session.

"Oliver did an excellent job this morning and gave us lots of data and information to work from," Kerr said. "The car was immediately competitive this afternoon.

"We changed a couple of things to go fastest, then tried again at the end of the session. The car was reasonable then, but not as quick. There is more to come for tomorrow."

A1GP has chosen to use a shorter version of the Grand Prix circuit, cutting out the hairpin section of the track between Turns 4 and 7. A quick chicane with low kerbs links the sections of track.

There has been some concern that drivers will be able to cut the chicane because of the height of the kerbs. Kerr said: "The kerbs do seem low, but they bounce the car a lot when you hit them so it is a challenge to optimise your attack there and keep it balanced."

Kerr's fastest time shaded the New Zealand car by just 0.03 seconds as Jonny Reid got off to a strong start on a weekend where he will do all he can to keep the championship battle alive until the final round at Brands Hatch.

But Nico Hulkenberg only has to finish ahead of Reid in the sprint race to clinch the title for Team Germany. Hulkenberg was sixth fastest in this session.

Jean Karl Vernay kept up his pace from the earlier rookie session to go third fastest, ahead of India's Narain Karthikeyan and the USA's Jonathan Summerton.

IRL IndyCar ace Vitor Meira was a frustrated 19th on his first appearance for Team Brazil. He managed only eight laps in the session because of technical problems.

Pos  Driver            Team            Time              Laps
 1.  Robbie Kerr       Great Britain   1:35.573           20
 2.  Jonny Reid        New Zealand     1:35.603 + 0.030   23
 3.  Jean-Karl Vernay  France          1:35.680 + 0.107   15
 4.  N.Karthikeyan     India           1:35.931 + 0.358   26
 5.  J.Summerton       USA             1:35.976 + 0.403   20
 6.  N.Hulkenberg      Germany         1:36.001 + 0.428   17
 7.  Sebastien Buemi   Switzerland     1:36.110 + 0.537   27
 8.  R.van der Zande   Netherlands     1:36.232 + 0.659   18
 9.  Alex Yoong        Malaysia        1:36.339 + 0.766   22
10.  Joao Urbano       Portugal        1:36.522 + 0.949   26
11.  A.van der Merwe   South Africa    1:36.537 + 0.964   20
12.  Ananda Mikola     Indonesia       1:36.631 + 1.058   24
13.  Enrico Toccacelo  Italy           1:36.657 + 1.084   24
14.  Sean McIntosh     Canada          1:36.675 + 1.102   27
15.  Cheng Cong Fu     China           1:36.834 + 1.261   21
16.  Filip Salaquarda  Czech Republic  1:37.275 + 1.702   24
17.  Sergio Perez      Mexico          1:37.279 + 1.706   24
18.  Richard Lyons     Ireland         1:37.370 + 1.797   24
19.  Vitor Meira       Brazil          1:37.378 + 1.805   11
20.  Ian Dyk           Australia       1:38.079 + 2.506   17
21.  Nur Ali           Pakistan        1:39.926 + 4.353   29