Track problem stops Durban practice

Brazilian Champ Car driver Bruno Junqueira, making his A1GP debut in South Africa, was caught out by the chunking surface on the first part of the chicane half way through the session. He lost grip and was forced to run over the second part of the kerbing, which ripped off his front wing.

The problem was blamed on cars from the support races hitting the kerb. The organisers are confident that overnight resurfacing will solve the problem in time for tomorrow.

Track officials examined the damaged kerb and decided it was unsafe to continue the session.

That left France's Loic Duval as the fastest driver of the day. He also topped the rookie session run this morning.

But Duval's session was not without incident. He had caused an earlier red flag when he tipped Karl Reindler's late-apexing Team Australia car into a spin at the hairpin. The Aussie car suffered a damaged front wing.

Ireland's Richard Lyons finally showed the pace expected of him by going second fastest. He topped the session for 10 minutes before Duval bettered his mark.

Points leader Nico Hulkenberg impressed again, setting the third best time for Team Germany ahead of Czech ace Tomas Enge and Holland's Jeroen Bleekemolen.

Junqueira ended up 11th in the times, one place ahead of the returning Portuguese car of Alvaro Parente.

One spectator who didn't seem to mind the session being shortened was a monkey that took advantage of the lack of action to walk the circuit - and the debris fencing.