London, Great Britain – Trouble free was the best way to describe the second day of testing at Donington Park with the new A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Powered by Ferrari cars. Heavy rain interrupted day one on Tuesday, but today was much drier with the cars covering a total of 466 laps of the 2.5-mile circuit between them and also beating the circuit’s 15-year-old track record.

The honor of going faster than the lap record went to A1 Team Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy who continued where he left off on Tuesday on top of today’s timesheets. The 25-year-old, who has competed in ten races for his nation with fifth in South Africa this year being his best result, was the driver who beat the time set by Ayrton Senna in the 1993 Grand Prix of Europe. “It was great today, the team did a good job to get the car together with no problems. Today we did a lot of laps and the more we do, the more data we are collecting. To finish fastest today and beat the lap record is a real achievement but we still need to work hard and I am looking forward to Zandvoort,” Fauzy said.

A1 Team Netherlands was in action with Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Dutch car. “The level of downforce and brakes are a lot better than before. The power doesn’t seem much greater but I think that is due to the fact we have a lot more downforce now. I don’t think the top speed will be a lot higher but lap times will be a lot faster because of both the downforce and brakes,” he commented.

John Martin also put in a good performance for A1 Team Australia, with the team announcing him as its main driver for the 2008/09 season. Martin impressed the squad last year during his 12 A1GP races, with his best finish being a popular fifth place on home soil at Eastern Creek. His comment was: “It feels really good to be back and I’m glad I impressed them enough last year. I like the new car so it should be a really good season.”

Adrian Zaugg continued the testing program for A1 Team South Africa while Edoardo Piscopo and Euro F3000 championship leader Fabio Onidi both had time in the A1 Team Italy car. Chris van der Drift, who competed in and was quickest in the rookie session at the Season Three finale at Brands Hatch, took to the track for A1 Team New Zealand.

A1 Team Pakistan has also confirmed Adam Khan will not only race for the team in Season Four, but will also be its new seat holder. “I am looking forward to building the awareness for the team in Pakistan through my role as seat holder, while also racing for the nation at the A1GP events around the globe. Combining the two responsibilities will certainly keep me busy, but I also believe that having total focus on the team will help to bring us more success both commercially and on the track, “said Khan.

Official Test Session Day Two (combined times)

A1 Team – Driver  – Time – No. Laps1 Malaysia  Fairuz Fauzy 1:17.474 892 Netherlands  Jeroen Bleekemolen 1:17.886 623 Australia  John Martin 1:17.896 874 New Zealand  Chris van der Drift 1:18.364 755 South Africa  Adrian Zaugg 1:18.694 726 A1GP Test Car Thomas Biagi 1:20.889 267 Italy  Edoardo Piscopo/ Fabio Onidi 1:21.872 55

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A1GP Impresses at First Team Test

Team Malaysia returned to the Donington circuit in the UK for a second and final day of pre-season testing in the new A1GP ‘Powered by Ferrari’ car with driver Fairuz Fauzy behind the wheel. The team ended the day quickest of the six cars testing, with Fauzy four tenths of a second ahead of the other nations and created history enroute, smashing the track’s lap record which had stood for 15 years.

Covering close to 500 kilometers over the two days of testing, the team had their first chance to check all the mechanical parts, engine installations and systems. The new car, straight from the garage, ran smoothly and the team were quickly able to start their preliminary testing program. Wet weather on Tuesday limited the amount of running but it was a productive session, while today the weather was mixed and allowed for some dry laps in the afternoon.

Fauzy set the new lap record at the end of the second day, having put on new rubber for a simulated qualifying run, posting a time of 1 minute 17.474 seconds, to overtake Ayrton Senna’s lap time of 1 minute 18.029 set in the 1993 Grand Prix of Europe. With the Donington circuit set to undergo configuration changes for the Formula One British Grand Prix in 2010, it is a record which could stand in the record books for many years.

Fauzy said at the conclusion of the two-day test, “We’ve made a good start and I’ve enjoyed these initial runs. We’ve had fairly good reliability, which is positive, though there have been some problems to deal with as all new cars tend to have technical issues at the beginning. Most of the running that is being done at these early stages is for us to start to understand the characteristics of the car and how it reacts in different conditions.

“We were able to run in the wet and develop a good balance for these conditions, and without rain this afternoon we could then work on a dry set up. Every change we made we went quicker and it kept us at the top of the time sheets. Of course, there were only a few cars running today so we’ve yet to see how quick we’ll be when all cars take to the track.

“I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made over the course of the two days, but there’s a long way to go yet.  We’ve only scratched the surface of getting to grips with the car and we’ll be learning more and more each time we run. From now onwards this will be in race conditions, so it’s going to be a challenge for us all, and a very exciting one.”

A few small technical issues limited the team’s running this afternoon, but the A1 Team Malaysia crew was able to resolve the problems and continue with the testing program. Finishing the test with the quickest car in both wet and dry conditions has given A1 Team Malaysia a positive start to the season and everyone in the team is buoyed by its achievements this week.

“The new A1GP car is quite good. Just for comparison, 2 weeks ago Formula Superleague raced at Donington. They run 750hp compared to our 600hp and they were slower than A1GP by over a second, in race conditions”

• test featured: Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and A1GP test car

A1 TEAM MALAYSIA SMASHES AYRTON SENNA’S LAP RECORD IN TESTING – Zerotohundred | Zerotohundred