DRIVERS NOMINATED FOR QUALIFYING

Taupo - It was all change at the top of the timing sheets for the final practice session of the SuperPoints A1GP Taupo, New Zealand with the home team topping the table ahead of Germany and Ireland. New Zealand moved up from eighth place in the first two official practice sessions, shaving over two seconds off yesterday’s overall fastest lap, clearly showing the effect that home crowd support can have on a team.

The addition of new engineer, Gary Anderson, appears to be paying off so far for A1 Team Ireland who is now looking set to add to its one championship point scored in Malaysia, with a strong start to this weekend’s campaign. While the likes of Ireland and India are no doubt delighted with their performance here this weekend, earlier championship leader, A1 Team Mexico and Brno race winners Malaysia have found themselves towards the bottom of the table, over one and a half seconds off the pace.

Official Practice Session 3 (11.00 - 12.00)

A1 Team Driver Time No. Laps
1 New Zealand Jonny Reid 1.14.166 26
2 Germany Nico Hulkenberg 1.14.258 18
3 Ireland Richard Lyons 1.14.546 26
4 India Narain Karthikeyan 1.14.627 32
5 France Loic Duval 1.14.658 18
6 Switzerland Sebastien Buemi 1.14.799 33
7 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1.14.830 27
8 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1.14.887 29
9 South Africa Alan van der Merwe 1.14.908 16
10 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 1.15.001 22
11 USA Ryan Hunter-Reay 1.15.094 26
12 China Ho-Pin Tung 1.15.095 29
13 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1.15.101 26
14 Singapore Christian Murchison 1.15.305 16
15 Australia Karl Reindler 1.15.305 28
16 Canada James Hinchcliffe 1.15.348 18
17 Mexico Salvador Duran 1.15.570 22
18 Lebanon Alex Khateeb 1.15.580 19
19 Malaysia Alex Yoong 1.15.679 20
20 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1.15.664 22
21 Brazil Rafael Matos 1.15.797 24
22 Pakistan Nur Ali 1.18.904 24

Nominated drivers for Qualifying - SuperPoints A1GP Taupo, New Zealand

A1 Team Driver
Australia Karl Reindler
Brazil Raphael Matos
Canada James Hinchcliffe
China Ho-Pin Tung
Czech Republic Tomas Enge
France Loic Duval
Germany Nico Hulkenberg
Great Britain Robbie Kerr
India Narain Karthikeyan
Indonesia Ananda Mikola
Ireland Richard Lyons
Italy Enrico Toccacelo
Lebanon Alex Khateeb
Malaysia Alex Yoong
Mexico Salvador Duran
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand Jonny Reid
Pakistan Nur Ali
Singapore Christian Murchison
South Africa Alan van der Merwe
Switzerland Sebastien Buemi
USA Ryan Hunter-Reay

Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a 5 minute break between each. Only one driver per A1 Team is allowed to take part in Qualifying and that driver must have completed at least three timed laps in an Official Practice session. Each driver is limited to three laps - effectively one "flying lap" - per session and must record at least two times, an aggregate of which will determine that A1 Team’s position on the grid for Sunday’s Sprint race.

The grid for the Feature race will be determined by the outcome of the Sprint race.