2005 A1GP Championship - Round 2 - EuroSpeedway, Lausitz

[Flibster]

2005 A1GP Championship
Round 2 - EuroSpeedway, Lausitz

Overview

Located in the South of Brandenburg, EuroSpeedway Lausitz is one of the biggest and most modern motor sport and event facilities world-wide . The racing and testing area including a high number of different event locations and building complexes is located on an area of 370 ha (equaling the size of nearly two times the princedom Monaco ). As a multifunctional facility EuroSpeedway Lausitz offers a total of seven different track variations.

The heart of the circuit is Germany's and Europe's unique 2-Miles-Superspeedway. Without any doubt it set new standards within the local motor sport scene and is continuing to do so. On the high-speed oval with its three banked corners and built in accordance to US American models, the American Champ Car World Series guested already two times. Showing exciting races and thrilling over takings at a speed of over 380 km per hour.

Of course there are as well many opportunities for circuit sports. Europe's number one touring car series DTM is a fixed part on the event calendar as well as Nissan World Series, Europe's second strongest Formula racing series. In the Lausitz a lot of attention is payed to fan friendliness. There might be no other circuit in Europe where motorsport fans can get as close to the racetrack as they can at the EuroSpeedway. The 40 m high grand stand with its 25,000 seats protrudes the whole facility and therefore offers spectators a view over the entire track area.


Length: 4,534 km
Turns: 14
Slope (max.): 10% / 5.7 degree
Width (straights): 12 - 24 m
Longest straight: 647,9 m

 

[Flibster]

Championship standing after round 1

[b]
Pos	Country		Points	Sprint	Feature Poles	Fastest
				Wins	Wins		laps[/b]
1	Brazil		21	1	1	1	1
2	Australia	16	-	-	-	-
3	New Zealand	15	-	-	-	-
4	Mexico		13	-	-	-	-
5	France		9	-	-	-	-
6	Great Britain	6	-	-	-	-
7	Malaysia	6	-	-	-	-
8	South Africa	5	-	-	-	-
9	Pakistan	4	-	-	-	-
10	Netherlands	4	-	-	-	-
11	Portugal	3	-	-	-	-
12	Japan		3	-	-	-	-
13	Switzerland	2	-	-	-	-
14	Canada		2	-	-	-	-
15	Ireland		1	-	-	-	-
16	Germany		1	-	-	-	-

 

[Flibster]

Drivers selected for Round 2

Australia:	Christian Jones 
Austria:	Mathias Lauda 
Brazil:		Nelson Piquet Jr and Fabio Carbone
Canada:		Sean McIntosh 
China:		Qinghua Ma and Tengyi Jiang
Czech Republic:	Tomas Enge 
France:		Nicholas Lapierre and Alexandre Premat
Germany:	Timo Scheider 
Great Britain:	Robbie Kerr 
India:		Karun Chandhok and Armaan Ebrahim
Indonesia:	Ananda Mikola 
Ireland:	Ralph Firman 
Italy:		Enricco Toccacelo and Richard Antinucci
Japan:		Hideki Noda 
Lebanon:	Khalil Beschir and Basil Shaaban
Malaysia:	Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy
Mexico:		David Martinez 
Netherlands:	Jos Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand:	Jonny Reid 
Pakistan:	Adam Khan 
Portugal:	Alvaro Parente and Joao Urbano
South Africa:	Tomas Schekter and Stephen Simpson
Switzerland:	Neel Jani 
USA:		Scott Speed

Due to the reorganisation of A1 Team Russia, they will not be taking part in this weekend's event.

Each A1 Team will take to the track for the first official practice session this afternoon at 13.00 (local time). A second official practice session will follow at 16.00 before a final practice session and qualifying tomorrow and the Sprint and Feature races on Sunday.

 

[Flibster]

Firman to make A1 race debut this weekend

Ralph Firman will make his A1 Grand Prix series debut this weekend at the EuroSpeedway in Laustiz, Germany, when the 30 year old former Jordan Formula One driver takes the wheel of A1 Team Ireland's entry. Firman, who missed the opening race of the series due to his commitments for Team Honda Racing in the Japanese SuperGT series, was delighted to see Irish team mate Michael Devaney score A1 Team Ireland its first championship point in the Sprint Race at Brands Hatch. The team is focused on adding to that score this weekend and specifically a top 10 finish in the main Feature Race.

EuroSpeedway is one of Europe's most impressive race tracks, boasting a variety of circuit configurations but perhaps best known for its high speed oval track designed for US-style Indy Racing. The circuit being used by the A1GP teams this weekend is 2.81494 miles/ 4.53 kms long and features at the heart of the circuit Germany's and Europe's unique two-Miles-Superspeedway. Although Michael Devaney is not racing for A1 Team Ireland this weekend, competing instead in the final rounds of the German Formula 3 Championship in Osherscheliben, Germany, some two hours drive from Lausitz, the 20 year old Dubliner is able to provide some insight to the circuit since he has raced there in Formula 3.

"The track is very technical with a mixture of tight hairpins and fast corners. Set up wise is could be difficult to try to find a balance between the high and low speed corners" says Michael Devaney.

Ralph Firman's return to powerful single seater racing comes almost exactly two years after he made his final appearance for Jordan Grand Prix at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix where he out qualified highly rated team mate Giancarlo Fisichella. Since then he has raced sports cars, most notably in the 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours and this year's Japanese SuperGT series, as well as being one of the drivers used in the development of the A1 Grand Prix car last year. His recent experience of the A1 car came when he took part in the major Paul Ricard test in August, setting the fastest time for A1 Team Ireland on the final day.

"I am really looking forward to this weekend and to driving for A1 Team Ireland," says Firman. "The team is very professional, the car looks great and I am looking forward to working with Andy Miller as he was my engineer when I won the British Formula 3 Championship and FIA Formula 3 World Cup in Macau back in 1996. Since winning the Formula Nippon Championship in Japan in 2002 I have been hungry to win again in single seaters. The A1GP series is terrific, the competition is fierce and from what I heard the opening race in Brands Hatch was a great success. My objective this weekend is very simple - to be outright competitive and push for a top result because that's what we are here to do. I do not know the circuit, but pretty well everyone will be in the same boat and I see no reason why we cannot get to grips with it after practice on Friday."

"We are really looking forward to the weekend at Lausitz," said Technical Director Andy Miller. "We are in a good position to carry on the good work Michael did for us at Brands Hatch. The track at EuroSpeedway is new to a vast majority of the field but should not be a problem for experienced drivers such as Ralph Firman".

Since the opening race of the season at Brands Hatch A1 Team Ireland technical staff have been busy building the team's second car which will be provided to Firman as a spare car this weekend. The two cars, in their striking green livery, are of course identical and can be used by Firman at any time throughout the weekend and mean that he has back up should one of the cars have a technical problem or suffer any accident damage.

Firman is currently scheduled to compete in 10 of the 12 events comprising in the inaugural A1GP series, his next commitment to Team Honda Racing in Japan coming on the same weekend as the Australian A1 Grand Prix of Nations scheduled to be held in Eastern Creek, Sydney, on November 6th. A1 Team Ireland will announce the identity of its driver for that event one week prior to the race and, contrary to media speculation, has not signed a contract with anyone other than Ralph Firman to date. The team was delighted with Michael Devaney's performance in Brands Hatch and, once his commitments in the German Formula 3 Championship are completed, discussions will continue with him and other potential drivers from Ireland regarding racing and testing opportunities throughout the balance of the season.

 

[Flibster]

EuroSpeedway: Free 1 - Times

[b]
Pos	Country		Driver		Laps	Time		Gap	[/b]
1	Great Britain	Kerr		19	1:34.675	107.127 mph	
2	France		Lapierre	22	1:34.698	0.023	
3	Brazil		Piquet		23	1:34.784	0.109	
4	Germany		Scheider	21	1:35.043	0.368	
5	Switzerland	Jani		25	1:35.063	0.388	
6	Indonesia	Mikola		17	1:35.125	0.450	
7	Netherlands	Verstappen	19	1:35.155	0.480	
8	Czech Rep	Enge		22	1:35.321	0.646	
9	Italy		Toccacelo	20	1:35.543	0.868	
10	Canada		Macintosh	28	1:35.614	0.939	
11	USA		Speed		18	1:35.631	0.956	
12	Ireland		Firman		22	1:35.795	1.120	
13	New Zealand	Reid		23	1:35.961	1.286	
14	Pakistan	Khan		21	1:36.000	1.325	
15	Portugal	Parente		19	1:36.198	1.523	
16	Mexico		Martinez	23	1:36.313	1.638	
17	Malaysia	Yoong		20	1:36.723	2.048	
18	Austria		Lauda		11	1:37.012	2.337	
19	Japan		Noda		21	1:37.125	2.450	
20	South Africa	Scheckter	11	1:37.408	2.733	
21	India		Ebrahim		24	1:37.739	3.064	
22	Lebanon		Beschir		18	1:37.788	3.113	
23	Australia	Jones		22	1:37.913	3.238	
24	China		Jiang		21	1:38.594	3.919

 

[Flibster]

EuroSpeedway: Free 2 - Times

[b]
Pos	Country		Driver		Laps	Time		Gap	[/b]
1	France		Lapierre	18	1:34.150	107.724 mph	
2	Ireland		Firman		25	1:34.525	0.375	
3	Germany		Scheider	24	1:34.722	0.572	
4	Netherlands	Verstappen	22	1:34.783	0.633	
5	Indonesia	Mikola		12	1:34.788	0.638	
6	Great Britain	Kerr		20	1:34.800	0.650	
7	Switzerland	Jani		21	1:34.864	0.714	
8	USA		Speed		20	1:34.932	0.782	
9	Brazil		Piquet		23	1:34.988	0.838	
10	Italy		Toccacelo	19	1:35.047	0.897	
11	Canada		Macintosh	22	1:35.054	0.904	
12	Czech Rep	Enge		24	1:35.375	1.225	
13	New Zealand	Reid		25	1:35.390	1.240	
14	Pakistan	Khan		11	1:35.877	1.727	
15	Portugal	Parente		17	1:36.057	1.907	
16	Mexico		Martinez	23	1:36.167	2.017	
17	Malaysia	Fazuy		19	1:36.242	2.092	
18	Japan		Noda		25	1:36.284	2.134	
19	China		Jiang		28	1:37.231	3.081	
20	India		Chandhok	21	1:37.452	3.302	
21	South Africa	Scheckter	12	1:37.497	3.347	
22	Austria		Lauda		22	1:37.571	3.421	
23	Australia	Jones		24	1:37.632	3.482	
24	Lebanon		Beschir		0	N/A		N/A

The times for A1 Team Lebanon were disallowed following a regulation
infringement in which the Team failed to notify A1 Grand Prix of a change to the nominated driver.

 

[Matt]

Can we watch this one live through the website?

 

[Flibster]

mms://gwms40.streamos.com/40/16/df/16df0d9bc23d65e189cac0ae5e9996e5-4336e05a.asf?ts=1128772844&ttl=300&cs=57C7B1FA59D4345194C530A4C16BDB99D6367AA1

Copy and paste that into Media Player Classic.

Simon/~Flibster

 

[rpstewart]

Quick, someone check Andy Prilaux's still alive!

Google Earth Link - Quite a big one, 1.4Mb, including an overlay of the circuit.

 

[Flibster]

Actually - that seems to be the previous race...

Simon/~Flibster

 

[Flibster]

http://www.whitewasp.com/cgiproxy/nph-proxy.pl

Go there - enable scripts

Then in the url bar enter...

www.a1gp.com/media/index.php

Voila - appears - still seems to be showing Brands Hatch though...

Simon/~Flibster

 

[Flibster]

Qualifying session 1 now running.

 

[Flibster]

Live timing anyone?

http://www.catmoto.com/TempsOnLine/pagines/cursa.asp

Simon/~Flibster

 

[Flibster]

Mexico fastest with a 1:35.729

 

[Flibster]

USA does a 1:35.193 with 9:30 remaining.

 

[Amps]

I watched the GP1 from my pc last time round but i cant see the link on the GP1 site today?

It was under media last time.
Are they not streaming it today or am i just blind?

 

[Flibster]

Germany gpes fastest with 6:45 remaining

1:34.785

 

[Flibster]

Here's Jos the boss...
Goes second behind New Zealand.

This is a interesting track. Seems to have a bit ov everything.

France have now taken the top place.

 

[Flibster]

3mins remaining - Brazil on track.

 

[SaBBz]

I watched the GP1 from my pc last time round but i cant see the link on the GP1 site today?

It was under media last time.
Are they not streaming it today or am i just blind?

I think they only stream the races?