Sentul - A1GP - QualifyingA1 Team New Zealand's Jonny Reid has snatched pole position for the Gudang Garam A1GP Sentul, Indonesia Sprint race with a last-gasp flying lap in the dying minutes of Qualifying. Reid's aggregate time was just 0.034secs quicker than Great Britain's
Robbie Kerr, who also moved up in the last minute to secure second position from Germany's Nico Hülkenberg for Sunday's 15-lap race.
Reid performed strongly throughout the four segments, setting top five times in all sessions, but it was his last lap of the day that grabbed pole, the New Zealander's second of the year. "It's quite a hard work in today's Qualifying due to the weather conditions, but I'm glad to be on the pole position, and looking forward to the race," commented Reid. He now looks to achieve a better result than Brno, the last race he started on pole, where he ran into the wall before the first corner after a clash with Hülkenberg. "It was an unfortunate situation, I think we both have misjudged the circuit corner but we have been moving on and will focusing on winning the race tomorrow."
Great Britain's Kerr put in a consistent performance over the four segments. The young Briton topped the times after the second session, however could only post the fifth quickest in the third until a massive push in the final minute moved him into second ahead of young rising star Nico Hülkenberg.
Kerr was however hoping for more, "Even in today's sessions I'm disappointed for not being on pole, but I will try and give the best performance I can tomorrow and let's just see what happens."
After recording the fastest time in session one, 0.064secs quicker than Reid, Hülkenberg looked set to score yet another pole position, however he failed to match the pace in the remaining three 15 minute portions and dropped down to third overall. Hülkenberg confessed he had made minor set-up adjustments between sessions, and felt the car was better today, "Yesterday I actually have a problem, but today I feel much better and enjoyed the track. For me the weather doesn't really matter. I like both, the wet and the dry conditions. I'm ready for both conditions."
After setting the fastest time in the morning's earlier practice session, Mexican Salvador Duran steadily improved his lap times in Qualifying to start the race from fourth position. Duran's combined times were enough to win the position against a resurgent Phil Giebler of the USA, who posted the fastest time in the third session. Defending champions France will start the race in seventh behind Australia.
A1 Team Ireland's new racer, Richard Lyons, had an eventful first A1GP Qualifying when he ran wide into a tyre wall at Turn Three during the second session and caused a red flag period. After marshals pushed him free, he returned to the pits to repair the car's broken nosecone and continued in the remaining sessions to start tomorrow's 15-lap Sprint race from 18th on the grid. Home nation Indonesia will start from 17th.
The Sprint race is due to start tomorrow morning at 11.00 local time, with the result determining the grid for the afternoon's 50-lap Feature race.
Source A1GP
