Portimão thread

[strider]

I thought I might as well get this under way with the news that Tonio Liuzzi is to drive for Italy this weekend. Link. He's a good addition.

Assuming GBR's alleged problems are under control, Danny Watts should be on good form, coming from a pole position and 5th place in the opening round of the LMS last weekend.

[RichardRenes]

Germany will bring Andre Lotterer, Netherlands brings Robert Doornbos... It's going to be interesting

[F3 Rocks]

A1 team Italy have called on Toni Liuzzi to drive in Portimao..............

[Kiwi3]

At long last Italy are finally putting a good driver in the car. Should have happened a long time ago. I must say though that I didn't expect Liuzzi, who I thought would want to be seen to still be concentrating on F1 (besides previously Vijay Mallya was very dismissive of A1GP so not sure if this means that Liuzzi is not in line for a 2010 Force India drive).

He should be at the sharp end straight away. Carrol vs Jani vs Doornbos vs Liuzzi on what all reports suggest is a great track will be awesome, good luck with your prediction competition picks this weekend folks!

[kerrmanningjarv]

Pay driver alert!

Dan Clarke will drive the British car for the last 3 rounds of the season - perhaps he will be paying the team's bills after their apparent administration. Although I'm disappointed that we haven't got Watts back (I think he is a very good talent), if Clarke helps save the team then I don't mind really. Better that Team GBR finishes in 10th than doesn't finish the season at all.

[Kiwi3]

A great shame for GBR. I hope Watts can be back next season.

I take it that there will be no KOR again as the driver listed is still TBA. I am also presuming that there will be no PAK as Adam Khan is listed for the third round in a row.

China has Tung again, I wonder if he is also paying a bit as I think Cheng is better.

It seems Prost is now first choice at FRA. He's not bad but personally I'd put Duval, Montagny or would try to persuade Premat or Lapierre to come back ahead of Prost.

No other surprises.

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

At long last Italy are finally putting a good driver in the car. Should have happened a long time ago.

Did you know that Argentinian José MarÃ*a López was tempted to race for A1 Team Italy based on his Italian racing license???

[kerrmanningjarv]

Cheng did look better about a year ago, but remember that when Cheng drove at Taupo he was pretty disappointing, whereas Tung has looked OK this season (I think he has deserved more points than he has).

As for Duval... not sure why he's not present - it can't be Nippon/Super GT as Lotterer is doing A1GP. Guess Prost is now #1 as you say. I think he's decent so we'll see how he gets on.

[racecontrol]

will Pakistan race this time?

[Kiwi3]

I'd be surprised if we saw Pakistan but I am only guessing.

I wonder if Prost is also paying, or perhaps the team think the name will attract a higher profile.

Rookie session starts in 40 minutes

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

I wonder if Prost is also paying, or perhaps the team think the name will attract a higher profile.

If Team Brazil has the same mood, they should have contracted Bruno Senna as their driver and "revive" the old Senna-Prost rivalry. Just a though.
If Liuzzi is trying A1GP for F1 interests it could be good for Bruno, too.

[Kiwi3]

Lopez also would have been better than Piscopo.

It would be great if Senna also drove for Brazil, and imagine the publicity that would result. However I imagine that Senna has a team of advisors in his ear telling him not to do it. He did skip the Macau GP fearing that not winning it might damage his reputation...

Emmo did seem keen on getting Senna around season 1 or 2 when he was a F3 driver.

[diabloA1]

Originally Posted by Mekola

If Team Brazil has the same mood, they should have contracted Bruno Senna as their driver and "revive" the old Senna-Prost rivalry. Just a though.

Senna vs Prost happened last weekend in Catalunya in the Le Mans Series

[strider]

Originally Posted by diabloA1

Senna vs Prost happened last weekend in Catalunya in the Le Mans Series

...and Senna won! A podium for Bruno in his first LMS race was a good effort, I thought.

Getting back to the Algargarve, Robert Doornbos continues to be pace-setter. Report on P3 here. Note, if you are remotely interested, the last paragraph. Makeshift team + makeshift driver = shameful result. I would honestly prefer them not to have gone at all if that's how it's going to be.

[kerrmanningjarv]

Pakistan are not in the rookie session but we're not 100% sure that they won't drive in the afternoon practice.

Korea nowhere to be seen.

[strider]

As far as I know Korea reached the end of the road a while back, although naturally nothing was said.

As mentioned elsewhere, the rules were bent to allow Clark and Liuzzi out in the second part of the Rookie session, but Clark was a stunning 13 seconds off the pace. Maybe they just let him use one of the Ferrari course cars to learn the circuit...

[kerrmanningjarv]

Clarke did 0 laps in regular practice so perhaps suffered a tech gremlin in rookie practice... then again, perhaps not .

And Korea do still exist in some shape or form as they confirmed that Keisuke Kunimoto would take over driving duties - they claim to have missed the last round due to a parts shortage (I translated an article from their official site) but no excuse so far for missing this round.

[strider]

Sprint race grid:

Pos  Driver              Team           Time            Gap
 1.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   Italy          1m30.875s
 2.  Robert Doornbos     Netherlands    1m31.346s  + 0.471s
 3.  Adam Carroll        Ireland        1m31.600s  + 0.725s
 4.  Daniel Morad        Lebanon        1m31.756s  + 0.881s
 5.  Filipe Albuquerque  Portugal       1m31.777s  + 0.902s
 6.  Earl Bamber         New Zealand    1m32.006s  + 1.131s
 7.  Andre Lotterer      Germany        1m32.084s  + 1.209s
 8.  Adrian Zaugg        South Africa   1m32.301s  + 1.426s
 9.  Narain Karthikeyan  India          1m32.358s  + 1.483s
10.  Clivio Piccione     Monaco         1m32.420s  + 1.545s
11.  Fairuz Fauzy        Malaysia       1m32.929s  + 2.054s
12.  Marco Andretti      USA            1m33.214s  + 2.339s
13.  Dan Clarke          Great Britain  1m33.860s  + 2.985s
14.  Felipe Guimaraes    Brazil         1m33.985s  + 3.110s
15.  Zahir Ali           Indonesia      1m34.005s  + 3.130s
16.  Salvador Duran      Mexico         1m34.216s  + 3.341s
17.  John Martin         Australia      1m34.405s  + 3.530s
18.  Nicolas Prost       France         1m36.567s  + 5.692s
19.  Ho-Pin Tung         China          1m36.838s  + 5.963s
20.  Neel Jani           Switzerland    -

Feature race grid:

Pos  Driver              Team           Time            Gap
 1.  Robert Doornbos     Netherlands    1m30.415s
 2.  Adam Carroll        Ireland        1m30.696s  + 0.281s
 3.  Neel Jani           Switzerland    1m30.878s  + 0.463s
 4.  Adrian Zaugg        South Africa   1m30.984s  + 0.569s
 5.  Felipe Guimaraes    Brazil         1m31.023s  + 0.608s
 6.  Fairuz Fauzy        Malaysia       1m31.025s  + 0.610s
 7.  Filipe Albuquerque  Portugal       1m31.095s  + 0.680s
 8.  Marco Andretti      USA            1m31.459s  + 1.044s
 9.  Clivio Piccione     Monaco         1m31.495s  + 1.080s
10.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   Italy          1m31.852s  + 1.437s
11.  Earl Bamber         New Zealand    1m31.925s  + 1.510s
12.  John Martin         Australia      1m31.939s  + 1.524s
13.  Salvador Duran      Mexico         1m32.031s  + 1.616s
14.  Andre Lotterer      Germany        1m32.269s  + 1.854s
15.  Daniel Morad        Lebanon        1m32.352s  + 1.937s
16.  Dan Clarke          Great Britain  1m32.400s  + 1.985s
17.  Narain Karthikeyan  India          1m32.504s  + 2.089s
18.  Zahir Ali           Indonesia      1m32.573s  + 2.158s
19.  Nicolas Prost       France         1m32.941s  + 2.526s
20.  Ho-Pin Tung         China          1m33.237s  + 2.822s

The Sprint race gives a big chance to Netherlands and Ireland to catch up with Switzerland. Jani had the engine cut out on his first lap and missed 3 of the 4 qualifying runs.

[kerrmanningjarv]

Dan Clarke: “It hasn’t been too bad a day" - so why has your rubbish driving turned a front running team into a shambles, Danny boy?

[Hepatic]

Originally Posted by kerrmanningjarv

Dan Clarke: “It hasn’t been too bad a day" - so why has your rubbish driving turned a front running team into a shambles, Danny boy?

They haven't been front running all year tho...

Luizzi is a nice surprise, hope that is reflected in the race too. And what a circuit! Seen it with some bikes but a good look at it today on TV and it looks one of the best circuits in the world, hope the racing does it justice tomorrow

[Burnsie]

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that Carroll can capitalise on Jani's qualifying misfortune during the sprint race, but I'm sure that Doornbos and Albuquerque will be having similar thoughts...

[Kiwi3]

Mak, what makes you think there is a parts shortage? Brazil participated in qualifying with no problem at all.

After qualifying my first thought is...wow, what an amazing circuit! Even better than Turkey in my opinion, and racing today is going to be awesome.

Dan Clarke seems a bit of a tugger. Is this going to affect ticket sales for Brands Hatch?

With Doornbos, Carroll, Liuzzi, Jani absolute class drivers and a circuit where overtaking will be relatively straightforward anything could happen, it's going to be very exciting!

[Lam Pak]

no blaze of glory for china. what they are doing. astromega sucks, the dutch driver is always mistaken and the rookie driver is a pay clown. lot of clak up and no result. fra and gbr look fools too.

[Mak]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Mak, what makes you think there is a parts shortage? Brazil participated in qualifying with no problem at all.

After qualifying my first thought is...wow, what an amazing circuit! Even better than Turkey in my opinion, and racing today is going to be awesome.

Dan Clarke seems a bit of a tugger. Is this going to affect ticket sales for Brands Hatch?

With Doornbos, Carroll, Liuzzi, Jani absolute class drivers and a circuit where overtaking will be relatively straightforward anything could happen, it's going to be very exciting!

Some people happen to work in A1! at the mo anyway!

[RichardRenes]

I would be the last to disagree that Astromega seems to struggle with the car. For some reason, they can't get the setup right. Having a partner that is a no-show for some time now doesn't help either.