Pakistan pushing for strong performance

18/ 1/2008

A1 Team Pakistan with driver, Adam Khan, began racing in the fifth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today.

The Series has travelled to a far corner of the globe, New Zealand, for the first race weekend of 2008.

Taupo, in the centre of the North Island greeted the field of 22 nations competing in this high level international race series which pits country against country.

The New Zealand event is also making motor racing history.

The A1GP Series has introduced a greener fuel for the A1GP race cars at this race meeting, with the cars being run on a 30% biofuel mix, the first truly global international race series that has taken this step.

The initiative is part of a wider environmental policy, THINK Greener Racing, which A1GP launched at the beginning of this season.

The move to the new fuel was a smooth transition, with the cars continuing to show strong reliability, and maintaining the speed and power that has been enjoyed since the start of this Series.

Khan, ineligible to run in the Friday rookie session, used the time to watch the field from the sidelines, but as always on this first day of running, the team suffers from not having the chance to utilise all the sessions.

The afternoon session was Khan’s first taste of the circuit.

He began by learning the track layout, and in the second part was able to start working with the engineering team to develop the performance of the car.

He completed 23 laps of the Taupo circuit, posting his quickest lap towards the end of the session, finishing 21 ^st at the end of the hour of running.

During the five week break since the last round in Zhuhai the operational team for A1 Team Pakistan has been changed, with new engineering staff and mechanics introduced for the remainder of the season.

Khan says of his first day of running in Taupo,: "It was a very slippery track, but I enjoyed my first experience here.

"We suffered from not having this morning’s session, but I’m pretty sure we can do a good job this weekend.

"We need to look at the data, see where I need to improve and where to improve the car and go from there.

"The transition with the staffing has been very smooth. Everyone knows what they are doing and just got on with their jobs, it hasn’t been a problem and I’m very positive that we can make progress."

John Allen, team manager, A1 Team Pakistan added: "I think we had a fair day today. We’re not that far off the pace . We had some problems in the tight braking areas with the car locking up, but I think that is a driving technique situation and we’ll work with Adam on that.

"Danny Watts, the team’s driver coach, has already established a good rapport with Adam, so this will help us to make progress as well."

The A1GP event in Taupo, New Zealand continues tomorrow with final practice and qualifying ahead of Sunday’s race.

Khan will return to the track with the A1 Team Pakistan car for all of these sessions and his progress can be followed at www.A1TeamPAK.com .