May 2009
Two strong finishes at A1GP finale
Sunday, May 03, 2009
A1 Team Indonesia had two good finishes in the season finale of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport with Satrio Hermanto returning to the driving seat for the last two races at Brands Hatch circuit, Kent, Great Britain. Satrio finished 12th in the Sprint race and 13th in the Feature race.
Satrio started the Sprint race in ninth position, following a superb effort in qualifying yesterday. With many experienced racers around him the Indonesian driver was challenged hard and with 18 laps ahead of him, he was forced to back off, dropping to 11th place. After the mandatory pitstop Satrio was back racing, lying 14th after the team had a delayed pitstop. The New Zealand car, in the adjacent pit garage, had pitted without prior warning to the team, just as Satrio was trying to enter his pit box and as the New Zealand mechanics ran out Satrio had to swerve to avoid hitting them. This resulted in a delay for the team and dropped him two place. However, he regained two positions by the chequered flag, crossing the line in 12th place, his best Sprint race finish of the season.
The start of the Feature race produced plenty of drama, a feature of the close wheel-to-wheel racing of A1GP. From his 19th place start Satrio was off the line well to lie 15th at the end of the opening lap. A safety car period for two stranded cars in the Brands Hatch gravel kept the cars in position but when racing resumed the Indonesian team moved up to 14th, then 13th a few laps later. The first round of stops went smoothly and with good work from the crew he was back out again, finishing in 13th place at the chequered flag.
Satrio said at the end of the day, “It was a good performance, both in the Sprint Race and Feature Race. We were able to fight with the top ten guys, but at Brands Hatch it’s difficult to pass. The pace is there, but it isn’t an easy track for overtaking, but we were able to show good performance. I'm proud of myself.
“When we were going into the pitstops, everyone went in together then everyone came out together, after that I just kept pushing trying to make the guy in front make a mistake, but this is A1 and the guys are very good drivers. Overall, I’m pleased with the weekend, especially after not being in the car since the New Zealand round in January.”
Bagoes Hermanto concluded, “We’ve had a strong finish to this season with Satrio proving that he is continuing to improve and has made significant progress with his pace, both in qualifying and the races. We look forward to the next season and in the meantime we will start our preparations for this.”
The team and drivers will now take a break from A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The series will return to the track later this year for the fifth season of competition.
A1 Team Indonesia had two good finishes in the season finale of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport with Satrio Hermanto returning to the driving seat for the last two races at Brands Hatch circuit, Kent, Great Britain. Satrio finished 12th in the Sprint race and 13th in the Feature race.
Satrio started the Sprint race in ninth position, following a superb effort in qualifying yesterday. With many experienced racers around him the Indonesian driver was challenged hard and with 18 laps ahead of him, he was forced to back off, dropping to 11th place. After the mandatory pitstop Satrio was back racing, lying 14th after the team had a delayed pitstop. The New Zealand car, in the adjacent pit garage, had pitted without prior warning to the team, just as Satrio was trying to enter his pit box and as the New Zealand mechanics ran out Satrio had to swerve to avoid hitting them. This resulted in a delay for the team and dropped him two place. However, he regained two positions by the chequered flag, crossing the line in 12th place, his best Sprint race finish of the season.
The start of the Feature race produced plenty of drama, a feature of the close wheel-to-wheel racing of A1GP. From his 19th place start Satrio was off the line well to lie 15th at the end of the opening lap. A safety car period for two stranded cars in the Brands Hatch gravel kept the cars in position but when racing resumed the Indonesian team moved up to 14th, then 13th a few laps later. The first round of stops went smoothly and with good work from the crew he was back out again, finishing in 13th place at the chequered flag.
Satrio said at the end of the day, “It was a good performance, both in the Sprint Race and Feature Race. We were able to fight with the top ten guys, but at Brands Hatch it’s difficult to pass. The pace is there, but it isn’t an easy track for overtaking, but we were able to show good performance. I'm proud of myself.
“When we were going into the pitstops, everyone went in together then everyone came out together, after that I just kept pushing trying to make the guy in front make a mistake, but this is A1 and the guys are very good drivers. Overall, I’m pleased with the weekend, especially after not being in the car since the New Zealand round in January.”
Bagoes Hermanto concluded, “We’ve had a strong finish to this season with Satrio proving that he is continuing to improve and has made significant progress with his pace, both in qualifying and the races. We look forward to the next season and in the meantime we will start our preparations for this.”
The team and drivers will now take a break from A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The series will return to the track later this year for the fifth season of competition.
BEST QUALIFYING PERFORMANCE OF THE SEASON
Saturday, May 02, 2009
The final practice and qualifying sessions of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Brands Hatch, Great Britain, were completed today at the Kent circuit with Satrio Hermanto flying the flag for A1 Team Indonesia. Satrio produced the team’s best qualifying performance of the season today, with a ninth place on the grid for tomorrow’s Sprint race and in 19th place for the Feature race after a highly competitive qualifying session.
In morning practice the team continued with its race preparations, running on used tyres and concentrating on qualifying set up, making a number of changes to improve the balance of the car for the afternoon grid-setting session. Towards the end of the session the Indonesia team put new tyres on the car for Satrio to rehearse a qualifying run and this resulted in second fastest lap of the session.
Afternoon qualifying took place in warm conditions The unique A1GP style of qualifying requires drivers to complete four ‘flying laps’, with one in each of four 10 minute segments. The best two lap times from the first two runs are then used to determine the grid positions for the Sprint race and the best two from the final two runs for the Feature race tomorrow.
Satrio drove consistently through each of the four segments. On his second Sprint race run he used his PowerBoost, catapulting the Indonesian car up to ninth place, a superb effort from Satrio. Qualifying for the feature race qualifying saw many teams using the PowerBoost, which left the Indonesian team back in 18th position.
He said of his day, “In this morning’s practice session we put on a set of new tyres and knew when we were second quickest that we had a good pace for qualifying. I was pleased to have used the PowerBoost to such good effect as it isn’t easy to overtake on this track and it gives us a shot at recording some points. I made a couple of mistakes in my Feature race runs, which compromised my times, however I think we’ll have the pace to improve on this tomorrow.
Bobby Issazadhe, Team Manager, A1 Team Indonesia, adds, “Satrio has dropped his lap time by around two seconds over the course of the sessions this weekend, and we need to keep making this level of progress. This is a very different track to many of the others on our calendar; a much faster track, a very technically demanding one and one that isn’t easy to learn quickly.
The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Brands Hatch, reaches its finale tomorrow. The Sprint race is 30 minutes of frenetic racing. The afternoon Feature race is a longer 70 minutes of racing action which includes two mandatory tyre-change pitstops.