Malaysian on A1GP Mexico Pole
Malaysia’s Alex Yoong has taken pole position for Sunday’s sprint race at the Mexican A1 GP, the ninth round of the season.
The former F1 driver set an aggregate time of two minutes 53.138 seconds for his quickest two laps around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Yoong overcame tyre problems to set the fastest lap in three of the qualifying session’s four segments, with the driver commenting: “The car was very good. We struggled a little bit in the morning, but I think it is important that we didn’t panic.
“We thought it was the tyres with them going off a little bit more than we expected but the car was very strong for qualifying.
“I am confident that tomorrow will be good. We did have concerns we were using the tyres too hard yesterday and this morning, we know what the problem is and we will fix it and the car will be fine tomorrow.”
Runaway series leaders Germany completed the front row of the grid, with debutant Christian Vietoris proving an able deputy for regular driver Nico Hulkenberg.
With the latter missing the round because of prior commitments in the F3 Euro Series, the 17-year-old Vietoris could perhaps seal the title for Team Germany in Mexico City.
Already in possession of a 30-point lead, Germany need to increase the gap by only four more points to claim the ‘World Cup of Motorsport’.
Only New Zealand and France can mount a challenge, with the former’s Jonny Reid lining up only 14th for the sprint race.
France’s Jean Karl Vernay lines up fifth, behind Great Britain’s Oliver Jarvis and Mexico’s Salvador Duran.
Jarvis excelled in his first A1 GP qualifying session - the 23-year-old making his debut in Beijing where qualifying was cancelled - and confidently stated: “We have a very strong car here.
“We have stepped up and we will see what happens tomorrow.”
A1 Grand Prix of Nations rd 9, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico
Leading Positions after Final Qualifying: 1 Malaysia (Alex Yoong) 2mins 53.138secs, 2 Germany (Christian Vietoris) 2:53.983, 3 Great Britain (Oliver Jarvis) 2:54.271, 4 Mexico (Salvador Duran) 2:54.705, 5 France (Jean Karl Vernay) 2:54.820, 6 Portugal (Alvaro Parente) 2:54.865, 7 Brazil (Bruno Junqueira) 2:54.904, 8 USA (Jonathan Summerton) 2:54.918, 9 Australia (Ian Dyk) 2:54.935, 10 Italy (Enrico Toccacelo) 2:55.056, 11 South Africa (Adrian Zaugg) 2:55.071, 12 China (Ho Pin Tung) 2:55.170, 13 Indonesia (Ananda Mikola) 2:55.223, 14 New Zealand (Jonny Reid) 2:55.358, 15 Czech Republic (Janis Jarek) 2:55.538, 16 Netherlands (Renger Van Der Zande) 2:55.710, 17 India (Narain Karthikeyan) 2:55.949, 18 Switzerland (Marcel Fassler) 2:56.002, 19 Canada (James Hinchcliffe) 2:56.120, 20 Ireland (Richard Lyons) 2:57.300, 21 Lebanon (Allam Khodair) 2:58.575, 22 Pakistan (Nur Ali) 3:00.239
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