Asian Motor Sports

Jean Alesi set the fastest lap time for the second day in a row at the Speedcar Series test session that wrapped up today at the Dubai Autodrome.

Canadian Paul Tracy, former Indycar champion, began the morning with the quickest lap. That was before German driver Uwe Alzen and Alesi’s nemesis from Season 1 pushed the Frenchman in a battle to set the pace. They were soon competing against Vitantonio Luizi and Christian Jones for best lap of the session. Jean’s team HPR took the opportunity to work on the set up and understand the car better.

The afternoon session saw Season 1 Champion Johnny Herbert running a hot lap that got the competition going again. In the last push before the flag came down, running on fresh tyres Alesi, Gianni Morbidelli, Heinz Harald Frentzen, Chris Buncombe, Christian Jones and Bertrand Baguette dogged each other around the track, most of them setting their best laps on that stretch. Local favourite Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum set the 9th best lap, just a tenth of a second behind Canadian star, Paul Tracy.

World GT Champion, Fabrizio Gollin left the veterans to battle but made good time with the 4th fastest lap. The younger talent Sakon Yamamoto, Chris Buncombe, James Grunwell and Laurent Steiger spent the day getting accustomed to the Speedcars along with fresh local championship drivers Khalid Al Zarouni and Karim Al Azhari as well as Eric Charles who ran a few laps in the promotional car.

The best lap times of the 2-day test session are as follows:
Driver Day 1 Day 2

Jean Alesi 1:42.501 1:41.611
HH Frentzen 1:43.408 1:42.100
Johnny Herbert 1:43.140 1:42.453
Fabrizio Gollin 1:42.683
Gianni Morbidelli 1:43.688 1:42.793
Uwe Alzen 1:42.821
Chris Buncombe 1:46.573 1:42.831
Paul Tracy 1:43.978 1:43.355
Hasher Al Maktoum 1:43.473
Christian Jones 1:43.734 1:43.687
Bertrand Baguette 1:44.193 1:44.001
James Grunwell 1:48.308 1:44.167
Vitantonio Liuzi 1:45.011 1:44.906
Marcel Tiemann 1:45.078
Alex Yoong 1:45.144
Sakon Yamamoto 1:47.761 1:45.784
Alessandro Nannini 1:46.084
Khalid Al Zarouni 1:47.107
Karim Al Azhari 1:48.988
Laurent Steiger 1:55.328 1:49.021
Eric Charles 1:49.512

The next and last test session will be held at the Dubai Autodrome on 23-24 November, 2008 before the start of Season 2 on 4-6 December, 2008.

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• Speedcar Releases Season 2 Calendar