MOTORSPORT:Series leaders Team Ireland will start both the sprint and feature races for tomorrow's New Zealand A1GP from pole after Adam Carroll dominated qualifying at Taupo.
Carroll‘s time of one minute 14.507 seconds was good enough to top the timesheet during sprint qualifying ahead of Team Netherlands‘ Robert Doornbos with Filipe Albuquerque claiming third for Portugal.
The 26-year-old from Portadown then recorded the fastest time ever posted around the 2.06-mile circuit in an A1GP car when he headed qualifying for the feature race with an effort of 1min 14.411secs.
Doornbos again finished second and Albuquerque third, the first time in the series the top three drivers had qualified in the same positions for both races since separate qualifying was introduced.
Switzerland’s Neel Jani set the pace in the first segment of sprint qualifying with a time of 1:15.202 only for Carroll to shave 0.005 secs of that mark.
He swiftly lowered that mark with his eventual pole position time with Doornbos and Albuquerque proving the biggest winners in the second segment to finish 0.265secs and 0.281secs respectively behind the Irishman.
Qualifying for the feature race proved more dramatic as Carroll produced his record lap in the dying minutes with Australia’s John Martin trailing in second.
However Martin was edged out by Albuquerque, who finished 0.432secs behind Carroll, and was in turn surpassed by Doornbos right at the death, the Dutchman again 0.265secs off the pace.
“I got four good clean laps in and we were quick,” said Carroll. “It was a good run. I put the new tyres on but you don’t really know what the grip levels are going to be or where you are going to be.
“You have just got to push hard and hope you are going to be at the front and put a nice tidy lap in at the end. It is a tricky circuit to put in a nice quick lap with no mistakes.
“The circuit just doesn’t have much grip so when you try hard you can have a spin or run wide, things like that. That is what practice is for, you push hard just to find where everything is.”
In a change to the usual format, both races will begin with standing starts, something Carroll believes could cause him problems.
“A standing start is always tricky as these cars are quite difficult to get off the line,” he added.
“So I have just got to concentrate on doing that tomorrow to get off the line and into turn one first. But I wouldn’t have minded a rolling start at all.”