Motorsport A1 Grand Prix:  Ralph Firman tamed the Indonesian rain to thrust himself into contention for a first A1 Grand Prix win of the season at Sentul.

Norwich-born Firman, who represents Ireland, set the fastest time in first practice for Indonesia's first international motorsport event on four wheels.

The ex-Formula One driver, whose fourth place in the sprint race two weeks ago in Durban helped him move into seventh in the standings, quickly got to grips with the wet Sentul track.

He was fastest in the first session before slipping to sixth in the second, when the circuit offered marginally more grip.

"I like the circuit, it's good to drive and there's a nice combination of quick straights and medium-speed corners," he said.

"I didn't have any problems and we got through the changes we wanted to in order to set up the car. There was no point using up another set of tyres in the second practice as the wear rate is high here and we need to have as many options as possible going through the rest of the weekend.

"I am looking forward to tomorrow, whatever the conditions."

Alex Yoong, another ex-Formula One driver, took the Malaysian car to the fastest time in second practice, beating Australia's Marcus Marshall to the honour.

Championship leaders France, with Nicolas Lapierre behind the wheel, were a lowly 15th in that session.

GP2 regular Lapierre admitted he saw no reason to push the limit in treacherous conditions that prompted several red flags.

He said: "The track is very interesting, but the driving conditions were changing all the time which made it very difficult.

"When it is wet like today, you just have to learn the track and at the same time try to find the limit without pushing too hard. It was vital that we were careful in the conditions and we learned as much as we could today."