Zandvoort, Netherlands - Fresh of a flight from the United States, Nur Ali continued familiarizing himself with his team and his car in preparations for the first race of the new season today at Zandvoort, near Amsterdam, Netherlands. He completed in a one hour practice session, followed by qualifying for tomorrow’s Sprint Race.

Nur Ali raced to the track for the morning practice session and used the time to continue learning the circuit, becoming more familiar with the A1GP car and build his relationship with his new engineers and crew. The one hour session saw Nur Ali improve his lap times as he put valuable practice laps under his belt. He was caught out towards the end of the session with a spin leading to an early finish for the team. Nur Ali was excited about his progress in the car and is confident that despite having only 1 day of practise under his belt, he would drive hard and drive fast for Team Pakistan.

Nur Ali was out on track early for the first of his four ‘flying lap’ runs. He drove solidly to get comfortable in the new A1 car, saving new tires for his second run, in which he improved by a significant three seconds. Continuing with his quick learning curve, Nur Ali was four tenths of a second faster on his third run. A wild spin during his final, fourth run, lost him his final ‘flying lap’ time, but Nur Ali had shown that he is ready and willing to test the limits of the A1’s highly sophisticated and powerful Grand Prix car.

Ali said at the end of the session, “It was an all-new experience for me today. I walked the track yesterday evening to improve my understanding of its unique characteristics and this morning I felt fairly comfortable in the car. In qualifying after the first segment, I knew there was a lot of room for improvement and on each run we were able to improve. On the last run, I knew I was pushing the car a little too much, I went in a bit too hot and the rear stepped out on me and spun me round. I’m learning fast and tomorrow my aim will be to keep it clean and finish the races around top fifteen, possibly top ten, although of course, my ultimate goal is to be winning A1GP races.”

The Zandvoort A1GP races will take place tomorrow, the first of 12 events on the calendar for this second season. The grid is set from qualifying for the 20 minute Sprint race, the first of two races, with the main Feature race running for 70 minutes and including a mandatory tire change pit stop. The grid for this race is set from an amalgamation of points drawn from the Sprint race start position, finish position and fastest lap time.