South Africa’s Vulindlela, with Adrian Zaugg at the wheel, qualified eighth out of 22 for the fourth round of the A1Grand Prix (GP) World Cup of Motorsport on Saturday.
The 20-year-old winner of the A1 GP season-opening sprint race in The Netherlands in October finished 2,2 seconds behind pole-position winner A1 Team Switzerland (Neel Jani).
Jani was also on pole for the inaugural A1 GP at Malaysia’s state-of-the-art Sepang circuit in November last year and went on to win both races.
Second was New Zealand (Jonny Reid), followed by Germany (Niko Hulkenberg), Britain (Robbie Kerr), China (Congfu Cheng), The Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen) and Malaysia (Alex Yoong).
”I lost about four-10ths of a second on my first qualifying run when I had to avoid the incident between Germany and Ireland [Germany tagged Ireland in a corner as the pair started their first timed run],” said Zaugg. ”I could have finished fifth.
”I ran a bit wide on my second qualifier and spoiled my chances of improving on my first time. The circuit cooled down a lot with a few drops of rain during the first two sessions, but the temperature went up again for the last two sessions and nobody really went any quicker.
”We used new tyres for Q1 and Q2 with the threat of rain and saved a new set for Q4.
”Tomorrow [Sunday] we must have a good start in the sprint race and try and make up a few places, score some more championship points and be in a stronger position to challenge for a podium in the feature race.” — Sapa