Our favorite nation-based open wheel series returns after a long absence to the basically brand new Algarve track in Portugal. F1 cars tested there earlier this year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autódromo_Internacional_do_Algarve

A video of the unfinished track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unQaTUEL6b8

Race will be sponsored by Vodofone.

http://www.a1gp.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?newsId=43453

http://www.a1gp.com/About/Promotion.aspx?id=31

The times for qual and race are EST friendly.

Qualifying: 9 am EST Saturday
Race (tape delayed Sprint followed by Feature): 8:45 am EST Sunday

The whole schedule:

http://www.a1gp.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?newsId=43450

Current list of drivers (now with Marco confirmed):

AUS: Martin
BRA: Guimaraes / Figueiredo
CHN: Tung
FRA: TBA
GER: TBA
GBR: TBA
INA: Ali
IND: Karthikeyan / Sureshwaren
IRL: Carroll / Quinn
ITA: Liuzzi
KOR: TBA
LEB: Morad / Auby
MAL: Fauzy / Lim
MEX: Duran / Garcia
MON: Piccione / Bahlsen
NED: Doornbos / Retera
NZL: Bamber
PAK: Khan
POR: Albuquerque
RSA: Zaugg / Morgado
SUI: Jani
USA: Andretti

Finally Felipe Massa says the racing will be exciting!

http://www.a1gp.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?newsId=43435

Team GBR Dan Clarke
Team France Nicolas Prost
Team Germany Andre Lotterer

* Brazil’s rookie driver Bia Figueiredo AKA Ana Beatriz

Algarve!

jes_ - 09 April 2009 02:36 PM

* Brazil’s rookie driver Bia Figueiredo AKA Ana Beatriz

Good for her. See needs to get her name out there and being on Team Brazil (led by Emmo himself) is great.

Clarke to drive for team GBR again
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74377

I noticed a massive fall-of in performance from Team GBR while Clarke was driving for them; I hope he had nothing to do with that.

Danny Watts set the bar pretty high. I know 'Speedy' Dan can be Speedy.. here's hoping he honors his nickname this weekend.

Don't forget Speedy Dan's other nickname: Stupid Dan. It came up a lot when he raced IndyCars in the CCWS. I hope Marco smokes him!

Team USA called up Robbie Pecorari as their rookie driver
replacing JR Hildebrand. "Pecos" wound up 7th in rookie
practice overall.

Notables in the bottom with drivers we know:

Pos A1 Team Driver Time Gap
1 New Zealand Earl Bamber 1'34.147
2 France Nicolas Prost 1'34.676 0.529
3 Switzerland Alexandre Imperatori 1'35.240 1.093
4 Germany André Lotterer 1'35.472 1.325
5 Netherlands Dennis Retera 1'36.730 2.583
6 Ireland Niall Quinn 1'37.561 3.414
7 USA Robbie Pecorari 1'37.955 3.808
8 Malaysia Aaron Lim 1'39.151 5.004
9 South Africa Cristiano Morgado 1'39.335 5.188
10 Lebanon Jimmy Auby 1'39.999 5.852
11 Indonesia Zahir Ali 1'40.007 5.860
12 Portugal Armando Parente 1'40.064 5.917
13 Brazil Ana Beatriz 1'40.334 6.187
14 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi 1'40.493 6.346
15 India Parthiva Sureshwaren 1'41.359 7.212
16 Monaco Hubertus Bahlsen 1'42.782 8.635
17 Great Britain Dan Clarke 1'47.549 13.402

From his website

Kansas Yes, Portugal No
04.09.2009

J.R. tested the AGR Formula Dream sponsored Dallara at Kansas yesterday, completing 200 miles at speeds equal or comparable to the other runners there. As the test was run at Kansas, it wasn't possible for J.R. to make flight connections to get him to Portugal in time for A1GP rookie practice Friday morning, so he'll miss the opportunity to help Marco Andretti get ready for the A1GP race there.

Bobby D. tops practice!

http://www.a1gp.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?newsId=43672

Pos A1 Team Driver Time Gap Laps
1 Netherlands Robert Doornbos 1'31.962 19
2 New Zealand Earl Bamber 1'32.030 0.068 15
3 Monaco Clivio Piccione 1'32.242 0.280 20
4 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi 1'32.568 0.606 23
5 Portugal Filipe Albuquerque 1'32.570 0.608 16
6 Switzerland Neel Jani 1'32.635 0.673 10
7 Germany André Lotterer 1'32.762 0.800 24
8 France Nicolas Prost 1'32.894 0.932 20
9 Lebanon Daniel Morad 1'33.019 1.057 22
10 Australia John Martin 1'33.221 1.259 25
11 South Africa Adrian Zaugg 1'33.379 1.417 23
12 India Narain Karthikeyan 1'33.448 1.486 25
13 USA Marco Andretti 1'33.500 1.538 21
14 Ireland Adam Carroll 1'33.732 1.770 22
15 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 1'33.745 1.783 25
16 China Ho-Pin Tung 1'34.087 2.125 24
17 Indonesia Zahir Ali 1'35.064 3.102 23
18 Mexico Salvador Durán 1'56.253 24.291 6
19 Brazil Felipe Guimarães 0

Here's Autosport

Doornbos fastest in Algarve Practice
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74393

Liuzzi's off to a good start. Article says Doornbos lapped approx. 4 seconds off F1 times (during testing).

Wonder how these cars would compare to the GP2 cars at Algarve?

Netherlands sets early pace in Algarve
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/a1gp-netherlands-sets-the-early-pace-in-portugal/

^More detail here..

Ana Beatriz had a huge crash at turn 1 caused by Brake failure apparently.

http://www.a1gp.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?newsId=43685


Some Screenshots From a video of the crash:

Revel - 10 April 2009 02:04 AM

I noticed a massive fall-of in performance from Team GBR while Clarke was driving for them; I hope he had nothing to do with that.

A part of that was due to the fact that Dan had never driven the car or track before while everyone else in the field had driven the new A1 car & the track they were running on.

Dan struggled in parctice/qualifying but as the race went on his pace did improve & his lap times were not that far off the front runners by the end of the race.

The British Team must have thought Dan did okay.. because they invited him back.

Wonder how Liuzzi will do considering he's never driven the car at that track either.

RE: the Crash..

Hope Ana is okay; have we heard about her condition?