Canada's McIntosh Maximizes Malaysian Track Time (z04)

Canada's McIntosh Maximizes Malaysian Track Time


Friday 24 November, 2006 - A1 Team Canada's Sean 
McIntosh kicked off preparations for Sunday's 
fourth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of 
Motorsport, hosted at the Sepang International 
Circuit in Malaysia, by posting the 13th fastest 
lap time in Friday's official practice session as 
he returned to A1GP competition for the first 
time since scoring Canada's maiden victory last 
February in Indonesia.

With the 21-year-old Vancouver-native rotating 
back into the Canadian team's race seat following 
three impressive outings to launch the sophomore 
season of A1GP by Toronto rookie James 
Hinchcliffe (19), Sean's race weekend started 
positively as he familiarized himself once again 
with the 550bhp, V8-powered A1GP car and the 
5.44km Sepang track.

The heat and humidity that greeted the field of 
nations for the rookie-only session in the 
morning and the afternoon's official practice 
failed to faze McIntosh, the Canadian having 
first experienced the challenging conditions 
presented by Malaysia in the corresponding round 
of the inaugural A1GP Championship last November. 
While 17 nations opted to run rookie drivers in 
the morning session, A1 Team Canada's first track 
running came in the afternoon when McIntosh was 
finally unleashed along with the full contingent 
of 22 competitors.

Logging the second-highest number of laps for the 
session in a bid to maximize track time, Sean's 
stint saw him end the hour-long outing with a lap 
time of 1 m 54.923 s, placing him 13th overall, 
one spot behind the points-leading entry of A1 
Team Mexico, piloted by Salvador Duran, and a 
place ahead of A1 Team Australia with Indy Racing 
League and Champ Car racer Ryan Briscoe behind 
the wheel.

19-year-old Nico Hülkenberg, winner of last 
month's Round 1Feature race in Holland, launched 
A1 Team Germany to the top of Friday's 
time-sheets in both sessions.

"It's great to be back in the car representing 
Canada!" stated McIntosh following his first day 
back in Malaysia. "We were quick here in Sepang 
last year and I think the potential is there to 
have another good weekend. Obviously the drivers 
and teams that participated in the rookie session 
this morning have a bit of an advantage over our 
team with the extra track time but we'll 
hopefully be up there tomorrow in qualifying when 
it counts. As always the weather's really hot and 
humid so it's a good job I've been training hard 
as Sunday's going to be a physically demanding 
day of racing!"

Official Practice Best Lap Time (1 Hour Session)
1	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	1:51.789
2	China	Congfu Cheng	1:52.986
3	New Zealand	Jonny Reid	1:52.998
4	Switzerland	Neel Jani	1:53.431
5	USA	Phil Giebler	1:53.779
6	Malaysia	Alex Yoong	1:53.884
7	Brazil	Raphael Matos	1:53.947
8	Great Britain	Robbie Kerr	1:54.075
9	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	1:54.361
10	France	Nicolas Lapierre	1:54.373
*13	CANADA	SEAN MCINTOSH	1:54.923

Sunday's Sprint race starts at 11 am local time 
(10 pm EST Saturday) with the Feature race 
starting at 3 pm in Malaysia (2 am EST Sunday). 
The races can be watched live in Canada or on 
demand later via the A1GP website - www.a1gp.com .