TEAM USA qualifies 3rd in Sprint, 7th in Feature at Mexico City

MEXICO CITY—Jonathan Summerton drove A1 TEAM USA to third starting position for the Sprint race and was seventh for the Feature in qualifying Saturday for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

“We’re really happy to be starting third in the Sprint,” Summerton said. “It’s a boost for the team in that it validates the progress we’ve been making in qualifying with the ‘We the People’ car. We had a good run, didn’t get blocked or red flagged, and we came really close to the pole. We were able to show the speed we had in the car.

“We were unfortunate to be seventh in the Feature qualifying. We were running two-tenths (of a second) faster than our Sprint lap when we arrived at the chicane. A car had gone off seconds before and put dust and dirt onto the track and it caused us to lose grip braking for the chicane. It cost us five-tenths. It’s disappointing knowing we would have been on the front row if the track had been clean.”

Summerton ran a lap of 1:20.426 in Sprint qualifying, only .111 of a second slower than the pole-winning time of South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg. In the Feature session, the 19-year-old from Kissimmee, Fla., covered the 2.53-mile circuit in 1:20.778.

A1 TEAM USA’s previous best qualifying performances this season had been sixth twice with Summerton for the Sprint races at New Zealand and Australia. Summerton equaled his top A1GP qualifying run. He also was third last season at Shanghai, China.

“We have put together a terrific effort in Mexico City,” A1 TEAM USA Holdings owner Rick Weidinger said. “We’ve known we had the capability of qualifying in the top –five and it feels really good to do it for the first time this season. We’ve made steady improvement, but something has always seemed to get in our way of cracking the top-five. We never lost faith that we were headed upward and have kept working hard.

“We can’t celebrate yet, but we’re in position to achieve our goal of finishing in the top-five in both races Sunday.”

Live streaming of Sunday’s 20-minute Sprint and 70-minute Feature races are available starting at 4 p.m. EDT at www.A1GP.com.

For more information on A1 TEAM USA, visit A1TEAMUSATV.com. For more information on A1GP, visit www.A1GP.com.