McIntosh Bags Top-Ten Practice Performance at Brands Hatch

Courtesy Stuart Morrison Public Relations

Brands Hatch, England (Friday 27 April, 2007) - Sean McIntosh cracked the top-ten in Friday practice for A1 Team Canada as the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in Kent, England plays host to the season finale of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport on Sunday, 29th April. The 21-year-old from Vancouver placed tenth in practice from the 22 competing nations, Sean keen to break Canada back into the top-ten of the A1GP Nations Standings with a strong final outing of the season.

Québec's Kevin Lacroix was first out for Canada on Friday, the 18-year-old participating in the 'Rookie-Only' session in the morning. Lacroix's first trip to the famed British circuit was unfortunately marred by a stomach virus, the teenager valiantly fighting through his illness to undertake his rookie duties before handing over to McIntosh for the rest of the weekend. A brief spin followed by a fuel shortage led to the day's first red flag being attributed to the Canadian entry but Lacroix would get going again to rack up a total of 19 laps setting a best of 1m17.680s to place 13th fastest.

"I was trying to take in everything as I was learning the track while not feeling at my best today," commented Lacroix. "I was feeling worse towards the end of the session but overall the car was picking up speed and that was then reflected in Sean's times later in the day."

McIntosh, no stranger to the Brands Hatch Circuit from a successful period racing in the Formula Renault UK Championship in 2004-05, was quickly on the pace as he fired the Canadian car into the top-eight early in the afternoon's hour-long practice. His best run, a 1m16.419s set on his 24th lap from a total of 31, ended the day as the tenth quickest with Britain's Robbie Kerr fastest on home soil.

"That wasn't too bad," stated McIntosh. "It was good to get out there and make sure everything was running well with the car and work away on getting a good base set-up. There's one particular corner where I need to improve a little but I'll have a sleep on everything tonight and come back in the morning and see what needs to be done. Hopefully we can push in qualifying as it's crucial to the outcome of the Sprint race. It's great to be back competing at Brands Hatch. I know where everything is and like last time we raced here, the atmosphere feels pretty special."

Official Practice (1 Hour Session)
1 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1:15.086
2 India Narain Karthikeyan 1:15.661
3 France Loic Duval 1:15.813
4 USA Jonathan Summerton 1:15.815
5 Germany Nico Hülkenberg 1:15.943
*10th CANADA SEAN MCINTOSH 1:16.419

Rookie Practice (2 x 25 Minute Sessions)
1 Great Britain Oliver Jarvis 1:15.043
2 USA Jonathan Summerton 1:15.665
3 India Narain Karthikeyan 1:16.037
4 South Africa Gavin Cronje 1:16.464
5 France Jean Karl Vernay 1:16.611
*13 CANADA KEVIN LACROIX 1:17.680

Sunday's Sprint race starts at 11am GMT (6am Sunday EST) with the Feature race starting at 3pm at Brands Hatch (11am Sunday EST). SPEED will air all the action from Round 11 in Great Britain as a tape-delayed broadcast on Wednesday 2nd May starting at 2pm EST. For more programming information visit www.speedtv.com.

For more info on A1 Team Canada visit www.a1teamcan.com.