Back in action following his runner-up podium finish two weeks ago in Round 5's New Zealand Feature race, Wickens continued to earmark himself as one of A1GP's leading rookies by planting Canada, who sit 12th in the Nations Standings, at the sharp end of the timesheets once again. With all 22 nations running in Friday afternoon's practice session, the 18-year-old from Toronto's best lap time of 1m18.941s was only bettered by France's Loic Duval and by just over two tenths of a second around the 3.93km Sydney track.
Friday morning's 'Rookie-Only' session presented the field with mixed conditions, the track initially wet but gradually drying as the session progressed. Pleased to sample the circuit in both the wet and the dry, Robert's fastest lap time in the morning was a 1m21.955s placing him eighth overall.
"I think we showed today that we have good pace in both wet and dry conditions," stated Wickens candidly. "I had good pace in the wet in the 'Rookie-Only' session, the balance of the car was really strong and I was probably pushing a lot harder than some of the others early on. I put in a really good lap on my first timed lap in the afternoon's practice session which was able to stand. P2's a great result for the team. We continued to make steps in the right direction but as our tires degraded we couldn't improve the times. There's work to be done but our race pace is a solid top-five!"
Reflecting on a productive first day in Australia, Simon Cayzer, A1 Team Canada's Team Manager commented; "We're at the sharp end again today, successfully carrying on the momentum from Taupo. The rookie session was quite difficult because the conditions were changing so we had to change to run on wet and dry tires. We're happy with our wet set-up. It's good that it was a drying track as that helps us with strategy for the race. We've got to work to do on our race pace which we'll concentrate on tomorrow and hopefully from today we'll have a good qualifying car!"
Official Practice (1 Hour Session)
1, France, Loic Duval, 1:18.675
2, CANADA, ROBERT WICKENS, 1:18.941
3, Great Britain, Robbie Kerr, 1:18.996
4, New Zealand, Jonny Reid, 1:19.102
5, Lebanon, Chris Alajajian, 1:19.337
Rookie Only Practice (2 x 25 Minute Sessions)
1, Australia, John Martin, 1:20.530
2, Lebanon, Chris Alajajian, 1:21.340
3, Great Britain, James Winslow, 1:21.521
4, Malaysia, Fairuz Fauzy, 1:21.781
5, France, Jonathan Cochet, 1:21.807
8, CANADA, ROBERT WICKENS, 1:21.955
Qualifying starts tomorrow, Saturday 2nd February, at 2:15pm in Australia (10:15pm EST Friday 1st). Sunday's 20-minute Sprint race starts at 11am local time on Sunday (7pm EST Saturday 2nd) with the 70-minute Feature race starting at 3pm (11pm EST Saturday 2nd) - www.a1gp.com
Photo Credit: 'Robert Wickens in Friday practice at Australia's Eastern Creek circuit' - Jakob Ebrey Photography
Copyright-free A1 Team Canada images are available for download at www.a1gp-photo.com/can
A1 Team Canada Media Relations: Stuart Morrison - PR & Media Manager
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