A1 Grand Prix race car soars at Silverstone shakedown

Fresh from his 24-hour Nurbürgring victory, A1 Team Portugal driver Pedro Lamy took the wheel showing the speed and agility of the definitive A1 car. Reaching a top lap-time of 1.37.15 Lamy finished just two tenths of a second off the F3000 Silverstone lap record set by Vitantonio Luizzi last summer.  

'This was the first chance I've had to get the A1 car out on the track and it's a great car. I was really impressed by the gearbox. It's been a long time since I've driven a single-seater but this was an exciting drive. I'm looking forward to the start of the season' said Lamy. A1 Grand Prix's Global Operations Manager John Wickham headed up the Silverstone test and welcomed Lamy's feedback as a new driver to the programme: 'Pedro's got a lot of experience from sports and saloon car racing which gives us a new dimension for our testing.'  

Commenting on the day's results Wickham said, 'We've built today's car as close as possible to the final spec that will be used for the 50 team cars we've commissioned. We've run as many laps as possible throughout the day to prove that all is working well and more importantly that we've got a very reliable car. On a day that was much colder and slightly damp, the A1 car was just a fraction off the F3000 lap record so we're really encouraged by the performance of the car.'