Dubai - With just over 1.5 seconds separating the top and the bottom of the timing sheet and less than half a second separating the top six, this afternoon’s qualifying session will be a hard fought contest for pole position in tomorrow’s Sprint race. On a circuit just 18 months old, A1 Grand Prix is setting a new benchmark for lap times, recording speeds in excess of 270kph and a fastest lap time of 1.45.676 set by A1 Team France’s Nicolas Lapierre this morning.

Official Practice Session 3 (11.00 - 12.00)

A1 Team Driver Time No. Laps
1 France Nicolas Lapierre 1.45.676 18
2 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1.45.743 19
3 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1.45.808 22
4 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.45.999 22
5 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1.46.047 18
6 Germany Adrian Sutil 1.46.154 20
7 Mexico Salvador Duran 1.46.182 19
8 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 1.46.206 21
9 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 1.46.283 20
10 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.46.322 21
11 Pakistan Adam Khan 1.46.391 19
12 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1.46.521 19
13 South Africa Stephen Simpson 1.46.568 19
14 USA Philip Giebler 1.46.573 18
15 Malaysia Alex Yoong 1.46.581 20
16 Canada Sean McIntosh 1.46.613 20
17 India Armaan Ebrahim 1.46.774 24
18 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1.46.783 16
19 China Tengyi Jiang 1.46.802 18
20 New Zealand Matt Halliday 1.46.841 21
21 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1.46.949 17
22 Australia Will Davison 1.47.106 22
23 Austria Mathias Lauda 1.47.129 20
24 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 1.47.179 24

Nominated drivers for Qualifying

A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Dubai, UAE - Sunday 11 December 2005

A1 Team A1 Driver
Australia Will Davison
Austria Mathias Lauda
Brazil Nelson Piquet JR
Canada Sean McIntosh
China Tengyi Jiang
Czech Republic Tomas Enge
France Nicolas Lapierre
Germany Adrian Sutil
Great Britain Robbie Kerr
India Armaan Ebrahim
Indonesia Ananda Mikola
Ireland Ralph Firman
Italy Enrico Toccacelo
Japan Hayanari Shimoda
Lebanon Basil Shaaban
Malaysia Alex Yoong
Mexico Salvador Duran
Netherlands Jos Verstappen
New Zealand Matt Halliday
Pakistan Adam Khan
Portugal Alvaro Parente
South Africa Stephen Simpson
Switzerland Neel Jani
USA Philip Giebler

Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a 10 minute break between each. Only one driver per A1 Team is allowed to take part in Qualifying but that driver must have completed at least three timed laps in an Official Practice session. Each driver is limited to three laps - effectively one "flying lap" - per session and must record at least two times, an aggregate of which will determine that A1 Team’s position on the grid for Sunday’s Sprint race. The grid for the Feature race will be determined by the outcome of the Sprint race.