December 16, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 5, 1428

ZHUHAI (China), Dec 15: A1 Team Pakistan put up an impressive show on Saturday in the final practice and qualifying for the fourth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Zhuhai International Circuit here with Adam Khan finishing 21st for the Sprint race and 17th for the Feature race.

Under sunny skies, the team took to the track for the one hour practice session. Taking the opportunity to study data before the qualifying sessions, the team made a few set-up changes to the car. Under the A1GP qualifying system, each team completes one flying lap in four qualifying segments.

The fastest lap from the first two segments sets the team’s position for the Sprint race, while the fastest lap from the second two segments sets the grid slot for the Feature race.

The third car out on track in the first qualifying segment, Adam Khan was pushing hard to set a quick time on new tyres and ran wide at the final corner. Despite this, Adam’s efforts were sufficient to beat the bench mark time of the Australian car.

After all the 22 cars had set their fastest times, Pakistan lay 17th on the time sheet. Unable to improve in the second segment, Pakistan dropped to 21st – the position the team would take for the 20 minute Sprint race.

Pushing hard to claim a good grid position for the Feature race, Adam put in a stunning lap in the third qualifying segment to improve his time by 1.5 seconds to beat India by just over a tenth of a second. With one more flying lap to go, Pakistan was provisionally sixth on the Feature race grid.

Pushing himself and the A1GP car to the limit in an effort to maintain a top six position, Khan again ran wide at the last corner and could not improve his time. After the 22 nations had set their final flying lap, Pakistan lay 17th, the team’s starting position for the Feature race. —Agencies