February 02, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 23, 1429

SYDNEY, Feb 1: A1 Team Pakistan returned to the track today, for the sixth round of the 2007/08 season. Under cloudy skies, Adam Khan took part in the first day of track action at the Eastern Creek Raceway for the A1GP Sydney, Australia. Following an incident-filled practice session, Pakistan was 21st on the timing sheets.

With no eligible rookie available, A1 Team Pakistan had to wait until the afternoon practice session to take the track at Eastern Creek. The 22-year-old Adam, who raced at the circuit in the first season of A1GP, spent the one hour practice session reacquainting himself with his A1GP racing machine.

Following some light rain in the morning, the track had dried out fully by the time the 22 A1GP teams took to the track for afternoon practice. However, slippery track conditions led to many cars sliding off the track with two red flags halting proceedings with only 15 minutes gone. Two further yellow flags prevented the team from completing its full test programme and Adam couldn’t get the most out of his new tyres.

Speaking about his return to Eastern Creek, he remarked, “Obviously I’m familiar with this circuit from my time here in season one, but you’re never quite bedded in until you’ve done a full session. Again, it really hurt us not being able to take part in the rookie sessions, and I think you could see that from a couple of the other teams that missed the first hour of track time. “I was also using the session to readjust back to the A1GP car having raced the GP2 car last week. The cars are very different and require a special driving style but I feel I have adjusted back to A1GP now. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the weekend actually; I think we will make a step forward tomorrow.”

A1 Team Pakistan team manager John Allen surmised, “Adam did a good job today, despite the difficult circumstances. Missing the rookie session definitely hurt us and put us behind many of the teams. The first half of the afternoon session was also very disjointed with two red flags and two yellow flag periods. I think that disrupted Adam’s flow and meant we didn’t get the best out of the new tyres.”

The team will be back on track for the final practice session tomorrow at 11.00am local time before qualifying session which commences at 14.15.—Agencies