Lebanon's Morad leads first practice

Date published : 20 Feb 2009 - 16:41:03

Lebanon's Daniel Morad topped the first A1GP free practice session of the weekend at Kyalami, ahead of series returnees Germany.Morad only ran for the final 30 minutes of the session, and his best lap, set in the closing stages, put him half a second clear of Michael Ammermuller. The former GP2 racer was briefly quickest for former champions Germany, as the team prepare for their first appearance of the season.Series leaders Ireland moved up to third place with a late flyer from Adam Carroll, while Jeroen Bleekemolen - the only driver to have raced at the track before this weekend - ended up fourth for the Netherlands after setting the early pace.Portugal were fifth quickest ahead of home driver Adrian Zaugg, who narrowly pipped reigning champions Neel Jani and Switzerland to sixth place.Earlier in the day, Nicolas Prost had set the pace in the rookie session for Team France ahead of his second appearance as the team's race driver. He was only 11th in the main session though, which he put down to going in the wrong direction with set-up.All of Friday's running was pushed back to the end of the day due to a delay in the cars and spares getting to the track on Thursday. The teams were given some more time to prepare the cars in the morning, and several teams still weren't ready when practice began.Of the 20 cars racing this weekend, five didn't get any running on Friday. Brazil, China, Great Britain, Mexico and the USA did not complete a lap, and they will have just one session on Saturday morning before qualifying.Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Daniel Morad Lebanon 1:30.816 14 2. Michael Ammermuller Germany 1:31.312 + 0.496 18 3. Adam Carroll Ireland 1:31.500 + 0.684 17 4. Jeroen Bleekemolen Netherlands 1:31.536 + 0.720 17 5. Filipe Albuquerque Portugal 1:31.627 + 0.811 22 6. Adrian Zaugg South Africa 1:31.881 + 1.065 21 7. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:31.889 + 1.073 19 8. John Martin Australia 1:31.983 + 1.167 12 9. Clivio Piccione Monaco 1:32.035 + 1.219 2010. Earl Bamber New Zealand 1:32.039 + 1.223 2111. Nicolas Prost France 1:32.326 + 1.510 2012. Fairuz Fauzy Malaysia 1:32.676 + 1.860 2313. Narain Karthikeyan India 1:32.745 + 1.929 2314. Edoardo Piscopo Italy 1:33.099 + 2.283 1115. Zahir Ali Indonesia 1:34.032 + 3.216 1316. Felipe Guimaraes Brazil 017. Ho-Pin Tung China 018. Danny Watts Great Britain 019. Salvador Duran Mexico 020. Marco Andretti USA 0