Indonesia quickest in practice 3
Ananda Mikola made the best of drying conditions to top the final free practice session at the Shanghai International Circuit for this weekend's A1 Grand Prix season finale
The Team Indonesia driver emerged fastest of all runners by posting his quickest time right at the end of the session, as the Chinese circuit slowly dried out following overnight showers.
Mikola said that he had made some set-up changes overnight, and that his laptime was indicative of his pace this weekend.
"We just tried a new set-up and it seemed to work," Mikola said. "But I've tried to push hard this weekend.
"In the last three races, I've been thinking about the fact that I could crash or whatever, but it's the last race now so I'm going to push like mad.
"I've just got to go and focus and concentrate this weekend."
Darren Manning finished the session second, having been the fastest runner for most of the session.
The 30-year-old, taking part in his first A1 GP race, was the quickest runner in the first 40 minutes of the hour-long session, when the cars drove on wet tyres.
Manning was also quickest for most of the dry segment, however Mikola's last gasp effort proved faster.
Mexico's Salvador Duran continued his fine showing this weekend with the third quickest time, ahead of Patrick Carpentier's Team Canada car. It was the former IRL and Champ Car racer's fastest session of the weekend so far.
Alexandre Premat was fifth quickest in the Team France car. Premat's lap was noteworthy because it was his first practice session of the weekend.
Premat is sharing driving duties with Nicolas Lapierre for the final meeting and will qualify the car for the team this afternoon.
Tomas Enge was sixth quickest in the Czech Republic entry.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Ananda Mikola Indonesia 1:52.418 20 2. Darren Manning Great Britain 1:52.423 + 0.005 15 3. Salvador Duran Mexico 1:52.762 + 0.344 16 4. Patrick Carpentier Canada 1:52.930 + 0.512 17 5. Alexandre Premat France 1:53.001 + 0.583 15 6. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1:53.088 + 0.670 20 7. Michael Devaney Ireland 1:53.093 + 0.675 12 8. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1:53.183 + 0.765 16 9. Ryan Briscoe Australia 1:53.448 + 1.030 16 10. Christian Fittipaldi Brazil 1:53.481 + 1.063 18 11. Stephen Simpson South Africa 1:53.516 + 1.098 15 12. Tengyi Jiang China 1:53.518 + 1.100 19 13. Matt Halliday New Zealand 1:54.088 + 1.670 21 14. Jos Verstappen Netherlands 1:54.135 + 1.717 19 15. Giorgio Mondini Switzerland 1:54.221 + 1.803 18 16. Enrico Toccacelo Italy 1:54.268 + 1.850 17 17. Cesar Campanico Portugal 1:54.445 + 2.027 16 18. Mathias Lauda Austria 1:54.462 + 2.044 17 19. Graham Rahal Lebanon 1:55.201 + 2.783 16 20. Sebastian Stahl Germany 1:55.229 + 2.811 18 21. Philip Giebler USA 1:55.528 + 3.110 12 22. Adam Khan Pakistan 2:05.872 + 13.454 9
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