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Kerr: Confident despite poor day of qualifying

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Teams

• Great Britain

Sunday's qualifying for the A1 GP in New Zealand couldn't have gone much worse for team Great Britain as New Zealand delighted home fans to steal pole position.

Team GBR driver Robbie Kerr struggled with a lack of grip and could only manage 13th on the grid for the sprint race.

Kerr improved slightly for the feature race as he secured ninth on the grid - one-year champions Team France claimed pole.

Nevertheless the British have it all to do if they are to come away from this weekend with a decent points haul.

However, after coming second in this morning's practice session, Team GBR are confident they can overcome their afternoon blunders.

Team principal Katie Clements said: "We're obviously not where we want to be, particularly after a promising performance in practice this morning.

"It will be a struggle starting from 13th and ninth on the grid, but the team are confident that our race pace will be competitive, so we'll be aiming for some points."

Competitive

Kerr also voiced his disappointment with the day's events, and revealed how the conditions played a big part in his team's postion.

"I'm obviously disappointed with qualifying having been reasonably competitive yesterday, very competitive this morning and setting competitive laps on old tyres," he said.

"But the grip levels just weren't there during qualifying and we also have a technical problem which the team is going to look into."

The national hero was Jonny Reid in the 'Black Beauty' as he registered the quickest time of one minute 15.241 seconds for New Zealand.

Adrian Zaugg of South Africa claimed second on the grid ahead of France's Loic Duval in third.