Kerr: Confident

We were competitive throughout the session and happy with where we're at with the car.

Robbie Kerr
Quotes of the week

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Teams

• Great Britain

Team Great Britain's Robbie Kerr is confident of putting in a strong performance during the qualifying session for Sunday's Australian A1GP.

With Team GBR currently languishing 34 points behind championship leaders New Zealand in eighth place, Kerr raised British spirits by finishing third in free practice at Eastern Creek on Friday.

After recording a best time of 1:18:996secs in the 18 laps he completed, the driver is confident his team can revive their title hopes this weekend following a disappointing double retirement in both Sprint and Feature races last time out in New Zealand.

"We were competitive throughout the session and happy with where we're at with the car," he said.

"We tried lots of different set-ups and could immediately feel the differences, whether the changes were negative or positive, so we have a good idea of what we need to achieve tomorrow.

"Obviously we have to see what happens in practice tomorrow morning but at the moment we're fairly confident going into qualifying."

Upbeat

As the season moves past the halfway mark, team principal Katie Clements is also upbeat about Great Britain's chances of a championship revival.

She added: "After such a good start and our previous form at Eastern Creek, we're pretty confident for tomorrow and looking forward to a strong qualifying performance,"

French driver Loic Duval led the way on Friday, clocking 1:18:675secs on his first lap, while Canadian Robert Wickens was 0.266secs behind in second.

Championship leaders New Zealand finished fourth, with Jonny Reid trailing Duval by over four tenths of a second.

And with the French just two points behind their Kiwi rivals, Duval ominously warned there was more to come from his team.

He said: "My lap was not perfect but still it was enough to get the best lap time.

"This afternoon the car was not too bad. We still have to improve a bit though, especially on my driving we have a bit to do."

Disappointing

Kiwi manager John Sears however said he was happy with Reid's early efforts on the track.

"Although we're leading the series it has felt like we've been playing catch-up most weekends for one reason or another," he said.

"We feel like we've got on the front foot early for a change and Jonny is looking forward to putting new tyres on and giving qualifying a decent shake."

Switzerland, who sit in joint second on 80 points with France, had a disappointing afternoon as Neel Jani struggled home in 12th.

"The main thing I feel is that I just have no grip and we have to figure out why^" he said.

"I have massive understeer and we don't know why."