Firman sets the Sentul pace

Ralph Firman set the pace for Ireland during opening practice at Sentul in Indonesia.

Ralph Firman set the pace for Ireland during opening practice for round eight of the A1 Grand Prix series in Indonesia.

The Norfolk-born former F1 driver made full use of his experience to tame the wet Sentul circuit, setting the fastest time in the first session before slipping to sixth in the second.

"I like the circuit, it's good to drive and there's a nice combination of quick straights and medium speed corners," he said.

"I didn't have any problems and we got through the changes we wanted in order to set up the car.

"I am looking forward to tomorrow, whatever the conditions," he added.

Another ex-F1 driver, Alex Yoong, was quickest in session two, the Malaysian driver finishing ahead of Austalian debutant Marcus Marshall.

Meanwhile Great Britain's Robbie Kerr was third in the opening session, before falling to eighth in the second.

And championship leader France finished fourth in session two, with driver Nicolas Lapierre admitting that conditions prevented him from pushing harder.

"When it is wet like today, you just have to learn the track and at the same time try to find the limit without pushing too hard," he said.

"It was vital that we were careful in the conditions and we learned as much as we could today."

Official Practice Session One

1 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.28.458
2 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1.29.006
3 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1.29.028
4 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1.29.372
5 Australia Christian Jones 1.29.551
6 Canada Sean McIntosh 1.29.737
7 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.30.166
8 South Africa Stephen Simpson 1.30.205
9 France Nicolas Lapierre 1.30.295
10 New Zealand Matt Halliday 1.30.385
11 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 1.30.444
12 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1.30.517
13 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 1.30.571
14 Germany Timo Scheider 1.30.610
15 Mexico Salvador Duran 1.30.730
16 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1.30.801
17 Malaysia Alex Yoong 1.31.308
18 India Armaan Ebrahim 1.31.393
19 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 1.31.822
20 China Tengyi Jiang 1.32.963
21 USA Philip Giebler 1.33.459
22 Austria Mathias Lauda 1.34.518
23 Italy Max Busnelli 1.37.191

Official Practice Session Two

1 Malaysia Alex Yoong 1.27.557
2 Australia Marcus Marshall 1.27.820
3 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1.28.279
4 France Nicolas Lapierre 1.28.680
5 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1.28.776
6 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.28.915
7 Canada Sean McIntosh 1.29.203
8 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1.29.380
9 South Africa Stephen Simpson 1.29.437
10 Mexico Salvador Duran 1.29.666
11 Austria Mathias Lauda 1.29.785
12 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1.29.839
13 India Armaan Ebrahim 1.29.925
14 China Tengyi Jiang 1.30.019
15 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 1.30.100
16 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1.30.172
17 Germany Timo Scheider 1.30.349
18 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 1.30.414
19 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.30.489
20 USA Philip Geibler 1.30.772
21 Italy Max Busnelli 1.30.822
22 New Zealand Matt Halliday 1.31.464
23 Lebanon Khalil Beschir 1.32.958