PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog

A1 Team Lebanon’s Daniel Morad has grudgingly put his visit to New Zealand down to experience, as the impressive speed that he displayed in practice at Taupo Motorsport Park failed to result in a single point.

“I think I just need some luck,” the 18-year-old told A1GP.com. “We started so well on Friday and found a really good race set-up on Saturday.

“But then it started going wrong in qualifying and I was caught out in all four sessions, either by getting caught behind slower traffic or caught out by a spinning car. Monaco’s Clivio Piccione blocked me at Turn 4 in Sprint race qualifying then, when Congfu Cheng of China spun in front of me at Turn 11 in Q4, I reckon that cost me 0.8 seconds and without that I could have qualified third and that would have led to a very different race for me.”

Then came the races, with Morad starting 10th for the Sprint race.

“I was looking to keep it clean in the Sprint and go for points, because I knew that I had the pace,” he explained, “but the steering wheel started to be mis-aligned to the right and slid round more and more. By the time I came in for my first pit stop, it was angled at 45 degrees when it should have been central.

“Then, after the stop, within half a lap, it was right round at 90 degrees and I pulled out with a rear suspension arm having pulled right out of the differential casing.”

Starting ninth for the Feature race, Daniel was again confident of points. In fact, he was confident of securing far more than that.

“I truly believed that I might even be able to go for a medal,” said Morad. “For once, we’d had a chance to practice our pit stops and I was optimistic. Then, off the line, the anti-stall cut in. I did everything I’d done before, but the engine kept cutting out.

“Once I got going, I passed Italy through Turn 6, then at Turn 7 New Zealand ran wide. But then he started coming across on me as I went to the inside and kept coming, taking off my nose. So that was the end of my weekend and I will have to put this behind me and start again in South Africa in four weeks time.”

source: www.a1gp.com