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Tonio Liuzzi believes he and A1 Team Italy can fight towards the front again at Brands Hatch – despite it being a circuit he has never driven before.

The Force India F1 test driver joined the Italian squad in the Algarve last week for the first of two race weekends this season, scoring the team’s best result of 2008/09 with fourth place in the Sprint race. It was Liuzzi’s first single-seater race for one and a half years.

As the Autodromo Algarve was a new circuit, nobody had any experience of the track, however, the majority of drivers have raced at Brands Hatch, either in A1GP itself or in junior formulas.

Surprisingly for a European driver, the popular Brands Hatch track is a circuit 28-year-old Liuzzi has never been to, but he insists he improved enough over the Algarve weekend to believe he will still be one of the major contenders at the UK round of the championship on 3 May.

“Every driver has a different history, and you cannot just say because someone has raced in Formula One that they can come to A1GP and win pole or perform well,” he told A1GP.com.

“My aim was to come to A1GP, race fast and get used to the racing feeling again. Overall we can be happy because we brought A1 Team Italy to pole position in Algarve and were strong in races and fighting for high points.

“Initially I felt a bit lost. I thought it would take a while to get used to it but experience counts for a lot. I ended up really upset [with the crash in the Feature] because we could have gained a lot of points. But there is still a lot to come because I’m still learning; I never stop learning.

“I was pretty annoyed in the Algarve because of the overall result but we showed that we are pretty fast and strong.”

“We want to show the fans that our performance in the Algarve was not a one off. We believe strongly in our potential so I think we can fight for good results at Brands Hatch.”

Liuzzi said he loved the chance to race again, after sitting on the bench testing Formula One cars since 2007.

“I love to race, so when Force India gave me the chance to be back experiencing the feeling of racing, competing with others, fighting in battle, starts, all these feelings I haven’t had for one and half years, it was great.

“We had a positive weekend and it was good to be there.”

source:www.a1gp.com