KEY POINTS:
Switzerland set the early pace, with Alexandre Imperatori starting today as the quickest rookie and main driver Neel Jani ending it as the quickest overall during practice for the New Zealand round of the A1 grand prix series in Taupo.
Imperatori posted a morning lap time of one
minute 18.091 seconds, helped in part to being able to run a new set of tyres.
Frenchman Nicolas Prost was second quickest, 0.186sec adrift of Switzerland, with Lebanon's Daniel Morad third and particularly impressive due to the fact his engineers had worked through the night to replace the engine on his car.
New Zealand driver Chris van der Drift had his first taste of the Taupo circuit, finishing fourth quickest in the rookie session.
There were numerous spins as the rookie drivers got to grips with the tight and dusty track, with incidents from Malaysia's Aaron Lim, Irishman Niall Quinn, India's Parthiva Sureshwaren, Portugal's Antonio Felix da Costa and Monaco's Hubertus Bahlsen.
The Swiss were no less impressive in the afternoon, with time with Jani behind the wheel as he recorded a lap time of 1min 15.971sec.
"It was definitely a good start to the weekend with Alex being quickest this morning and then me as well this afternoon," Jani said.
"I did have a gearbox problem after that so could only do 14 laps, which was about 25 minutes of the session so we lost at least half an hour.
"This was not the best for us but what we did was still enough to keep us on top and we are really happy about that."
Jani's performance turned heads because he was in hospital last week with suspected meningitis.
It ruined his training regime and left him feeling drained. He arrived out in Taupo several days later than normal after being cleared to race.
Morad ended the day second quickest with a time of 1min 16.106sec, after spending the first half of the afternoon session at the top of the timesheets.
In the final minutes Australia's John Martin jumped up to third, with New Zealand being pushed down to sixth overall.
Van der Drift was happy with his efforts.
"It was a good start for me as it has been a couple of months since I have been in the car.
"We are certainly going in the right direction.
"I did spin going into turn 12, but I was just finding my limits. The track is quite dirty off line, but it will get much quicker over the weekend as more cars go round."
- NZPA
