Lyons recovers to qualifiy in seventh for A1GP

Ireland's Richard Lyons has today qualified seventh for Sunday's A1GP race in Durban.

He did so in a car that had to be swiftly rebuilt after striking a wall towards the end of morning practice.

Championship leaders Germany secured pole position holding off a late charge from France in qualifying.

In an incident-filled session peppered with red flags, Nico Hulkenberg set his lap time of one minute and 17.520 seconds just as there was a stoppage, meaning he had to sit and watch rival countries attempt to knock him down the grid when the session restarted.

Loic Duval for France came the closest, ending his circuit of the tight street venue just 0.181secs shy of the pace to lie third on the grid.

In the end, New Zealand, piloted by Matthew Halliday, took second place, 0.141secs behind Germany.

Halliday believes with a bit more luck he could have pipped Hulkenberg, who has now started from pole in the last three races.

"I got traffic at the first corner in my final run, so I could have been on pole with a clear lap, but that's motor racing," said Halliday, who has taken the seat occupied by Jonny Reid earlier in the season.

The recent woes for Great Britain continued as they could not better 11th on the grid.

Gearbox problems, unearthed by the team at the end of the morning practice session, ruled Robbie Kerr out of any running in the first segment of qualifying.

And when he did get on track, he spun on his first flying lap, eventually setting a time 1.7secs off the pace.

Switzerland's Neel Jani, another making a return to the series after missing the last two races through injury, will line up fourth, one place ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen for Holland, winners of last season's feature race in Durban.

Mexico's Salvador Duran was sixth, Ireland seventh, Alvaro Parente for Portugal was eighth, just in front of South Africa's Adrian Zaugg and Ananda Mikola rounded out the top 10 for Indonesia.