Alter almost a year Mexican driver David Martinez finally returned to Champ Car and completed his first laps around the tricky and complicated 2.795 mile temporary street circuit at Surfers Paradise, Australia.  The priority today for the Monterrey native was to complete as many laps as possible in order to familiarize himself with the track and even though he only managed to complete 33 laps he qualified in the 14^th position provisionally for Sunday’s race.  

During the first practice Martinez and the Forsythe Team tried to complete as many laps as possible since this is considered the hardest and most complicated track for a young rookie to learn.  Unfortunately during the second half of the session Martinez lost his head rest in the middle of a lap which caused a red flag and gave him an eight minute penalty per Champ Car rules. This situation drastically limited the amount of laps he was able to complete.  

In qualifying he continued improving greatly but was only able to put in seven laps due to repeated red flag interruption during the session.  When he was only a few corners away from completing his last lap he was hit from behind by Mario Dominguez, forcing the 25 year old driver to walk back to the pits.  

David Martinez

#7 INDECK Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone

1m35.578s / 105.275 mph / 169.424 kmh

Qualified 14^th Provisionally

“It was a difficult day as expected.  We had some problems that kept us from getting as many laps as we hoped.  In the morning my headrest fell off in the middle of a lap which caused a red flag, we got an eight minute penalty right at the end of the session when the track was at its best.  For qualifying we made huge improvements but still we had a limited amount of laps and I just haven’t had the chance to ´really learn the track and go faster.  Mario hit me from behind at the end of the session, although it really didn’t make a difference since it was already the last lap.  In general it was a good day, I just need to get more laps, every time I go out I pick up a lot of time but this is a very tricky place.  I think tomorrow after the first practice I will be a lot closer.”