by Russell Atkins
A1 Team France sporting director Olivier Panis says he is confident the squad will be able to stave off the threat of Great Britain in this weekend's A1GP season finale at
Brands Hatch despite Robbie Kerr sealing a brace of front row grid spots for the latter.
Les bleus currently sit just twelve points ahead of GBR heading into the two races, with 30 remaining to play for. Should Kerr and Franck Montagny finish in the same positions in which they are starting respectively first and second and eighth and sixth Great Britain would comfortably prevail, but Panis is convinced there is more mileage left in this championship just yet.
Though former
Formula 1 ace Montagny struggled on his World Cup of Motorsport debut at Shanghai three weeks ago languishing well down the order in qualifying and scoring a scant three points on his maiden appearance in the nation vs nation series the 30-year-old is getting closer to the pace each time he takes to the track.
A1GP is not an easy series, 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Panis reflected, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio. It's a different car compared to what Franck has driven before, but we're happy because he is improving step-by-step every time he gets into the car.
In the last part of qualifying he did pretty well. He had traffic in the last sector and lost four tenths which would have put him second or third but I think he's doing a very good job and I'm very pleased with him.
These things happen sometimes, but the race is quite long and I think Britain is quite close to us. We have quite high hopes and we are confident. It's going to be tough, but I trust Franck he's a real racer. If we can finish on the podium that would be quite good.
