Full Throttle

One could reasonably expect F1 veterans Jean Alesi or Johnny Herbert to do well in Speedcar’s inaugural event held at the Dubai Autodrome Friday.

Those thoughts were strenghened by Alesi consistently topping the speed charts during pre-season testing.

So much for expectations, reasonable or otherwise.

Gianni Morbidelli, also an F1 vet having 67 starts for (among others) Minardi, Sauber and Ferrari, won the first pole position and led all 20 laps for the first win of the championship. Second went to Uwe Alzen and Mathias Lauda (son of three-time world champion Niki Lauda) finished third.

As for the two with “reasonable expectations” Alesi admitted to a couple on track errors and finished in 6^th place. Johnny Herbert finished down the order with a very sick sounding engine the crew hopes to replace in time for todays second race.

Two other F1 vets tangled a bit, Ukyo Katayama and Stefan Johansson retired after some bumping and banging on lap 7.

Race 2 will be held today as part of the Grand Racing events also featuring GP2 Asia (My coverage of GP2 Asia is at Asian Motor Sports) at the Dubai Autodrome before the Series races in Indonesia next month.

Cross Posted @ Asian Motor Sports

Speedcar Results (Top five)
1. Gianni Morbidelli (ITA) - Speedcar Team: 34 minutes 27.443 seconds
2. Uwe Alzen (GER) Phoenix Racing: -8.364
3. Matthias Lauda (AUT) - GPC Team: -9.842
4. David Terrien (FRA)