Full Throttle

The storyline for Sunday’s 30 lap Feature event for A1GP’s Grand Prix of Nations promised many varied endings. Would Switzerland’s Neel Jani become only the third driver to sweep both races of an event. Could Team Brazil’s Nelson Piquet Jr. or Ireland’s Ralph Firman rebound from mechanical problems that surfaced during the mornings Sprint race? And the most interesting question of all, could Nicolas Lapierre bring his Team France entry from 7th on the grid to the top step for the 9th time in 12 races?

In the end France prevailed… again, but it was hardly the cakewalk tri-color fans have been accustomed to. A top five that included S. Africa, Portugal and China was evidence of a topsy-turvy race.

At the start it was Switzerland and Italy side by side into the first corner with Jani exiting on top Behind Great Britain and the Czech Republic collided with the Brit suffering damage to the aero device in front of the left rear tire. Both continued but the damage to Robbie Kerr’s British entry may have contributed to losing the lead later in the race. Best off the start was 2005 Asian F3 Champion and Team Indonesia’s Ananda Mikola who jumped to third place from sixth on the grid.

Whatever caused the gearbox problem in the Sprint race resurfaced and Ireland’s Ralph Firman dropped from fourth to twenty-third at the end of lap one. The fault became fatal by lap seven and he retired.

Team Malaysia became the second car to get an “airlift” from the racing surface by the A1 recovery helicopter on lap three. Indonesia’s Ananda Mikola brought out the only safety car of the day with a spin and crash on lap six.

That changed to entire complexion of the race as Great Britain and France who were lying third and fourth headed to the pits for their mandatory stop. Switzerland and Italy stayed out and by pitting a lap later they ended up at the back of the field. That combined with a later drive through penalty put an end to any thoughts of a twin victory day for Neel Jani and Switzerland.

As the green flew on lap eight Britain blew past Lebanon’s Basil Shaaban, who had remained on track, entering the first corner. France wasn’t as lucky and was blocked for an entire lap before finally clearing Shaaban but Kerr extended his lead over France to nearly 4 seconds.

Mid race saw Jos “The Boss” Verstappen and Team USA’s Philip Giebler battle for a couple of laps but on lap 12 he managed to get by to move up into fourth spot relegating Giebler to fifth where he would remain until three laps from the end when he pulled to the side and out of the race.

Back at the front Britain’s Robbie Kerr was being reeled in by France. As the laps ticked off, and at each right hander, his right front tire started to trail smoke under breaking. The aero device damaged in the first lap shunt could also be seen hanging loose and threatening to part ways with the monocoque chassis. By lap nineteen Kerr’s lead was down to less than a half second and finally Lapierre took France to the front again on lap 24.

A number of teams were given drive through penalties and these seriously compromised their races. For Italy and Germany it was due to false starts, for Switzerland a pit crew infringement during the tire stop and the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Lebanon for speeding in the pit lane.

The Frenchman’s win increased France’s point total over Great Britain and now leads the Series by 31 markers. South Africa’s Stephen Simpson earned that Team’s first podium finish and most surprising of all Tengyi Jiang rode home Team China’s entry to fifth easily beating his previous high of 16^th place.

Cross Posted @ Fast Machines and Asian MotorSports Blog.

A1 Grand Prix, Auto Racing, Sports

1 France Nicolas Lapierre 56.17.068
2 Great Britain Great Britain 56.20.782
3 South Africa Stephen Simpson 56.23.758
4 Portugal Alvaro Parente 56.25.067
5 China Tengyi Jiang 56.47.856
6 Canada Sean McIntosh 56.48.411
7 Austria Mathias Lauda 56.51.510
8 Mexico Salvador Duran 56.52.570
9 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 56.53.213
10 Australia Will Davison 56.53.414
11 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 56.54.000
12 Germany Adrian Sutil 56.54.916
13 New Zealand Matt Halliday 57.06.192
14 India Armaan Ebrahim 57.06.516
15 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 29 laps
16 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 29 laps
17 Switzerland Neel Jani 27 laps
18 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 27 laps
19 Pakistan Adam Khan 26 laps
20 USA Philip Giebler 26 laps
21 Ireland Ralph Firman 7 laps
22 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 5 laps
23 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 4 laps
24 Malaysia Alex Yoong 2 laps

1 France 106
2 Switzerland 75
3 Brazil 60
4 Great Britain 49
5 New Zealand 42
6 Portugal 39
7 Ireland 37
8 Netherlands 34
9 Malaysia 33
10 Canada 31
11 Australia 27
12 Czech Republic 24
13 Italy 21
14 Mexico 19
15 South Africa 14
16 USA 13
17 Germany 11
18 Indonesia 10
19 China 6
20 Japan 6
21 Austria 5
22 Pakistan 4