Full Throttle

Nicolas Lapierre driving for Team France duplicated Brazils double victory of two weeks ago by dominating the second A1 Grand Prix event around the EuroSpeedway in Germany. Lapierre replaced Alex Premat who had a strong second place finish at the inagural event at Brands Hatch.

The start of the 18 lap sprint race saw the front of the field spread wide as they crossed the line under green Heading into the first turn contact was made between Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr and Scott Speed sending the USA machine into the grass and triggering a chain reaction that saw Ireland’s Ralf Firman, Pakistan’s Adam Khan, Portugal’s Alvaro Parente, Holland’s Jos Vertsappen and the Czech Republic’s Tomas Enge all involved. Kerr, Speed and Verstappen’s race had ended there.

New Zealand’s Jonny Reid had the best drive of the race finishing fourth, from 14th on the grid. Malaysia’s Alex Yoong avoided the first turn melee to sneak into fifth position. The former Minardi F1 driver spent the remaining laps holding off a determined challenge from Canada’s Sean McIntosh and Italy’s Enrico Toccacelo mid-pack and finished sixth.

The second, and feature race of the day, was reduced from its scheduled 36 lap distance to 35 after New Zealand’s Jonny Reid stalled on the formation grid. In the ensuing formation period, both Holland’s Jos Verstappen and Italy’s Enrico Toccacelo were unable to engage a gear, forcing both to start from the pit lane.

The Swiss entry of Neel Jani took the lead at the start but Lapierre caught and passed Jani on lap four. The only time the Frenchman relinquished the lead after that was during a lap 15 pitstop and then went on to capture the sweep and move to within one point of the Series Championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr.

Having crashed out of the sprint race Robbie Kerr stormed from the back of the field to finish second to Lapierre. A late race restart after a safety car period saw contact between ninth placed Japanese entry of Hideki Noda and Piquet Jr on the run to turn one as the Brazilian driver was sandwiched between Noda and the Czech Republic entry of Tomas Enge. Noda seemed to squeeze Piquet Jr, who bounced into the air as he brushed both Noda and Enge. It was a disappionting end to the day for Piquet who had hoped to extend his points lead.

Eighteen of the 24 starters made it to the finish, with Team USA’s Scott Speed, Italy’s Enrico Toccacelo and South Africa’s Tomas Scheckter among those who suffered mechanical problems.

1. France Nicolas Lapierre 18 laps
2. Switzerland Neel Jani +2.013secs
3. Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr +2.458secs
4. New Zealand Jonny Reid +8.046secs
5. Germany Timo Scheider +8.851secs
6. Malaysia Alex Yoong +23.419secs
7. Canada Sean McIntosh +24.009secs
8. Italy Enrico Toccacelo +24.525secs
9. Mexico David Martinez +25.409secs
10. Ireland Ralph Firman +26.581secs
11. Japan Hideki Noda +27.842secs
12. Czech Republic Tomas Enge +28.842secs
13. South Africa Tomas Scheckter +40.261secs
14. Austria Mathais Lauda +41.007secs
15. Indonesia Ananda Mikola +42.635secs
16. Australia Christian Jones +43.456secs
17. India Karun Chandhok +43.879secs
18. China Tengyi Jiang 16 laps-Running
19. Lebanon Khalil Beschir 7 laps-Mechanical
20. Portugal Alvaro Parente 3 laps-Acc Damage
21. Pakistan Adam Khan 2 laps-Acc Damage
22. Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1 lap-Acc Damage
23. USA Scott Speed 0 laps-Accident
24. Great Britain Robbie Kerr 0 laps-Accident

1. France Nicolas Lapierre 35 laps
2. Great Britain Robbie Kerr +3.706secs
3. Canada Sean McIntosh +5.458secs
4. New Zealand Jonny Reid +5.974secs
5. Switzerland Neel Jani +7.071secs
6. Ireland Ralph Firman +8.081secs
7. Netherlands Jos Verstappen +9.622secs
8. Indonesia Ananda Mikola +16.706secs
9. Japan Hideki Noda +19.344secs
10. Germany Timo Scheider +21.860secs
11. Portugal Alvaro Parente +24.740secs
12. Pakistan Adam Khan +25.266secs
13. Mexico David Martinez +29.178secs
14. Australia Christian Jones +30.890secs
15. Austria Mathais Lauda +31.132secs
16. Malaysia Alex Yoong +45.381secs
17. China Tengyi Jiang +1min 17.441secs
18. Lebanon Khalil Beschir 33 laps-Running
19. Czech Republic Tomas Enge 27 laps-Acc Damage
20. Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 26 laps-Accident
21. India Karun Chandhok 19 laps-Mechanical
22. South Africa Tomas Scheckter 12 laps-Mechanical
23. Italy Enrico Toccacelo 11 laps-Mechanical
24. USA Scott Speed 4 laps-Mechanical

Pos Country Points
01. Brazil 30
02. France 29
03. New Zealand 29
04. Switzerland 17
05. Australia 16
06. Mexico 16
07. Great Britain 15
08. Canada 14
09. Malaysia 11
10. Germany 8
11. Ireland 8
12. Netherlands 8
13. Japan 6
14. South Africa 5
15. Pakistan 4
16. Indonesia 3
17. Portugal 3