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Eastern Creek action

A1GP stayed Down Under this weekend with the short hop from Taupo, New Zealand to Eastern Creek in Australia for round seven of the series. After the opening six rounds Team Germany are leading the standings and looking strong favourites to lift the title. They have 65 points, 19 ahead of the reigning champions Team France in second with 46 and Team New Zealand are in third with 43 points.

This was the second A1GP event at the Eastern Creek Circuit. Last year A1 Team France dominated taking pole position and both race wins thanks to their driver Nicolas Lapierre. The event also saw the biggest accident of the season and indeed in A1GP history when Team Japan driver Hayanari Shimoda hit the barriers at high speed. He was taken to hospital for mandatory checks, but within 24 hours was flying back to Europe to take part in a race the following weekend.

As always the weekend’s on-track action began with the practice session for Rookies and Developing Nations. In the wet conditions it was Team USA driver Jonathan Summerton who set the fastest time, from German debutant Christian Vietoris in second and Renger van der Zande in third for Team Netherlands. Ian Dyk was eighth on his home track for Team Australia.

The first official practice session saw Jonny Reid for Team New Zealand setting fastest time on their rivals home soil. Loic Duval was second on his second start for Team France with series leader Nico Hulkenberg third for Team Germany. Karl Reindler ended the session in twelfth place for Team Australia.

Saturday was dominated by Team Germany and Nico Hulkenburg. In the final practice session he was fastest from Team Great Britain driver Robbie Kerr in second and Reid was third. Team Australia has their best performance of the weekend with Reindler setting the sixth fastest time.

Hulkenburg also took pole position after setting the fastest lap ever at Eastern Creek during segment four. His aggregate time of 2:36.225 was just two tenths of a second faster Reid after a hard fought battle over all four segments.

Reid looked set for pole after he himself set the sessions fastest time on his very first run and was inside Hulkenberg’s lap record time just seconds later but a slow final sector means he has to settle for second on the grid.

Robbie Kerr maintained his practice performance to set the second fastest time of the session and lining up third on the grid. Loic Duval was fourth for champions France with Sebastien Buemi fifth for Team Switzerland.

Team China and driver Ho-Pin Tung had an incredible improvement. After the opening three segments he was in twelfth place but in segment four he set his fastest time to leap up into sixth place. Enrico Toccacelo who was sixth for Team Italy after three segments plummeted down the order to thirteenth after a spin in segment four.
Reindler couldn’t repeat his great practice performance and would start on the ninth row of the grid in a lowly eighteenth place. The only drivers behind him were Alex Khateeb for Team Lebanon, Tuka Rocha for Team Brazil, who is nursing an injured foot, Team India debutant Parthiva Sureshwaren and Nur Ali of Team Pakistan who suffered a driveshaft failure in the third segment.

Sunday in Eastern Creek was a repeat of Sunday in Taupo with two conformable victories for Team Germany and Hulkenberg. In the sprint race he made a clean start and lead from Reid who was under pressure from Kerr who overtook in turn four after the two touched wheels in turn three.

On lap five Khateeb spun and forced the safety car to be deployed. When it returned to the pits there was only twenty minutes of the race remaining. At the restart Reid immediately passed Kerr to regain second position, which he would hold until the flag.
The was disaster for Kerr to follow, as Duval passed him for third the car had a problem and it got worse when on lap thirteen he suddenly slowed with a punctured right front tyre, and the entire field passed him. He pitted for a replacement but finished in nineteenth place.

Behind the top three, Buemi was fourth, Jeroen Bleekemolen was fifth for Team Netherlands, and Tung scored the final point with sixth place. Reindler struggled in the race as he did in qualifying eventually bringing the car home in fourteenth position. Hulkenburg set the sprint races fastest lap, a time of 1.19.142 setting the benchmark for the feature race as well as the fastest racing lap ever at Eastern Creek in an A1GP car.
The feature race was also won by Hulkenburg, but the big story occurred behind him with Tung finishing third to give Team China their firs ever A1GP podium. The strategy from the Chinese team helped him through the field, starting sixth he took the lead on lap ten when his rivals ahead pitted. When he himself pitted for his mandatory stop he rejoined in sixth place and was able to use his fresher rubber to his advantage as he moved up in to third including and includible pass on Bleekemolen round the outside of turn one of lap twenty-two.

Hulkenburg starting from pole lost the lead to the fast starting Reid on the opening lap but Hulkenburg regain the lead during the pit stops and never looked back romping to another win their sixth race of the season.

Further back on the first lap a collision between James Hinchcliffe of Team Canada and Team Singapore driver Christian Murchison saw both cars leave the track and Hinchcliffe’s car rolling into the gravel and coming to rest upside down luckily he was able to walk away unhurt. That incident brought the safety car out for the second time of the day. As it prepared to leave the circuit after lap five a strange incident saw Alan van der Merwe of Team South Africa run over the back of Ali, taking both cars out of the race and causing the safety car to continue on track.

The race finally resume at the end of lap seven with Reid leading Hulkenburg and Bleekemolen, Czech Republic driver Tomas Enge and Duval. The pit stop window opened on the very next lap and Hulkenberg pitted immediately with Reid following a lap later. This was enough for Hulkenburg to regain his lead. The big loser in the pit stops was Duval who was fifth when the fastest car pulled in and eventually finished in ninth place with Tung moving the other way from sixth up to third by the end of the race.

Behind the top three, Bleekemolen was fourth, Enge fifth, Team Malaysia driver Alex Yoong sixth, revoking from a disappointing run in past races, seventh was Buemi, Phil Giebler was able to recover from a bad start in the Team USA car to finish eighth, Duval dropped to ninth in the pit stops and Kerr was tenth after his sprint race puncture.
On home soil Reindler could again only manage fourteenth but gave the crowd something to cheer about by passing Khateeb into turn one. Hulkenburg was able to eclipse his own lap record in the sprint race with a time of 1.19.142 in the feature race to give Team Germany another point and another prefect weekend scoring all the points available and pole position.

As a result of their perfect score Team Germany have increased their lead in the series standings, they now have 82, way ahead of new second placed Team New Zealand with 57 and Team France back down into third place with 52 points.

Written: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 11:30:32