UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > A1GP Round 6: Eastern Creek

Drama in the Aussie rain

Round six of A1GP 2007-2008 was held at Eastern Creek in Australia. After the last round in New Zealand Team New Zealand lead the championship with 82 points. Team France and Team Switzerland tied in second place with 80. Reigning champions Team Germany are now up to fourth.

As always the weekend’s first action was the rookie practise session. It was home hero John Martin using all his Eastern Creek experience to top the session eight tenths faster than Chris Alajajian who was a shock second for Team Lebanon. Third place went to Team Great Britain driver James Winslow.

Fridays official practise session was topped by Loic Duval in the Team France car, second was Robert Wickens of Canada who was just 0.266 seconds slower. Robbie Kerr was third for Team Great Britain 0.321 off the pace. Alajajian had another very impressive performance finishing the session fifth, with Martin seventh for Team Australia.

Saturday morning practise was topped again by Duval with Kerr closing in a 0.173 seconds behind. Third place was Narain Karthikeyan for Team India and Martin was beginning to slip down the standings after only setting the eighth fastest time, some 0.758 seconds off the pace.

Qualifying set up an interesting battle for tomorrow as the two championship rivals; Duval and Team New Zealand Johnny Reid each take a pole position.

The first segment of qualifying was a repeat of the Taupo session; drivers leaving it as late as possible to set their times. Team Pakistan Adam Khan was the first to come out on track with just seven minutes to go.

Alajajian was next out on to the track but at turn five on his out lap he crashed the car and was unable to set a time in any of the four segments, meaning that so much promise from Friday was wasted as they started last in both races.

With all the cars having to back off while passing the wrecked Lebanon car the times are not going to have much of an effect on the grid; Duval was fastest, then it was Adrian Zaugg of Team South Africa and Neel Jani third for Switzerland.

During the break between sessions the Lebanon car was removed form the track and carried back to the pits.

Khan was first out on to the track again in segment two; and put himself into a provisional eleventh place.

After another five minutes the major contenders came out headed by Michael Ammermuller who is back in the Team Germany car this weekend.

He went fourth, with became fifth when Reid crossed the line to put Team New Zealand third.

Kerr went sixth followed by Jonathan Summerton who put the Team USA car in fourth place.

With just Jani and Duval to left to set times the battle for pole would go down to the last seconds again. Jani crossed the line fourth and despite improving it was not enough to remove Duval from the top of the leader board.

Duval was slower than he was in segment one but it did not matter as he was still safe on pole. Behind Jani in second Zaugg will start third with Reid in fourth. Martin will start ninth on his home track.

Segment three and the battle for pole in the feature race began. Karthikeyan was the first on track this time quickly followed by Khan. In the battle of major cricketing rivals it was India who came out on top in this mini battle on the race track.

Most cars again left it late, Martin was next out on the track and went to provisional pole, but it was never going to last long as first Reid and then Duval go faster.

The championship rivals were not going to have it all their own way in this session as CongFu Cheng beat them both to put China on provisional pole at the end of the third segment of qualifying.

During segment three Wickens was placed under investigation after allegedly blocking Team Brazil driver Sergio Jimenez on his fastest lap.

In segment four Khan was again first out; moving up into an impressive seventh place and he got the jump of Karthikeyan as he was next round and only moved up to eighth.

Chinas unexpected provisional pole was then taken by Reid followed by a train of drivers who all went second fastest; first Summerton went second, followed by Reid and then Jani.

Duval could only manage a poor fifth place despite dominating every session up to this point in the weekend and despite being fastest for a shot time Martin will start his home event fifteenth.

After the session the investigation involving Team Canada saw them lose their best time from the feature race qualifying segments, meaning that they will now start twenty-first instead of eighth.

When Sunday dawned “the series that follows the winter sun” was greeted by an incredible rainstorm that meant that both races were run in wet conditions.

The sprint race was won by Duval to take the advantage in the three way fight for the championship.

The race started under dry conditions but the threat of rain was there right from the start.

Duval got a great start from pole position and dominated the race opening up a 2.46 second lead over Jani as early as lap three and on lap four he pulled even further ahead of the Swiss driver.

By lap seven he had a enormous lead and was in possession of the bonus point for fastest lap.

On lap eight the whole race changed when the rain hit the circuit on lap eight and as soon as it struck Zaugg ran of the track from third place soon followed by Karthikeyan.

On lap nine both Kerr and Satrio Hermanto of Team Indonesia pitted for wet tyres in the hope that more people would fall of the road.

The only other man to spin was Cheng who spun out at turn one of lap ten and fell right down the order to fourteenth.

Robert Wickens of Team Canada was driving superbly, after starting fifteenth he moved up to seventh of lap eleven after he won a three car battle against Adam Carroll of Team Ireland and Team Netherlands driver Jeroen Bleekemolen.

Bu the end of lap twelve he was up to fourth after passing Summerton and Ammermuller.

On the fourteenth and last lap Jani threw away his third palce after spinning in the wet and dropped all the way down to tenth.

Duvals pace in the opening laps was so good that he was able to cruise in the rain and still win the race by over nine seconds from Reid.

Wickens was promoted to third after Janis spin, Ammermuller was fourth, Summerton fifth, Martin was sixth on his home track, Zaugg seventh, Jimenez eighth, Bleekemolen ninth and Jani who fell to tenth took the last point.

The feature race was wet from start to finish wish promised a dramatic race.

It delivered what if promised as Zaugg took victory for South Africa after a very difficult and dramatic race from sixth on the grid.

The drama started before the race began. Reid was due to start from pole position after his car ground to a halt before he even got to the grid. His car was pushed back into the garage and he would have to start from the pit lane.

There was yet more drama before the race began as one of Reid championship rivals and sprint race winner Duval was left sat on the grid as the other nations went off on their formation lap.

Duval eventually got going and was forced to start at the back of the grid, but he was still ahead of Reid who started from the pit lane.

Still before the race started Carroll and Karthikeyan pitted; they had made the decision to do the formation lap on slick tyres but in the conditions wet tyres were the only option; so they too had to start from the pit lane, behind Reid.

Jani was now sat alone on the front row and when the race started he took an easy lead, behind Kerr starting third followed him into turn one.

After his amazing performance earlier Wickens was at it again. He started twenty-first following his qualifying penalty and was tenth by the end of lap two.

By lap three Reid was up to nineteenth and Duval was up to fourteenth but it only took a further four laps before he was into the points.

On lap nine Khan, Tomas Enge of Tem Czech Republic and Cheng all came into the pit lane to take driver through penalties.

On lap eleven the first pit window opened and the majority of the nations made their pit stops immediately. Zaugg and Duval did not made their stops and so the South African lead the Frenchman by twenty-one seconds.

On lap fifteenth Zaugg finally mae his pit stop and was able to retain the lead from Jani who was now second. Duval also made his pit stop and he struggled to get away again suggesting some sort of problem caused his start line problems.

Despite that, by lap seventeen Duval was up to eighth place and was right behind a tight battle for sixth between Summerton and Wickens

The battle ended on lap twenty-two when Duval and Summerton collided causing the American to retire and allowing Martin up into seventh place. Duval was given a drive through penalty for causing what the stewards deemed to be an avoidable incident.

When the second pit window opened Jani was the first to take advantage of it, pitting on lap twenty-seven. Reid and Ammermuller pitted on lap twenty-nine followed by Kerr on lap thirty.

Zaugg pitted late again from the lead on lap thirty-one and was able to maintain the lead of the race.

Duval pitted on lap thirty-two and again he had a problem getting away. This time it was terminal. His pit crew pushed the car the entire length of the pit lane but the car would not start and he was out of the race.

On lap thirty-seven it was announced that due to the wet conditions it was going to be a timed race; sixty minutes plus another lap. By this point the destination of the win was known, with Zaugg leading by thirteen seconds.

Martin is racing on home soil this weekend and he took that expression a little to literally as last forty-one he ran on to the grass and lost about ten seconds; however he was able to get back on track before Wickens could take his fifth position.

There were cars falling off the road all race in difficult conditions but Zaugg stayed out of trouble and was able to win by over nineteen seconds from Jani. Kerr was third after battling with Jani after the second pit stops completed the podium, in a much needed return to form.

Jimenez had a very quiet race and finished fourth almost unnoticed. To the delight of the home crowd Martin finished fifth ahead of Wickens. Ammermuller was seventh, Bleekemolen eighth, Reid eventually finished ninth ahead of Cheng taking the final point for China.

Following two dramatic races in Australia the championship battle is now even closer than it was before we started.

Team New Zealand still lead now with 96 points but they only lead by virtue of most wins because second in the championship is Team France who also have 96. The gap to third, now held by Team Switzerland, has opened out to three points, with Team Switzerland now on 93 points. Champions Team Germany and fifth with 77 points.

The next round is in Durban, South Africa in three weeks time.

Written: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 11:19:41