UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > A1GP Round 7: Duban

Day of drama

Round seven of ten of this Winters A1GP Championship came from the streets of Durban, South Africa. After the last round in Australia the three-way title fight is still on. Team New Zealand lead the championship but are tied on 96 points with Team France. Team Switzerland are third only three points back on 93 then there is a gap opening to Team South Africa who are fourth with 79.

The rookie session started the action for the weekend. Michael Ammermuller set fastest time for Team Germany and was a whole 1.3 seconds clear of his nearest rival who was Marcel Fässler of Team Switzerland. John Martin was third for Team Australia and was the only other man to get within 1.5 seconds of the pace setting German. The South African rookie was Wesleigh Orr who was fifth fastest

The official practise session was a big closer. Jeroen Bleekemolen topped the session for Team Netherlands and was three tenths clear of Ammermuller. Third was Oliver Jarvis on his return to the Team Great Britain car. Following his win last time out Adrian Zaugg is again driving the Team South Africa car. He was sixth fastest in this session.

In the Saturday Practise session the top three championship contenders filled the top three slots. Neel Jani set the fastest time for Team Switzerland. He was just a tenth faster than Ammermuller again in second. Loic Duval was third for Team France after a nineteen hour overnight flight after his Japanese racing commitments on Friday.

Qualifying saw an A1GP record broken. Team Canada driver Robert Wickens gave his nation their first ever pole position, and in the process became the youngest ever pole sitter in the sprint race, and joins Jani on the front row for the feature race.

Wickens is 18 years eleven months and eleven days old and he takes the record from Team Germany driver Nico Hulkenberg who was 19 years five months and two days when he started from pole in the 2006/2007 New Zealand sprint race,

The first car out on the track was Khalil Beschir for Team Lebanon. He was followed by Team Indonesia’s Satrio Hermanto who was two seconds slower.

The real drama of the opening segment was to begin when Adam Carroll of Team Ireland left the pits. At the first corner his car began to ground to a halt and on a street circuit there was nowhere for him to pull of.

With yellow flags on the straight between turns one and two nobody could improve. John Martin was directly ahead of Carroll when he stopped and Aussie was able to go fastest.

When the yellow flags were withdrawn the segment was going to take another dramatic twist. With only a few minutes to go leading drivers Reid and Ammermuller left the pits in an attempt to set a time.

Ammermuller went fastest but Reid spun at one of the chicanes and brought out a red flag.

The session would remain under a red flag as the clocked ticked down the last few minutes until it was replaced with the chequered flag after only six cars had set times.

At the start of the second segment started there was a rush of cars onto the track headed by Adrian Zaugg in the home nation Team South Africa car. He was one of sixteen nations not to set a time in segment one.

But it was all to go very wrong as he spun at the first chicane on his flying lap meaning that he will start at the back of the grid.

This brought out yellow flags, but before that Jani had passed the scene and was able to beat Ammermuller’s benchmark and take provisional pole.

Duval was hampered on his lap but controversially Jarvis was able to go fastest despite the presence of yellow flags at the chicane.

Reid was another driver to make up for a mistake from the first segment, and he did as he was able to go fastest beating Jarvis.

With some of the front running nations having problems it was a day where the smaller nations could get near the front of the grid. Two of these were the next to set times.

Wickens went fastest and Bruno Junqueira put the Team Brazil car second. Ammermuller was the last to set a time, after being fastest in segment one he was hoping to retain his position, but he could not do it. He could only get second splitting Canada and Brazil.

Segment three started the same way as segment two with as many cars as possible getting out on track to set a time in case of another red flag.

Zaugg was first out, after failing to set a sprint race qualifying time he was desperate to get near the front. Despite being held up by Reid during his flying lap he still did enough to get provisional pole.

Jarvis and Reid both set times in the next few minutes going first and second respectively, pushing Zaugg down to third.

Junqueira was having a good day, after qualifying third for the sprint race he was able to set the third fastest time in the first feature race qualifying segment.

Carroll took fourth, like Zaugg he could not qualifying for the sprint race and wanted to make up for it.

Last to go was Jani who was able to beat everybody and go provisionally fastest, repeating the pace he showed on Saturday morning in the only segment of the day not to be affected by an incident.

Team Pakistan were first out in the last segment with driver Adam Khan. He was another driver having a good day, in this segment he moved from ninth up to sixth.

CongFu Cheng of Team China, Martin and Jarvis all set times before there was more bad luck for Carroll as he crashed at turn ten and brought out the red flag.

When the segment resumed there was just enough time for an out lap, so every car that still could set a time left the pits immediately.

Jani improved his time to move pole further away for everybody else, and then Wickens went behind him in second place.

Reid will start third after he competed his lap pushing Jarvis down to fourth ahead of Junqueira who move the Team Brazil car up to fifth place

In recent events the sprint race have been quite dull with drivers opting to protect the cars for the longer the feature race, but that was not the case in the sprint race this weekend.

In a dramatic race it was Wickens who took a victory quite comfortably while all the drama happened behind him.

A change from qualifying: Narain Karthikeyan injured his wrist in Saturday’s free practise and although he struggled through qualifying he is unfit to take the race. Partiva Sureshwaren will race of Team India and he will have to start from the back as he did not qualify the car.

John Martin spent the night in hospital on a drip after suffering from dehydration after suffering from a stomach bug. He, however, will be making the start.

The sprint race started with its usual rolling start, and by the first corner the drama had already begun. On the short run down to the hairpin that is turn one Wickens pulled into an early lead from Reid who then damaged his nose after striking the back of the Canadian car.

Jarvis took advantage of the accident to grasp second place as Reid started falling down the order.

Junqueira was another man to damage his nose, on lap two he attempted to pass Jani for third place. The Swiss car was undamaged in the incident.

In the battle for sixth place was between Ammermuller and Bleekemolen. The German slid the car under breaking and the chance was gone. It would not be the last time in this race that these two would having a coming together.

By lap five Duval had guided the Team France car up into thirteenth position after starting seventeenth on the grid. On the same lap Cheng passed Junqueira who was still struggling with his damaged nose.

The nose problem became a major problem for Junqueira as the damaged wing began to run on his front wheel. He slowed and let everybody past before pitting for a new one.

Like Duval Zaugg had a bad qualifying and was trying to make up as many places as possible. On lap eight he took fourteenth place.

On lap eleven Junqueira crashed out of the race after hitting a kerb causing his new front wing to disintegrate. The safety car came out which wiped out the 4.2 second advantage that Wickens had built up.

The safety car came back in on lap thirteen giving the drivers just two laps to either hold on or make up more positions.

Martin ran wide at turn one and Filipe Albuquerque was able to pass him in the Team Portugal car.

The continuation of the Ammermuller/Bleekemolen battle came to ahead on lap fourteen. The German tried to get down the inside of Bleekemolen and ended up punting him into a spin.

The red flag came out and the race was stopped. Wickens was able to hold of Jarvis to take his first win. Jani finished third, Cheng fourth. Due to the count back because of the red flag Bleekemolen was classified fifth with Ammermuller sixth.

Martin got his seventh place back from Albuquerque as a result of the count back with classification coming from the end of the eleventh lap. David Garza was ninth for Team Mexico with Fairuz Fauzy taking the last point for Team Malaysia.

Ammermuller was disqualfied for his part of the accident with Bleekemolen. Everybody was promoted one place with Jonathan Summerton promoted into tenth place to inherit the final point for Team USA

After the race Bleekemolen gave an interview to TV saying that he will “never speak to Ammermuller ever again” which could be interesting as they start sixth and seventh in the feature race.

The feature race was just as dramatic with two early and two late safety cars but Jani was one of few drivers to stay out of trouble to win.

At the first start there was an enviable log jam of cars with cars going three wide through the very first corner causing some cars to be pushed out wide an into others.

One the drivers involved in the incident was Zaugg who was one of nine drivers to pit for new noses as a result of the accident. The safety car was brought out to clear the track however all drivers with the exception of Garza was able to pit and rejoin on the lead lap.

Adam Khan of Team Pakistan and Satrio Hermanto were out of the race as a result of this crash

At the restart there was another log jam. It was caused by Martin attempting to pass Ammermuller into the first corner and tipping him into a spin. He came to rest in the centre of the track causing a concertina effect with Zaugg once again caught up in it. The safety car was again deployed.

Martin was able to return to the pits for repairs but Ammermuller was out of the race.

Fifteen of the seventy minutes had elapsed after only eight laps were completed so it quickly became obvious that this was going to be a timed race.

As soon as the next restart on lap eight the pit window opened. Predictably all the cars made their first pit stop within the first two laps.

Jani and Reid were the top two under safety car and they pitted together. Jani left incident free but after his pit stop Reid was released straight into the path of Garza destroying his front wing. He was pulled back for a replacement.

The only person to pit late was Sureshwaren. He was now leading the race from Jani and as it was a battle for position he did not have to let him past. During this lap before he did pit it allowed Wickens to close up on Jani.

After the pit stops Jani was leading from Wickens, Jarvis was third with championship contenders Duval fourth and Reid fourteenth after a driver though penalty given for the pit lane incident.

Other drivers given drive through penalties were Khalil Beschir of Team Lebanon, Carroll and Sureshwaren.

After the first pit stops and penalties had bee taken the race settled down with Jani slowly increasing his lead. The closest battle was between Cheng and Team Italy driver Edoardo Piscopo over ninth place. It ended when Piscopo made a mistake, almost hitting the wall giving Cheng the space to pass.

Now free of Piscopo Cheng was flying, only a lap later he was able to pass Junqueira for eighth place. Piscopo on the other hand, was struggling coming under increasing pressure from Zaugg over tenth place, a position he would lose a few laps later.

Summerton was having a nightmare race, he was caught up in both early incidents and after his mandatory pit stop and a puncture he made his entered the pit lane for the fifth time when he was pushed into the garage.

The second pit window opened on lap thirty with the top three, Jani, Wickens and Jarvis all in straight away. They resumed in the same order while fourth place Duval opted not to pit and take the lead.

Zaugg and Junqueira were battling over eighth place as they entered the pits. The South African pit crew were able to get Zaugg out ahead and gift him the position.

On lap thirty-two; Duval made his pit stop and was able to get out ahead of Jarvis and take third place. On the same lap the black flag was shown to Sureshwaren and he was excluded for three pit speeding infringements.

The battle for the lead went on until the end of the race, Jani leading Wickens, Duval and Jarvis as the top four who were over twenty seconds clear of Albuquerque in fifth.

On lap thirty-nine there was a incident at the head of the field. Wickens in second place spun at the first corner, Duval was able to pass but Jarvis came round just as Wickens was tiring to spin back into the right direction and spun into him eliminating both for the race.

The safety car was deployed. Jani maintained his lead, Duval was second and Bleekemolen jumped up into third place.

The safety car came in with just five and a half minutes left on the clock. Jani retained the lead because Beschir was in between them.

At the first corner after the restart there was more drama. Zaugg went for a risky move on Cheng but was way to fast of for the corner and hit Bleekemolen with Piscopo, Junqueira and Reid also involved in the crash. Reid was the only one of the six that was able to rejoin.

With ninety seconds left on the clock the red flag was thrown and the race was stopped. There was great confusion in the pit lane due to the red flag. The classification was taken from the end of the forty-first lap.

Jani was the winner with Duval second there was not any confusion surrounding that result but behind Albuquerque was third on his debut, Bleekemolen was fourth, Fauzy fifth, Cheng sixth, Zaugg seventh, Piscopo eighth, Junqueira ninth and Reid tenth.

This is just a provisional result at the time of writing as Zaugg is under investigation for the incident at the end and I personally expect him to be disqualfied from the result.

After an incredible, unpredictable and dramatic weekend of racing, Team Switzerland have regained the championship lead they have 118 points. Team France are now second with 108 and after a bad weekend Team New Zealand fall to third place with 98 points.

The next race is in Mexico City on March 16.

Written: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:21:17