UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > A1GP: Round 9

First win for Team USA

The penultimate round of A1GP 2007/2008 was held at the Formula One venue of Shanghai, China. Going in to the race there was still a very close three way title fight Team Switzerland lead with 128 points, Team New Zealand are second with 113 points and Team France are third with 108 points.

The first session was the Rookie session which was topped by Felipe Albuquerque of Team Portugal. He was 0.320 clear of Nicolas Prost, son of Alian driving for Team France. Third was Alexandre Imperatori for Team Switzerland.

The first official practice session was once again topped by Albuquerque, who had made a massive impact since debuting in Durban. Next was Jonny Reid for Team New Zealand ahead of the very impressive Filip Salaquarda driving for Team Czech Republic.

The second practice session restored a little bit of normality to the standings. Franck Montagny was fastest for Team France 0.086 seconds faster than Neel Jani of Team Switzerland. The only shock was Edoardo Piscopo setting the third fastest time for Team Italy.

Pole position for the sprint race was taken by Jani giving him a huge advantage over his championship rivals but the plaudits go to Albuquerque who lines the Team Portugal car seconds and Narain Karthikeyan who puts the Team India car fourth

Mid way through segment one the action began with CongFu Cheng going fastest to the delight of the home nation, he stayed on top for just four minutes before his time was toppled by Karthikeyan.

All the big nations came out together right at the end of the segment and to the shock of the field Albuquerque held provisional pole ahead of Reid, Jani and Karthikeyan who completes the top four.

Cheng was first out again in the second segment, he failed to improve on his time from segment one and remained in eleventh place.

Montagny had a very poor segment one and was struggling down in nineteenth place. He did improve but only to sixteenth.

Jani was the first of the nations fighting for pole to set a time and after a great lap took provisional pole, Albuquerque also improve but not by enough to take back pole position and had to settle for second.

Third was Robert Wickens of Team Canada, an impressive feat considering he missed the practice session due to a World Series by Renault testing commitment during the week. Joining him on the second row of the grid is Karthikeyan who improved his time in segment two but it was not enough to improve his position.

Feature race qualifying began with Cheng and Karthikeyan taking to the track first. Karthikeyan was fastest and took provisional pole.

Again everybody waited until the last few minutes to leave the pits, when sixteen cars had crossed the line virtually together, it emerged that Jani was on provisional pole from Jonathan Summerton of Team USA and Reid in third. Montagny did much better in this segment and was in a provisional sixth place.

As with the first three segments Cheng was first out in segment four, he aborted the lap after locking up.

Karthikeyan was next out and continued his impressive day by moving up into seconds place. As always the real action was reserved right until the end of the segment.

Jani was first and set a time to keep them at the top of the standings, Summerton also get a good time to maintain second place. Albuquerque’s good day continued as he will start the feature race third ahead of Adam Carroll and Team Ireland.

With Reid starting seventh and Montagny tenth, Jani can greatly improve Team Switzerland’s chances of becoming A1GP Champions for the first time.

After the sprint race Jani was in touching distance of the championship, he took victory with both Reid and Montagny failing to score.

At the start Jani lead from pole but Reid and Summerton had a collision that left the Team New Zealand car out of the race. Both cars were put under investigation as a result of the incident.

By lap three Jani had a 1.5 second lead and on lap four he set the fastest lap of the race to earn another championship point. He continued to run away from Wickens in second and Albuquerque who were concentrating on their own battle.

Jani ran to a comfortable win, Wickens held of Albuquerque as they finished second and third. Alex Yoong finished fourth for Team Malaysia in their best race for a very long time. Karthikeyan was fifth, Michael Ammermuller sixth for Team Germany, Adrian Zaugg seventh for Team South Africa, Piscopo eighth, Robbie Kerr ninth for Team Great Britain and Cheng tenth to take a point for the home nation.

Montagny finished out of the points in eleventh. That means that if Jani outscored Reid by just two points in the feature race Team Switzerland will be become champions in China.

As a result of the incident between Summerton and Reid at the start of the sprint race, Summerton has a bruised the tendon over his metacarpal in his right hand. It is badly bruised and swollen and he has been given an anti-inflammatory dressing by the medical staff. He will take the start of the Feature race from second on the grid.

The injury does not seem to be affecting him as he made the best start and take the lead from Jani.

Zaugg was still in the pits and failed to take the start due to a gearbox problem.

Back on the track at the end of lap one; Summerton leads from Jani and Karthikeyan. Reid was running sixth and Montagny eighth.

By the first round of pit stops Summerton and Jani were clear ahead of Albuquerque who had passed Karthikeyan for third place on lap six, as they took the battle for the lead into the pit stop window.

Summerton pitted on lap ten gifting the lead back to Jani. Reid stopped on the same lap and after a very quick stop he had jumped both Karthikeyan and Yoong.

On lap eleven Jani pitted and rejoined still behind Summerton. Montagny gained a place in the pits on lap twelve as they rejoined just ahead of Kerr.

Summerton began increasing his lead by lap fifteen when Jani lost second gear and was struggling in the slower corners. Jani was quickly caught by Albuquerque and Carroll with Reid closing in at the rate of a second a lap. He produced a great display of defensive driving as he held off the chasing trio until the next round of pit stops.

Summerton made his second stop on lap twenty-five and retained the lead. Jani, Carroll and Reid all stopped on the same lap. Jani had a problem with a sticking rear wheel and fell behind both, on the other had Reid had a good stop and was the first of the three to leave.

Albuquerque was now in second place trying to close down the 7.5 second gap to race leader Summerton in the final few laps.

Summerton only increased his lead further and claimed the first win for Team USA, becoming the sixteenth different nation to win. Albuquerque was a very impressive second showing that Team Portugal could be championship contenders next season.

Third is Carroll, Reid fourth ahead of Jani in fifth taking the championship battle to the final race of the season for the first time in A1GP history.

Yoong finished sixth, Karthikeyan seventh, Montagny eighth to remove Team France from the championship fight for this season. The points were completed by Kerr ninth and Ammermuller tenth.

After this weekend the championship battle is still alive but it is on life support, Team Switzerland have 150 and lead Team New Zealand with have 121 and need to hope for a double victory and a compete distaster for Team Switzerland to have any hope of winning. France are third with 111 points, they now can not win the championship but are still looking to finish second.

Written: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:22:52