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Team Ireland take standings lead

Round three of the 2008-2009 A1GP series came from Sepang in Malaysia. Going into the event the home nation were leading the series with twenty-eight points, Team Ireland were second with twenty-three equal with Team France and Team New Zealand were tied with Team Netherlands on twenty.

The weekend begins with the Rookie Session, in which Nicolas Prost set the fastest time for Team France, Danny Watts was second for Great Britain, recalled to the squad after a great debut in Chengdu, ahead of eighteen year old Earl Bamber for Team New Zealand.

Watts topped the Friday practise session, Champions Team Switzerland were second with Neel Jani and the wheel with less than a tenth of a second separating the two, with Narain Karthikeyan in third for Team India.

David Garza topped the Saturday practise session for Team Mexico, Jani was second with Loic Duval for Team France.

This qualifying session saw the first use of “powerboost”, as reported earlier in the week it gives teams one shot of “powerboost” to be used across the four segments, the strategy of when to use it would add a new twist to qualifying.

The first segment was interrupted by a red flag, when Team Korea driver Jin Woo Hwang stopped out on track in a dangerous place after only five minutes, that ruined the lap of home driver Fairuz Fauzy.

When the segment resumed there was only a few minutes left, so every car headed out on track. In the battle to find a gap Team France driver Loic Duval ended the segment on provisional pole position.

Adam Carroll had guided Team Ireland to second with Danny Watts of Team Great Britain in third.

Fauzy, who earlier had his lap ruined, failed to complete his out lap in time before the chequered flag and was unable to set a flying lap.

After the second segment it was Neel Jani and Team Switzerland who had moved up into pole position, without the use of “powerboost”. Duval used “powerboost” to claim a front row start while Earl Bamber set the third quickest time on his return to the Team New Zealand car.

The feature race grid had an upside down feel, the third segment took until the last two minutes to swing into life and it was Carroll who took provisional pole position, ahead of Duval, John Martin of Australia and Clivio Piccione of Team Monaco in fourth. Jani was struggling and was only fifth.

Jani’s struggles continued in the final segment. He failed to improve his time and slipped down to sixteenth on the final grid.

Carroll held on to his pole, he was joined on the front row by Watts with the impressive Daniel Morad gaining the best ever qualifying result starting third, with the home nation qualifying fourth.

Jani continued his very good form at Sepang in the sprint race as he claimed his and Team Switzerland’s third victory in five years at Sepang and became the fifth different winner in five races so far this season.

He got away well from the rolling start, but the race was stopped before he could reach turn one. Marco Andretti in the Team USA car ran into the back of the Team Brazil car driven by Felipe Guimaraes, with Karthikeyan also getting involved before the trio had even made it over the start line.

After over twenty minutes of track clearing the race was restarted in grid order behind the safety car with the distance reduced to eleven laps.

Watts was having problems at the restart, he appeared to be stuck in first gear, as Jani kept his lead.

Behind The battle for eighth was giving fans some action, Fauzy driving on his home track was betting with Adrian Zaugg of Team South Africa. Fauzy passed at the final turn of the first racing lap but at turn three of the next lap Zaugg repassed. They continued like that until Zaugg his Fauzy causing the Malaysian driver to suffer a puncture.

By lap four Jani was leading by over two seconds as the pit window opened, with many cars pitting.

Duval had a poor stop and he and Bamber ran wheel to wheel as Bamber held his position, it seamed like a questionable move for which Team New Zealand would be placed under investigation.

Jeroen Bleekemolen briefly took the lead when Jani made his stop but the Swiss driver regained it when the Dutchman was forced in, dropping him back to sixth.

Jani clicked off the last few laps to another win in Malaysia, he was followed home by Duval, Bamber was third to complete the podium. Filipe Albuquerque was fourth for Team Portugal after holding off a late charge from Carroll who was fifth, Bleekemolen was sixth, Eduardo Piscopo was seventh for Team Italy, John Martin eighth for Team Australia, Zaugg recorded a ninth place finish following his clash with Fauzy, with Ho-Ping Tung completing the top ten for Team China.

Carroll won the feature race after a dominant performance, he is now the first driver to win two races this year as he powers Team Ireland to the top of the standings.

The nig news before the race was that sprint race winners Team Switzerland have been sent to the back of the grid, because the team had a brake cooler in too long before the start, and also had a man violation on their Sprint race pit stop. It will not make much difference as he was due to start sixteenth anyway.

Carroll took the lead right from the start with Albuquerque grabbing second. Bleekemolen and Karthikeyan collided which sent the Indian into an early retirement.

Jani’s feature race problems got even worse, when he stopped on the opening lap. He was blocking the track so the safety car was needed to clear his car.

When the race resumed on lap four, Fauzy grabbed fourth place at turn one to the delight of the home fans.

Watts was in the wears again, He attempted to pass Morad sending both of the road, when recovering Duval attempted to pass but chopped in front of the British car damaging his nose.

Duval did not escape damage free, as on the next lap he was forced to pit with a puncture.

Fauzy was the first car to pit on lap ten, but the big winner from the early stoppers was Tung as he was able to jump past Andretti Morad, as all three pitted on lap ten.

There was a close call in the pits as Bamber and Martin came very close to colliding in the pit lane, thankfully there was no contact and both continued without problems.

Carroll pitted cleanly on lap thirteen, a lap after Albuquerque and so when the pit stops were completed they were still one and two with Fauzy third ahead of Andretti, who was only racing after borrowing a rear wing from the non-starting Team Korea.

On lap eighteen, Fauzy came back into the pits, while the window was closed. The mechanics seemed surprised to see him and sent him on his way without stopping.

After twenty-two laps the second pit window opened and Martin was in first. It was a good stop and he rejoined ahead of Zaugg and in contention for a podium.

Carroll made his final stop on lap twenty-four, followed a lap later by Watts who retired from the race.

After his pit lane error Fauzy was charging back up the order, on lap twenty-six he passed Morad for twelfth place, and moved into the points when he passed Piscopo on lap thirty-three.

Carroll lead by 12.1 second after Albuquerque had made his pit stop, with Andretti still in third place.

That is how the finished, with Martin missing out on the podium in fourth, Zaugg fifth, Bamber sixth, Guimaraes seventh, Bleekemolen eighth, Tung ninth and Fauzy taking just one point for tenth knowing it should have been so much more.

In the championship Team Ireland now have a commanding lead, they now have forty-three points and lead Team Portugal, who have thirty-five by eight points. Team France are third with thirty-one still tied with New Zealand.

A1GP now takes it winter break, with the next race taking place in Taupo on January 25th.

Written: Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:13:10