UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > A1GP: Round 5

Switzerland take series lead

A difficult season got even worse for A1GP during the South African weekend held at former Grand Prix venue, Kyalami, with logistical problems in getting the cars to the track and preparing the circuit for action, leading to many of Fridays sessions being postponed.

Entering the South African weekend Team Ireland lead with sixty-five points, with reigning champions Team Switzerland in second with fifty-two points, after demoting Team Portugal to third with forty-nine points last time out.

Once the Friday action finally got underway Nicolas Prost topped the first rookie session for Team France, Earl Bamber was second for Team New Zealand with Michael Ammermuller third for Team Germany on the nations first appearance this season. The local driver in this session was Gavin Cronje he ended up seventh out of ten drivers who set times.

Friday closed with the first official practise session, Daniel Morad was fastest for Team Lebanon, Ammermuller continued to show Team Germany’s pace by setting the second fastest time with Adam Carroll third for Team Ireland. Home hero Adrian Zaugg ended the session after setting the sixth fastest time.

There was plenty of track action on Saturday. The day opened with a second extra rookie practise session Morad going fastest, Danny Watts was second for Team Great Britain and Ashley Walsh got the Team Australia in to third place. In his home country Cronje was the slowest of eight teams to set a time.

There was then two more official practise sessions, in the first only six drivers set times Ho-Pin Tung was fastest for Team China, Felipe Guimaraes of Team Brazil second and Edoardo Piscopo third for Team Italy. There was no South African runner in this session.

The second session of the day Jeroen Bleekemolen was fastest for Team Netherlands with Macro Andretti going second for Team USA and early pace-setter Morad in third. Zaugg did run in this session and ended up in twelfth place

After all the practising it was time for qualifying. The sprint race was up first with Bleekemolen continuing his morning pace to claim pole position. Filipe Albuquerque will join him on the front row for Team Portugal with Neel Jani of Team Switzerland and Clivio Piccione of Team Monaco lining up on row two. Championship leaders and hone nation – Team Ireland and Team South Africa – with line up sixth and eighth respectively.

There was a shock in the qualifying session for the feature race, as new nation Team Monaco took their first ever A1GP pole position with former GP2 driver Clivio Piccione at the wheel. Joining him on the front row will be Fairuz Fauzy of Team Malaysia with Bamber and John Martin of Team Australia lining up on the second row. Ireland will start sixth again with Zaugg starting fifteenth.

The sprint race was won form pole position by Bleekemolen, to record the first win for Team Netherlands for forty-five races.

He held his lead from pole and was followed into turn one by Jani who took second after jumping Albuquerque at the first corner.

One lap two spectators were treated to an impressive piece of racing from Piccione. He pulled along side Team India driver Narain Karthikeyan who blocked the move but Piccione was able to cut back behind him and take the place at the next corner. That was the battle for third place.

By lap four Bleekemolen lead by almost five seconds before the pit stop window opened on lap five.

The top two stopped almost together on the sixth lap, Bleekemolen had a clean stop and rejoined in a clear lead, Jani behind also had a clean stop by as he was leaving Fauzy pulled into his pit box ahead delaying Jani as he tried to manoeuvre around the Malaysian car, as Albuquerque was closing in fast.

That delay cost Jani second place as Albuquerque pitted on the next lap and with him too having a clean stop and exit, he was able to leapfrog him.

After all the leaders had made their pit stop Bleekemolen had increased his lead to almost six-and-a-half seconds clear of Albuquerque, and cruising to a relatively easy win.

Bleekemolen eased off in the last couple of laps and crossed the line 4.4 seconds ahead of Albuquerque with Jani completing the podium.

Carroll was fourth to limit the damage to his championship lead, Piccione was fifth, Karthikeyan sixth, Zaugg seventh to the delight of the home crowd with Bamber completing the points in eighth place.

Ammermuller finished fourteenth in Team Germany’s first race since their return to the series.

Jani put in another strong performance to win the feature race, and with Team Ireland not scoring he helped Team Switzerland regain top spot in the standings.

Piccione had a good start under pressure from pole to hold his lead, from Jani who for the second time had a good start and jumped to second place.

Further back championship leader Adam Carroll spin the Team Ireland car into the gravel and into retirement, ending his race on the opening lap.

Fauzy was holding third place under intense pressure from Bamber, the two made contact Bamber spun into retirement but Fauzy was able to keep going.

On lap six Fauzy came into the pits as a result of the contact, this could not count as one of his mandatory pit stops as the window did not open until lap eight, this effectively ended all hopes of a good result from their front row start.

After eleven laps the leaders made their first pit stops, Piccione did not have a good stop and he dropped to second place behind Jani, but it was a disaster for John Martin of Team Australia, he had a clean stop and was then blocked by Ammermuller as he attempted to leave, then to confound his misery he stalled and required a push start.

Jani was leading of the stopped cars but second overall, behind Marco Andretti in the Team USA car, once he had passed Andretti pitted and then on his out lap lost four more places and appeared to have a problem, leaving him in eleventh place.

After a strong sprint race, the home crowd was hoping for more points from Zaugg but on lap seventeen he slowed into retirement.

Guimaraes had worked his way up into third place during the pit stops and was closing in on second placed Piccione at the race of a second a lap, on lap twenty he caught him. Three laps later Piccione made a mistake and Guimaraes was able to take second place.

On the same lap the pit stop window opened for the second round of mandatory pit stops.

Guimaraes was one of the first to pit, he had a clean stop and after running in clear air for a few laps was able to stay ahead when Piccione made his pit stop.

It between Jani came in and rejoined still clear in the lead. After all the major runners had made their pit stops his lead over Guimaraes was nearly ten seconds.

In the closing laps the only action was a battle over the fastest lap point between runners way down the order. Watts, Andretti and Fauzy were both running outside the top ten when they took the fastest time, mainly using powerboost.

At the end Jani had opened out his lead to over thirteen seconds from Guimaraes in second with Piccione holding third after a strong race.

Bleekemolen followed up on his earlier win to take fourth, Albuquerque fifth, Morad sixth, Watts seventh, Andretti eighth, Zahir Ali gave Team Indonesia some rare points after a very impressive debut, he finished ninth with Edoardo Piscopo rounding out the top ten for Team Italy.

After his double podium Jani has given Team Switzerland the lead by three points from Team Ireland by a score of seventy-three to seventy respectively. Team Portugal are third with sixty-four points and sprint race winners Team Netherlands fourth with fifty-six.

Written: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:30:30