FEATURE RACE RESULTS
11/12/2005 - Dubai Resuming their usual podium position, A1 Team
France won todays Feature race after starting from seventh on the
grid. Battling up from ninth, A1 Team Great Britain took second
place followed by Stephen Simpson who drove his way to South
Africas first podium finish.
Race winner Nicolas Lappierre said: I was really disappointed with
the first race, but the team was behind me, and told me we could
still win. The second race was crazy, it was just fantastic. I had
a great start and a good strategy. When we saw the safety car come
out the team made the perfect call for a pit stop. I had a good
fight with Robbie and Stephen, and Robbie stayed with me and I had
to push really hard. The track is really slippery when you went
offline, and you had to pick where to overtake really carefully.
This was a difficult race, I started seventh and there was a lot of
overtaking to do. The track is really nice, there is a long back
straight and the chance of overtaking.
As the cars left the grid it was Switzerland and Italy side by side
into the first corner and in the scrum that ensued behind them,
Great Britain and the Czech Republic collided. One of the best
starts was made by A1 Team Indonesia with the car slotting into
third place from sixth on the grid.
As the cars started lap two, it was USA and South Africa side by
side and A1 Team GBR recovering from the earlier mishap to hunt
down Indonesia for third spot. Sadly A1 Team Ireland had not been
able to rectify the gearbox problem that robbed them of a Sprint
race podium and rapidly dropped from fourth on the grid to
twenty-third at the end of lap one and eventually into retirement
at the end of lap seven.
The pit stops started early with the first teams in at the end of
lap one. A1 Team Brazil who was trying to recover from starting at
the back of the grid was among them but it was not to be as their
slow stop lasted for 51.8 seconds.
On lap three Indonesia came under attack from France and as they
went into turn one on lap four the red, white and blue car was
ahead and into fourth. The A1 Team Malaysias car was an early
retirement from eight place and again A1 Recovery was called into
lift the car away from the track.
On lap six Indonesias good run came to an end when the car spun as
it came round a right-hand corner and hit the wall head on,
bringing out the first safety car of the weekend. A1 Teams Great
Britain and France who were at that point lying third and fourth
took the opportunity to pit but Switzerland and Italy stayed out
and this eventually compromised their races as when they did pit a
lap later they ended up at the back of the field. In scenes
reminiscent of Eastern Creek, it was A1 Team Lebanon, despite
starting the race from the pit lane who ended up leading. However
this was short lived as when the pace car pulled in at the end of
lap eight, A1 Team Great Britain was in the lead by turn one. The
Lebanese car made life a little more difficult for France who was
not able to pass until lap nine and very soon afterwards Lebanon
spun and let the rest of the drivers by with no problem.
Jos Verstappen who had battled hard in the Sprint race was again
wheel to wheel racing in the Feature race, this time with A1 Team
USA who he managed to get by on lap 12 to move up into fourth spot.
At this point in the Feature race, A1 Team Great Britain was
leading by a healthy 3.6 seconds from France but it was clear by
the lap times being set by Nicolas Lapierre that it wouldnt be
long before Robbie Kerr would have his wing mirrors full of another
red, white and blue car.
India was in the thick of the action and was trailing Mexico and
Australia who were battling hard, in fact the battle was so intense
that on lap 15 the youngest driver in the race was able to overtake
both the Mexican and Australian cars although by lap 17 they were
by again. The progress of France saw the gap down to 0.4 seconds by
the end of lap 19 and it was obvious by the amount of times that
the British car was locking up that its lead was far from secure
and eventually on lap 24, there was the familiar sight of the
French car leading an A1GP race.
The revelation of the race was A1 Team China with the car not only
in a points scoring position but in the top six by lap 19. Despite
coming under increasing pressure from A1 Team Canada, one of the
less experienced drivers on the field was able to not only hold
onto his position but finish the race in fifth.
Pakistan and Austria were heavily involved in their own battle for
seventh place and this was finally decided when they touched on lap
27 and Pakistan spun into retirement. On the same lap, A1 Team USA
retired from ninth with what was an electronic fault when newcomer
to the Series Philip Giebler pulled his car off the track. The
action went on right to the flag as when A1 Team Netherlands
crossed the start/finish line in ninth, the front wing of the car
was clearly broken.
It was another exciting race for the A1 Grand Prix series and it
wasnt just the fans that enjoyed the action. A1 Team Great
Britains Robbie Kerr spoke of his excitement. Unfortunately the
tyres gave a bit in the feature race, and so France was able to get
past. It was very exciting though. The car is getting better all
the time and the results show it. The team made a great call to
pit, but the second set of tyres werent as good as the first and
couldnt really last the race. Commenting on the possibility of
the first race win for A1 Team Great Britain, Robbie said We are
getting faster and Im confident that we can keep up, we just have
to make the tyres last longer. We are working for a win, and well
keep pushing, weve showed we have the pace. Give us another chance
and well take it.
Speaking about his first time on the podium at A1 Grand Prix,
Stephen Simpson said Words cant describe how Im feeling to come
from twelfth to third. The team did a great job. Its great to be
able to keep up with the front of the field. When Nicolas came up
behind me, I knew I was going to be able to him a run for his
money. The last few races have been quite difficult, and A1GP is so
close and its getting closer all the time. This is just great for
everyone at home, and in the build up for our home race in Durban
on the 29 January.
There is a bit of pressure now to do well, the last few races
didnt really go according to plan. My goal here was to score
points, so this is a brilliant result for the team, and the hard
work paid off. Our pace in the first race was good, and we only
made a few changes before the feature race, it really was a team
effort, he continued.
A number of teams were given drive through penalties and these
seriously compromised their races. For Italy and Germany it was due
to false starts, for Switzerland a pit crew infringement during the
tyre stop and the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Lebanon for
speeding in the pit lane.
A1 Team Driver Time
1 France Nicolas Lapierre 56.17.068
2 Great Britain Great Britain 56.20.782
3 South Africa Stephen Simpson 56.23.758
4 Portugal Alvaro Parente 56.25.067
5 China Tengyi Jiang 56.47.856
6 Canada Sean McIntosh 56.48.411
7 Austria Mathias Lauda 56.51.510
8 Mexico Salvador Duran 56.52.570
9 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 56.53.213
10 Australia Will Davison 56.53.414
11 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 56.54.000
12 Germany Adrian Sutil 56.54.916
13 New Zealand Matt Halliday 57.06.192
14 India Armaan Ebrahim 57.06.516
15 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 29 laps
16 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 29 laps
17 Switzerland Neel Jani 27 laps
18 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 27 laps
19 Pakistan Adam Khan 26 laps
20 USA Philip Giebler 26 laps
21 Ireland Ralph Firman 7 laps
22 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 5 laps
23 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 4 laps
24 Malaysia Alex Yoong 2 laps
Series Points to date A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Dubai, UAE (11
December 2005)
1 France 106
2 Switzerland 75
3 Brazil 60
4 Great Britain 49
5 New Zealand 42
6 Portugal 39
7 Ireland 37
8 Netherlands 34
9 Malaysia 33
10 Canada 31
11 Australia 27
12 Czech Republic 24
13 Italy 21
14 Mexico 19
15 South Africa 14
16 USA 13
17 Germany 11
18 Indonesia 10
19 China 6
20 Japan 6
21 Austria 5
22 Pakistan 4
