2005 A1 GRAND PRIX

A1 GP (2005/2006)

FEATURE RACE REPORT

• 1 Alexandre Premat - France
• 2 Neel Jani - Swiss
• 3 Ralph Firman - Ireland
• 4 USA (Scott Speed)
  5 Portugal (Alavaro Parente)
  6 Australia (Will Davison)
  7 Italy (Enrico Toccacelo)
  8 Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.)
  9 Czech Republic (Tomas Enge)
  10 Austria (Mathias Lauda)

  Circuito Estoril, Portugal - France were again ready for the start, this time from a standing position and made no mistake by being on the inside for corner one and coming out ahead of Portugal and the Czech Republic. However, behind them sitting on the grid, they had left the Netherlands, Brazil and Russia. This brought out the first safety car period while the cars were pushed off the grid and into the pit lane. The safety car stayed out for just the one lap and as it peeled off at the end of lap two was instantly followed by 10 of the competitors who chose to do their mandatory pit stop for tyres at this point. Again it was France leading the way, followed by Portugal and the Czech Republic.

Italy had made a storming start from eleventh on the grid but unfortunately it was too good to last as they were subsequently given a drive through penalty which lost them their fourth place. Indonesia was having a great race and on lap 13 managed to overtake both Great Britain and South Africa, unfortunately it was a short-lived advantage as the car immediately spun off and retired.

For A1 Team Mexico, the race came to an end on lap 10 when Canada ran into the back of their car which was seen by the millions of viewers worldwide via the on- board cameras. The safety car was deployed again to remove the stricken Mexican car, which was in turn one, and during this time the Portuguese car stalled during a pit stop and lost second place. The safety car lasted until the end of lap 16 and during this period, the South African car pulled off the track with a broken rear suspension, which had happened after contact with another car on the very first corner of the race.

France made another great start when the safety car pulled off to keep the lead, however the safety car was soon out again as in a move that was described by A1 Team Netherlands' driver as 'over ambitious' the car speared into that of A1 Team Germany and they both retired on the spot.

The safety car was brought in at the end of lap 20 and again it was the car carrying the French Tricolore that led into the first corner, followed by Switzerland and Ireland who went on to take their first podium of the season. A1 Team Czech Republic moved up but fourth place was not destined to be theirs as a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane dropped them down to an eventual ninth place.

It was obvious that Alvaro Parente wanted to do well in front of his home crowd and after an exciting battle with first A1 Team Italy and then A1 Team Australia, he moved up to fifth place. Due to the amount of time spent under the safety car, the race ran for its full hour and at that point, France was seven seconds in the lead and scored its fourth win out of the six A1 Grand Prix races to date and bought its points tally at the head of the series to 50 with Brazil second on 42 and Switzerland third on 34.

The fastest lap of the Feature race was recorded by A1 Team France on the twenty- third lap with a time of 1.31.106. Commenting on his performance, driver Alexandre Premat said: 'The race was great, I had another good start - although the re-starts varied, some were good and some were bad, it was hard to keep Scott Speed and Nelson Piquet behind me. The car was great to drive again, I did the fastest laps and we are leading the series. I wish Nicolas Lapierre good luck for the next race.'

Second place finisher, A1 Team Switzerland's Neel Jani said: 'I had a good start, but nearly got pushed into the wall and had to be careful not to crash. I suffered from oversteer in the beginning of the race but after the pit stop the car got better. I nearly took first place during a re-start - but again nearly got pushed into the wall and was lucky not to crash. I'm looking forward to winning a race, we seem to be getting better and better every race, we are definitely progressing.' Recording Ireland's best race position, Ralph Firman said: 'It has been a good weekend, despite having problems with the gearbox in Qualifying and I lost my front wing in the Sprint race. I went off the track trying to get past Canada, and thought my race was over, but I managed to get back on track and had a great pit stop which really helped a lot. I overtook Scott Speed during one of the re- starts, which was fantastic. The luck of the Irish seems to be working. I won't be driving in Australia, but I'm really looking forward to getting in the car in Malaysia"

SPRINT RACE REPORT

• 1 Alexandre Premat - France
• 2 Nelson Piquet Jr - Brazil
• 3 Neel Jani - Swiss
• 4 Netherlands
  5 Czech Republic
  6 Portugal
  7 Canada
  8 Malaysia
  9 Indonesia
  10 South Africa

Circuito Estoril, Portugal - From the moment the cars crossed the start line it was a three way rush to the first corner with France on the inside, Brazil in the middle and Switzerland on the outside. France won this race and the one that saw Alexandre Premat's car take the chequered flag 18 laps later.

A1 Team France's Alexandre Premat said: 'It was a very good race, I used the PowerBoost quite a lot. In the first corner I passed Nelson, I went up the inside and braked very late, and the car was great. I hope to do just as well in the second race. The PowerBoost button is really good. If you are close to the car in front, it helps you overtake. It's a great idea. I hope to win both races today, as Nelson did at Brands Hatch and Nicolas did at EuroSpeedway.'

It was a very short-lived race for Australia, Mexico and Pakistan as in the second turn an accident saw all three cars retire after going off into the gravel trap. While France was never challenged, there were some fine battles going on further down the field. Germany was the target for Great Britain with the two battling for XX position. This battle came to an end when the Irish car clipped the rear of Great Britain and forced Robbie Kerr to pull off with a right-rear puncture. A1 Team Ireland was then forced to pit for over a minute for a new front wing so was out of contention for series points. However, A1 Team Germany's Adrian Sutil, in his first race of the Series was not allowed any breathing space as 'We the People' representing the USA was soon on his tail and making every effort to overtake. Despite them swapping places at one point, it was the German car that crossed the line to claim twelfth spot.

Another driver having his first A1 Grand Prix race, Basil Shaaban for A1 Team Lebanon had a great tussle with A1 Team Austria in the closing laps but lost out and finished eighteenth.

A1 Team Netherlands had their best finish to date as Jos Verstappen managed to take two positions going into the first corner and this gave the usual large contingent of Dutch fans something to shout about.

Commenting on his race, A1 Team Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr said: 'The start was quite messy to be honest, the pace car stayed in front for quite a long time, I didn't know what was happening. It moved at the last moment and Alex just came out from nowhere. I had to give him space as he braked really late into the corner, I have to say he had a very strong race. We have to go and improve now and make a few changes for the next race.'

Neel Jani of A1 Team Switzerland said: 'That start wasn't too bad, I was alongside Nelson, and I passed him half way through the corner, but I had to stay on the outside as he was very close. We are in a good position for the second race, and I'm looking forward to it.'

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