This weekend’s A1GP event in Gauteng might have ended in disappointment for Team South Africa, but the action-packed feature race at Kyalami saw the Swiss team steal the march on their Irish rivals with just two rounds left in the championship.
Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani took third in the sprint race and won the feature – equalling the all-time winning record for a driver, held by Nico Hulkenberg, who has won nine A1 GPs for Germany. Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães and the rookie team from Monaco also put in superb performances, especially in the 40-lap feature.
From the sprint race’s standing start, Team Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen was the clear star of the show, as he pulled cleanly away from the rest of the grid in pole and settled into the lead. Jani had managed to snatch second from Portugal’s Filipe Alberquerque, but had to crawl past the Malaysian car during the mandatory pit stop. Alberquerque capitalised and re-took second, while Adam Carroll of Team Ireland eventually overtook fourth-placed Clivio Piccione’s Monaco entry. Unchallenged, Bleekemolen won the race with little incident.
“I’m feeling pretty good. It was a very hard race for me though, because in the beginning I could feel there was some kind of pull with the fuel pick up. It didn’t cost me any time but I could just feel it coming. And then after the pit stop the car just stopped and I feared the race would be over, but it started working again. I lost about two seconds, but luckily we were still able to win,” said Bleekemolen.
With Monaco’s earlier pole-setting qualifying lap, Piccione was in contention for his maiden victory in the feature race. However, during the first round of mandatory pit stops, the rookie team was slow to release Piccione’s car from its pit box and Jani, who had chased down the Monaco car from fifth place at the start, emerged as the new race leader. Unfortunately, Team Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy made contact with Carroll’s Celtic Tiger, which saw the Irish entry out on just the first corner.
“I’m pretty annoyed, pretty angry with the Malaysia driver. I made a good start and had already made up positions and we were having a battle. Malaysia was slow coming onto the back straight so I used my push-to-pass and I knew I was ahead. I even turned in quite late to give him some room and he just hit me in the back right corner. That’s very disappointing for everybody in the team,” Carroll said.
A possible podium for Australia was ruined as the German car delayed John Martin’s pit exit, leading to a stall, by which time Guiamarães had taken third, with Bleekemolen’s orange Ferrari in fourth. Fauzy was involved in another incident, this time with New Zealand’s Earl Bamber. Braking late, Fauzy’s front wing hit the Kiwi’s rear left wheel and sent the black car off.
In a good display of maturity, 17-year old Guimarães chased down the Monaco entry and laid the pressure on thick until Piccione eventually made an error by going just a bit wide, with the Brazilian nipping second with a neat overtaking manoeuvre on the inside.
Jani took the win and points lead for Team Switzerland, while Guimarães took his maiden podium in second and Piccione finished third for Monaco.
“It was a little bit of a replay start from Taupo, from fifth to second. I was a bit worried starting from fifth, because I knew the first two turns would be very close and you could get knocked off easily, so my strategy was to just try the outside and it really worked and was a fantastic start,” said Jani. “I then tried to follow Clivio (Piccione) and I struggled a bit. But then we had a great pit stop and I had good pace. I think Monaco had a bit of bad luck in the pit stop so that helped us too”.
South African Adrian Zaugg could only manage seventh in the sprint, but just as the 22-year old looked like he would finish in a strong points-scoring position (he had progressed fifteenth to seventh after the first round of pit stops), Vulindlela slowed down on lap 17 and retired to the pits.
“I started to hear ugly noises coming from the engine around lap eight and then I started battling with second gear. After the pit stop the engine started to misfire and I couldn’t downshift. Eventually I couldn’t find any gears. I toggled around with the paddle shift and managed to keep the car going until I reached the pits. I’m very sorry to let down the fans. The crowd support really boosted me and I wanted to give them a good result after the disappointment of last year’s race,” explained Zaugg.
The penultimate round at the new Algarve circuit in Portimao, Portugal (10-12 April) sure looks to be a nail-biter as only three points separate Switzerland and Ireland. Can Switzerland take a back-to back title by sealing the championship early, or will Carroll be on form to hand Ireland their first title?
Pics courtesy of Tony Alves Photography
