Round three of this season’s A1GP, at Sepang in Malaysia, left no doubt as to Ireland’s newfound dominance of the world cup of motorsport – as Ireland took pole position and victory for the Feature race, copying a similar performance by Switzerland during the earlier Sprint.
This weekend was also the debut of a new addition to qualifying, the “joker” hot lap – during which a car’s PowerBoost could be engaged. Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani used his for the sprint, continuing a string of poles at Sepang.
The start of the Sprint would erupt in chaos as the front row anticipated the green flag but the jittering rippled to the back of the grid where the drivers thought those at the front had seen green. Marco Andretti of Team USA planted the throttle and realised too late that those in front weren’t moving. The USA entry flew over the back of the Team India car while Felipe Guimaraes followed suit. On the other side, cars spilled out on the grass to avoid a similar collision.
“I’m disappointed. You can say it’s unavoidable but at the time I thought everyone was going and I could only see two rows ahead of me. I couldn’t see ahead of the whole field. I was about to grab fourth gear, and as soon as the rear tyres were hooking up that was when I needed to be stopping the car so there was no hope. Once you are committed you are kind of stuck with it. In the States you either go or you don’t. Here, they went, and then stopped. No one was to blame, it was just racing, but ultimately I crashed out two cars,” said Andretti.
For the first time in A1GP’s short existence, the drivers faced a mandatory pit stop during the sprint race. Jani had already pulled into the distance by the time the rest of the field started their stops and most of the excitement was directed toward the dice between Earl Bamber of New Zealand and Loic Duval of France for second position. Bamber had the edge over Duval on exit, but officials declared that Bamber had cut off the Frenchman in order to gain the position.
Jani went on the take the win, securing an extra point for the fastest lap, while Bamber allowed Duval to pass and cross the line in second, with the Kiwi car in third – exactly the same positions they qualified for. “It was a great race, we had very good pace, a good re-start and pit stop so it was just a perfect race for me,” said Jani.
For the start of the Feature, Team USA had rebuilt Andretti’s car (who was eager to make up for his costly mistake) while Adam Carroll pulled cleanly off the line to take the lead. Second on the front row, Danny Watts of Great Britain Racing faltered on the start line and fell victim to the sharp responses of Lebanon, Malaysia and Portugal.
Jani, starting in last for the feature, tried to make his way up the field, but trying to get close to the Brazilian car, he spun and stalled the car on track. Things got worse for Team GBR when Watts’ front wing was knocked off as well.
At the restart Carroll once again took the lead while Portugal pulled behind for second and Lebanon and Malaysia followed in third and fourth. Soon local Fairuz Fauzy moved up third to the delight of the home fans. Andretti soon emerged in Fauzy’s rear view mirror after the first pit stops, but just as the battle for the final podium spot was heating up, the Malaysian car pulled in to the pits for no apparent reason. He tried to regain third but Andretti was already on his was for his first A1GP podium.
“The team called me in for the first pit stop, it was fine, and we went out in the same position again, with the same gap to second placed Portugal. After ten laps I was struggling with over steer on the car, I’m not sure why – maybe the rear tyres pressures were too high, or the rears had just gone. I tried to radio the team, got nothing, and then Box this lap, Box this lap, and then Copy that, then I boxed. When I came in I saw the team was not ready so I knew something was not right. I just had to carry on, but obviously I was very disappointed,” Fauzy explained.
Carroll crossed the line unchallenged for the win, while Portugal came in second, followed by Andretti in third. Although Carroll scored maximum points for his effort during the feature and the Irish are in the championship lead, the Portuguese now lie second in the championship standings (just eight points behind Ireland) after their win in China and good finishes in Malaysia.
“We were starting from pole position and I just concentrated on getting a good start, which allowed me to control the race from there. It’s a long race, the car’s heavy at the start so you just run as fast as you can and be smooth and it allowed us to open up quite a good gap. “We planned to come here and try and come away leading the championship and we have. Winning the race is just a good bonus and I’m going to fight hard to keep it,” said Carroll.
As the A1GP season comes to a standstill for the holiday season, it will be interesting to see how the A1 veterans of Switzerland, France and New Zealand respond to the new threat of Ireland and Portugal, and the effect the new “joker” lap will have on starting grids from now on. The next round of A1GP takes place on January 26 2009 at Taupo, New Zealand.