A1 Grand Prix of Nations
A1 Team Netherlands Thrill the Crowds in Assen
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (August 10, 2009) — The Dutch fans had their first glimpse of the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car at the Rizla Racing Day in Assen this weekend (Sunday 9 August) ahead of Season Five.

The series will head to the TT Circuit Assen to race for the first time on 14-16 May 2010, but last Sunday the Dutch, who have proved one of the most enthusiastic and loyal set of fans, had their first taste of A1GP around the world famous circuit.

At the annual Rizla Racing Day, A1 Team Netherlands star Jeroen Bleekemolen put the car through its paces for some demonstration laps and donuts, much to the delight of the cheering crowds.

A1 Team Netherlands seat holder Jan Lammers was on hand to see all the action:

"What a delight to hear the sound of our Powered by Ferrari engine start up. After the summer break we couldn't wait to get started again. The Rizla Racing Day was another great display of the never fading enthusiasm of our Dutch fans. Jeroen Bleekemolen got them to put their hands together again as they applauded the spectacular demonstration that he did for them.

“The A1GP organisation is finalising what I think will be a great calendar with the first A1GP event at Surfers Paradise on October 25. What better place could there be to start our fifth season.”

Talking about his home event next season he continued: “The A1GP event in Assen on May 16, 2010 is only nine months away and ticket sales have already picked up. Sponsorship and driver negotiations for A1 Team Netherlands are well underway and progressing nicely. A1GP is still the coolest concept and best thing that has ever happened to motorsport so with great ambition we are looking forward to taking on the world again and fighting for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport"

A1GP Season Five Calendar Approved by FIA
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LONDON, Great Britain (June 25, 2009) — The Season Five Calendar for A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has been approved by the FIA at this week’s World Motorsport Council Meeting. Ten dates have been submitted, starting with the first race of the 2009/10 season, the Nitro SuperGP in Australia on 22-25 October.

“We are in a totally different position to most series as we straddle two calendar years. This makes announcing a calendar with all its dates and venues more challenging. However, we are well advanced with all our Season Five contracts, and for those we have yet to make public have plans to announce them with events in the specific countries,” said A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira.

The two races announced to date are completely new events in the Gold Coast and Assen, but the series will also include some of the traditional A1GP events. “Our plans include some very exciting new venues that I can assure the teams and the fans will be very popular. While at the moment we have submitted a ten race calendar, I am hopeful of adding one or two more dates in the coming months,” added Teixeira.

Nitro SuperGP General Manager Greg Hooton said he looked forward to hosting the A1GP on the streets of Surfers Paradise come October.

“It is fantastic to be the first event of the 2009/2010 A1GP season, and everyone here is looking forward to hosting the World Cup of Motorsport on the Gold Coast,” said Hooton.

“The A1GP will join the Australian V8 Supercars Championship Series as the co-headline act at the world’s premiere motorsport festival, the Nitro SuperGP, which is enjoying its 19 consecutive year in 2009.”
 

Ireland Takes Sprint Victory at Brands Hatch
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BRANDS HATCH, Great Britain (May 3, 2009) – A1 Team Ireland and Adam Carroll moved one step closer to the team’s maiden title after taking victory in this morning’s Sprint race at A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain.

India’s Narain Karthikeyan finished second with Mexico’s Salvador Duran taking the final podium position.

Ireland got a good start but Mexico had a better run into Paddock Hill, taking the lead around the outside through the first corner. Ireland settled into second from USA, Portugal, India and Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Australia’s John Martin took advantage of a mistake by Switzerland’s Neel Jani to take eighth place before the mandatory pit stop window opened.

India made the decision to pit early alongside Lebanon, Germany and Malaysia. A lap later Mexico and Ireland made their way into the pits but after an incredibly quick stop by the Irish team, Adam Carroll regained the lead with India taking second.

John R Hildebrand continued his good weekend form in his first race for A1 Team USA today by moving up to third after the pit stops, pushing Mexico down to fourth. Monaco’s Clivio Piccione had problems leaving the pits, rolling to a stop at the pit lane exit.

On lap nine the order was Ireland from India, USA, Mexico, Portugal, Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland.

Duran was then able to capitalise on a mistake from Hildebrand at the final corner which gave the Mexican a good run to take third into the first corner.

Carroll now had a 3.867-second lead from India but still kept the fans on the edge of their seats kicking up the dust showing no sign of easing off the pace.

On lap 15 Lebanon’s Daniel Morad lost the back end and spun into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend with New Zealand’s Earl Bamber also going into the gravel to avoid hitting the Lebanese car, leaving both cars out the race.

Carroll took victory with a comfortable 7.230-second margin over India. Mexico’s Duran settled for the final podium position.

A1 Team Brazil did not make the start after being unable to repair the car in time for this morning’s Sprint race. The team is still working hard and hopes to have the car ready in time for this afternoon’s Feature race.

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque finished fifth with Switzerland’s Jani taking a single point for eighth. Ireland now leads the championship with 97 points from Switzerland (89) and Portugal (86).

Ireland needs to finish fifth or better in this afternoon’s Feature race to guarantee them the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport title.

“It’s never easy,” said Ireland’s Adam Carroll. “Sprint races are always quite strange; they’re tougher than the Feature race for some reason. I could see Mexico pushing very hard so just let then get on with it and hoped the boys would come up with the goods in the pit stop and they did. It’s a relief for this race to be over and once this afternoon is done we can relax.”

India’s Narain Karthikeyan said: “it was difficult after a small mistake in qualifying as we should have been further up the grid. The car is working well so I think we are looking good for another podium this afternoon.”

Mexico’s Salvador Duran said: “I did a small mistake put still the team did a great job and put me out in a podium position. To achieve a podium is great for us and it’s a developing project for next season.”

Ireland in Pole Position for A1GP Title
Photos © A1GP.com
BRANDS HATCH, Great Britain (May 2, 2009) – A1 Team Ireland’s Adam Carroll drove two stunning laps to put the Celtic Tiger on pole position for both of tomorrow’s A1GP Brands Hatch races, boosting the team’s chances of lifting the World Cup of Motorsport tomorrow.

With four minutes to go in the first qualifying segment of the day, Malaysia’s Aaron Lim was first to turn a wheel closely followed by the rest of the field making for a chaotic final few minutes. Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen posted the quickest time with an impressive margin of 0.6 seconds on the rest of the field, with Ireland just behind in second. A1 Team Great Britain’s Dan Clarke made a good start to the day recording the third-quickest time as qualifying got underway.

In the final segment of Sprint qualifying, however, nine teams opted to use their one PowerBoost available during qualifying hoping to go for glory in the final Sprint race of the season. One of the nations to employ this tactic was championship hopeful Portugal. However, on new tyres, Carroll recorded a 1m 11.615s, without using the extra horse power available to claim the front spot. Mexico’s Salvador Duran made the most of his PowerBoost to record a 1m 11.653 to start alongside Ireland on the front row, with Netherlands’ Bleekemolen ending the session third. Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque, one of the three teams still in contention for the title, will start fifth. Without PowerBoost Switzerland recorded the eighth quickest time to keep its title hopes alive. Jani will start just ahead of Indonesia’s Satrio Hermanto who claimed the team’s best grid position in two-years on his return to the race seat.

USA, Indonesia and France went out early in the first segment of Feature qualifying, followed by Italy’s Tonio Liuzzi, who spun at Sheen curve, keeping the engine going but ruining his hot lap. In a change to its usual strategy, championship contender Switzerland opted to use PowerBoost, initially putting it on provisional pole. Ireland went second quickest, ahead of Monaco, New Zealand and Australia.

In a dramatic final segment China and South Africa were both out early, using their PowerBoost laps to record a final time of the day.

There was a slight hesitation as Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães crashed heavily just as Switzerland and Ireland were about to leave their garages. The pair headed out on track with the yellow flags luckily being withdrawn before they began their hot laps, going head-to-head to try and grab the top spot in what was a tense drama. Ireland, who had saved its PowerBoost for its final run, recorded another stunning time of 1m10.902s but Switzerland’s Neel Jani ended in the gravel at Druids, and will start fourth for tomorrow’s Feature race.

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque will start fifth and ninth. Great Britain’s Dan Clarke will start 13th and 14th in the Sprint and Feature races respectively, and will be hoping to move up the field in front of his home fans tomorrow.

“It’s a good start, and that’s where I wanted to be,” said Ireland’s Adam Carroll, “as close to the front as possible. The car felt very good, we were unsure after testing but I knew we just needed new tyres and the guys gave me a great car.”

“We came into this weekend knowing we had to attack it to be at the front so it was a little bit risky, but with Brazil going off it was a good decision not to red flag the session and allow us the opportunity to go out and get pole.”

Second for the Sprint race, Mexico’s Salvador Duran said: “I have been working with this car for three weekends now and I am starting to get confident. I knew that as soon as I came to a circuit I was familiar with we would start seeing the car go better. I am going to go out tomorrow with all that I have and win some points, now that the Mexico race is cancelled we need to do something for the supporters and I will do my best.”

Monaco’s Clivio Piccione, who will be on the front row for the Feature race said: “That last lap was pretty good, I am a bit disappointed Ireland got ahead of me in the last minute but that’s the game. The car went really well overall so I am looking forward to the race. I think we are aiming to finishing on a high so will do what I can; I am here to win it.”

A1GP Stars Tour London
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (April 30, 2009) – London played host to A1GP World Cup of Motorsport drivers today as they were given a tour of the Capital’s most iconic sights in the build up to this weekend’s A1GP season finale at Brands Hatch, Great Britain, 1- 3 May on a Big Bus Tours open top bus. —>MORE

Clarke to Lead A1 Team Great Britain at Home Event
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LONDON, Great Britain (April 24, 2009) — A1GP World Cup of Motorsport heads to Brands Hatch for the penultimate round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 2008/09 season next weekend, 1- 3 May, with Dan Clarke hoping for success in front of his home crowd and Aaron Steele getting his first chance in the Rookie session at his local track.

Homenation A1 Team Great Britain has had a mixed season to date sitting tenth in the championship, despite claiming two podium finishes and a pole position in Chengdu, China. —>MORE

Doornbos Takes Sprint Race Victory in Portugal
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ALGARVE, Portugal (April 12, 2009) – Robert Doornbos took his maiden victory for A1 Team Netherlands this morning after a red flag prematurely ended the Sprint race of Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal.

Ireland’s Adam Carroll brought the Celtic Tiger home a comfortable second and also claimed a point for fastest lap to retake the championship lead from Switzerland while home favourite Filipe Albuquerque took the final podium position much to the delight of the Portuguese crowd.

Doornbos made a clean start to take the lead from Italian pole-sitter Vitantonio Liuzzi, while Ireland’s Adam Carroll held on to third as the field headed through turn one for the first time.

Just behind the leaders, New Zealand’s Earl Bamber came across the track in front of Lebanon’s Daniel Morad, with the Kiwi landing himself in the gravel and out of the race. Germany’s Andre Lotterer then also came together with Lebanon while trying to go around the outside of the hairpin, ending his race with significant damage to the left rear of his car. The two incidents resulted in the Safety Car being deployed before the end of lap one.

The order was now the Netherlands leading from Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Monaco, India, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico and USA. The race re-started on lap four with Liuzzi looking to find a way passed Doornbos, while Australia’s John Martin got ahead of USA’s Marco Andretti to take ninth into the first corner.

With the pit stop window now open, race-leader Doornbos was the first man to head in for his first scheduled stop of the day. Monaco, India, Brazil, Great Britain and China followed with the Brazil car clipping a tyre held by one of the Chinese mechanics as Felipe Guimarães’ exited his pit box. The tyre flew down the pit lane but was recovered by the team, although the incident delayed the China pit stop dropping them down the field.

A lap later Italy, Ireland and Portugal dived into the pit lane and great stops from the Irish and Portuguese teams saw their cars exit the pit lane ahead of the Italian.

Championship leader Switzerland had a difficult start to the day. After starting from the back of the grid due to not setting a time in qualifying yesterday, Neel Jani stayed out late before pitting right at the end of the pit stop window. The Swiss driver rejoined in a points’ paying position however, the pit stop was deemed too late by the stewards and the team were awarded a time penalty which dropped them down to an eventual fifteenth.

Doornbos had built up a healthy lead out in front before a crash involving Felipe Guimarães’ Brazilian car and South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg brought out the red flags with three laps remaining. Doornbos claimed his first victory for the Netherlands while Ireland and Portugal completed the podium. Ireland’s extra point for Carroll’s fastest lap of 1m31.404s helped the team re-established itself at the top of the championship standings.

“From first practice onwards we were aiming for this,” said the Netherlands’ Doornbos. “The target is the big one though, and that is where we’ve got the pole so we’re in a strong position for this afternoon. To get my first win for the team is great and it keeps us in the championship hunt as well, so it’s good.

“I got a good run on Antonio (Liuzzi). At the safety car restart and I pulled away with a nice gap and then afterwards cruised it home so it was a good morning. I came especially for this race. It is the last one I can do this season for A1 Team Netherlands so I’m very keen on making my mark and to leave with some fireworks this afternoon.”

Ireland’s Adam Carroll said: “That’s just what we needed. We got a good start. I’m sure it was tight down into the first few turns but I got through and was able to settle down.

“The guys did a really good pit stop, which allowed us to jump Italy and then push on. I think I actually got fastest lap as well. It was very, very close. But that’s some more points and it was a great race. It’s going to be a long Feature race this afternoon but hopefully we can do the same.”

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque said: “This means a lot. I gave my word to the Portuguese that a win or podium would be fantastic. Yesterday qualifying was not great but finally I was able to get a podium. I am very happy and to decrease the distance to Neel Jani in the championship is good.

“I managed to overtake Lebanon which was definitely my goal at the start. I managed to catch Adam Carroll but not by enough in the first lap, however, I think it was a good start.

“The boys did a good job (in the pit stop). When I passed Italy I knew that was the podium because I was faster than him.”

A1 Team Mexico Finished 4th and earned its first points in Portugal
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ALGARVE, Portugal (April 12th, 2009) – After all the problems they had back on Friday, the team and driver Salvador Duran came back from the bottom and earned their first points of the season, with which ‘Chava’ remains as the driver who has brought the best results for the team.

A1 Team Mexico added up a total of 8 points with their performance in the sixth round of the season, which was held in the Autodromo Internacional de Algarve, located near the city of Portimão, in Portugal.

Despite starting from a back position on the grid of the Sprint race, Salvador managed to climb up from 16th to finish 9th, with a great performance in which he even briefly leaded the race.

“The problem of the fuel pump was solved for the Sprint race and after having a bad qualifying position we were able to recover many places during the race, from sixteenth to ninth, which was great for us. The car was not perfect, we continued to have problems with the rear and lost grip on the corners”, commented Salvador. “After the race we found a problem in the back of the underfloor, where the plank is; it was getting loose and we had a lot of drag. We lost speed on the straight. We changed many things there and also used a much softer set up, because the second race is longer and the car has more fuel than in the Sprint race”, added the Mexican driver.

Salvador began the Feature race from 13th on the grid and won three places at the start. By lap 13th he leaded for three laps. Later on, on lap 28, he leaded again for five laps and even when he could not use the Power Boost during the last 20 laps, he managed to stay in the top positions to eventually finish 4th after Ireland was given a 25 second penalty for overtaking while the Safety Car was on the track.

“For the second race the car felt a lot better after all the changes we made. I think our strategy did not help us very much because the tires with which we started the race were almost new, then we put a set of new tires and for the last part of the race we put another one, this time a very used set of tires. By the second half of the race, when we were doing better, a full track yellow flag came out and for a long time so we were not able to use our new tires appropriately. Besides, we still have to improve our settings on new tires”, stated the driver.

On the last part of the race, with very worn tires, Duran lost an average six tenths per lap. “In the end we got a good result, with a little bit of luck and a little bit of everything, but the truth is, with every race we are getting closer to the level that we should have".

Liuzzi Claims Italy’s First Pole Position in Portugal
Photos © A1GP.com
ALGARVE, Portugal (April 11, 2009) – Round Six of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport continued this afternoon with Vitantonio Liuzzi claiming Italy’s first ever A1GP pole position in the Sprint race in tomorrow’s Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal. Robert Doornbos took his first pole position for A1 Team Netherlands in Feature race qualifying.

With the title battle heating up the pressure is mounting on the top title contenders, but only a few minutes into the first qualifying segment the red flag was out as China’s Ho-Pin Tung spun and got stuck out on track. As the clock continued to tick down the green flags were waved but, with only a couple of minutes remaining, seven teams did not have time to record a lap. These included the two championship rivals, Switzerland and Ireland. The second qualifying segment began but Switzerland were in even more trouble as the engine died and left Jani stranded out on track, unable to set a time and bringing out a second red flag. As the teams lined up at the end of the pit lane, there was drama for Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães who struggled to get his car going, so hampering a number of teams exiting the pits as he got his car going again.

Despite both segments of Sprint race qualifying being interrupted by red flags, Liuzzi timed his run to perfection. Making full use of the one PowerBoost lap available to him he claimed pole position for A1 Team Italy on his A1GP debut with a time of 1-minute 30.875-seconds. The Netherlands kept its practice form together in qualifying with Robert Doornbos second on the grid for the Sprint, while A1 Team Ireland’s Adam Carroll kept his championship hopes alive by making up for a problematic day yesterday to start third.

In Feature race qualifying the field had its first full 10-minute run without any interruptions and Doornbos was straight on the pace to post the provisional pole position time. The Swiss mechanics worked frantically to get Jani back out on track for the final qualifying segment of the day, with the championship leader, the Netherlands, Ireland and Portugal, having PowerBoost available for their final runs of the day.

Doornbos went one grid position better in Feature qualifying to claim his first pole position of the series with a 1-minute 30.415-second lap, and is determined to take a win on his final outing for the team this season.

Ireland will line up alongside him on the front row after another good performance from Adam Carroll, while South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg scored the team’s best qualifying result of the season to start fourth.

Not one to falter under pressure, Jani put in a great lap to take third for the Feature race. After a disastrous Sprint race qualifying, the Swiss driver could be in a vulnerable position as both the Netherlands and Ireland look extremely strong heading into tomorrow’s races when the excitement in Portugal looks set to continue.

Italy’s Vitantonio Liuzzi said: “We got a bit warm after the red flag because the time was passing by in the first qualifying session. After we saw the green flag, we were just trying to get the right spot and it worked out really well I think.”

“It was an exciting day,” said the Netherlands’ Robert Doornbos. “In the Sprint qualifying we were aiming for the P1 spot. We were P1 and I thought that was quite easy because I didn’t use PowerBoost, but then we heard that Antonio (Liuzzi) was on PowerBoost. I thought he would pass me but still second was a good result. Then we went all out for the Feature race, because that is a race the Netherlands hasn’t won yet this season so is the target for this weekend. I wanted to be sure that I would get a lap in so I kept asking my engineer if there was traffic. He said no but then Lebanon came out into turn one, and we touched wheels. I passed him on the outside, and I was four tenths off in the first sector so I was shouting on the radio, but my engineer did a good job in calming me down and I tried to finish the lap. The car has been really good and I still managed to put in a good time and it was the longest ten seconds of my life waiting in the pit lane for Adam (Carroll) to finish but luckily we held onto pole.”

Ireland’s Adam Carroll said: “We decided not to finish the lap (in Q1) as there was just so much traffic in front so we just decided to save the tyres. It’s not always nice when you don’t get a lap in but that’s the way it goes, you just forget about it and move onto the next one.

“I don’t actually know what goes on during qualifying. I don’t really watch it as I’m concentrating on what I’m doing, but we will have to beat everybody to win this championship. It’s going to be a tough race tomorrow and it should be good for everybody to watch.”

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque who will start fifth and seventh for his home event tomorrow commented: “We were pretty strong yesterday and this morning but basically on the new tyres we were not fast enough. In Feature qualifying I was on the limit and made a small mistake and then the tyres were dirty for the rest of the lap.”

A1 Team Monaco – Ready to Return to the Action in Portugal
News from A1 Team Monaco
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MONACO, (6 April 2009) —The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport is heading to Portugal for only the second time in its history and for the first time to the brand new Autódromo Internacional do Algarve circuit. The Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal will be the host of round six of the series from 10-12 April 2009.

“It's been a long time since I was in the car and I can’t wait to get back to racing following our in results in South Africa,” said Clivio Piccione, driver for the team. “Everybody in the team has been working very hard on a lot of details to make sure that we arrive in Portugal in the best position possible. I have continued with a lot of training and had the chance to go on the simulator yesterday. It was my first taste of the Portimão track and I believe it will suit my driving style. I like the layout, the flow of the corners and so I am confident that we can do a good job next week - to maintain momentum and pick up where we left off in Kyalami.”

A1 Team Monaco is eager to arrive in Portugal for the closing stages of the 2008/9 season. A new track brings with it a new set of challenges and also the excitement of the unknown. The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve features 17 corners, with a generous downhill slope and right-hand turn following immediately after the main straight. The track looks set to provide some good overtaking opportunities and competitive racing when the A1GP circus comes to town.

The latest circuit on the A1GP calendar is 4,692 kms (2,915 miles) long and located in Portimão, Portugal. With a total cost of €195 million (approximately $250 million), the project includes a karting track, technology park, five-star hotel, sports complex and apartments. With a capacity of 100,000 spectators, 15,000 of which can be seated in the main grand stand, the facilities available for the fans promise to be second to none.

Construction was finished in October 2008 and the circuit was homologated by both the FIM and the FIA a few days later. The track has already begun to host a selection of top international motorsport events. A proven testing ground for Formula One at the end of 2008 and the beginning of this year, the circuit also hosted the final round of the Superbike World Championship last November. A night Sportscar event and an FIA GT round will also be held at the new Algarve circuit later in 2009.

Graham Taylor, Team Principal said,” It has been too long between championship rounds and Team Monaco is itching to get back to racing. We expect the success seen in Kyalami to be repeated in Portugal and are all hungry to experience the state-of-the-art venue in Portimão. It is always refreshing to experience a brand new circuit and Parc Algarve has to be congratulated on producing a race track for the brave and a facility fit for the highest levels of motorsport.”

Momentum Builds for A1GP Algarve
Photos © A1GP.com
ALGARVE, Portugal (April 7, 2009) – A1 Team Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque made a final appearance at the WRC Rally of Portugal yesterday as the build up continues to the Vodafone A1GP Algarve, 10 – 12 April, with the next event being the Portimão A1GP Speed Demo this week.

The distinctive notes of the Ferrari engine could be heard for a final time entertaining the crowds as Albuquerque powered his A1GP car around the Super Special Stage in the Estadio Algarve, the base of the Vodafone Rally of Portugal.

“It was harder yesterday, said Albuquerque, “because there was a lot more rubber on the track so I struggled a little bit to do donuts. It was still a good show though and the crowd enjoyed it. I could still interact with them and tried to think where I could improve the show for them after last Thursday so I gave it more revs and they were happier.”

After entertaining the crowds at the WRC, A1 Team Portugal will also be appearing in the Portimão A1GP Speed Demo in the Portimão Marina this week.

Surrounded by some of the most beautiful beaches of Europe, the Portimão Marina includes restaurants, shops, bars and an Oceanic swimming-pool facing out to sea.

Between 19.00 and 20.30 on Wednesday (8 April) fans will be able to get up close to the A1 Team Portugal car, as well as getting a chance to take a closer look at some of the other top teams in the championship. A1 Teams Ireland and the Netherlands will be there as well as the FHM grid girls in front of the stunning backdrop of the Portimao Marina. Spectators will also have another chance to hear the Ferrari engine as Albuquerque drives the A1GP car along the avenue to the marina. A1GP’s Ferrari 599 Safety Car will also be taking to the streets to entertain the fans. A selection of drivers will also be joining Portugal’s star driver to meet fans and sign autographs ahead of the racing action at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve this weekend. Fans will also be able to purchase tickets for the event at the Portimão A1GP Speed Demo.

Commenting on the Portimão A1GP Speed Demo, Albuquerque continued: “It’s fantastic because if you go to a race track you don’t normally get as close to the drivers and cars as you can there, it would never normally be possible so I think it’s unique and a one off opportunity. I will be there and will try to put on the best show possible so I think fans should make sure they don’t miss it.”

Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal takes place from 10-12 April at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. Tickets for the event can be purchased at Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and nationwide at FNAC, Media Markt, El Corte Inglês, Pavilhão Atlântico, Arena de Portimão and at www.autodromodoalgarve.com. Further information about the event can be found at www.A1GP.com

A1GP and Filipe Albuquerque Get Among the Action at Rally Portugal
Photos © A1GP.com
ALGARVE, Portugal (April 2, 2009) –- A1GP World Cup of Motorsport and A1 Team Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque made a guest appearance at the opening special stage of the Vodafone Rally of Portugal today, the fourth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship. This is the first of several spectacular events involving Albuquerque and the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car he will race in next week’s Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal on the 10 – 12 April.

Fans had their first taste of the A1GP car in action at the Estadio Algarve this afternoon when the 23-year-old drove around the Super Special Stage at Rally Portugal in front of his home fans.

As well as giving fans the chance to get up close to the A1GP car in the exhibition area, A1 Team Portugal’s star driver took time out to meet and greet the fans for autographs and photos ahead of his home event next weekend.

“The crowd seemed to enjoy it, said Albuquerque. “They loved the A1GP car – especially as it’s the Portuguese car. I have been to watch the rally here before with friends but this time it was different as I was out on the circuit myself.

“All crowds like to see some burnouts with smoke coming off the tyres and hear the engine noise so it was nice to give them that. I always like to do donuts in the car but it’s not as easy as it seems as you need to control the throttle to keep the car in the tight space, but when you do it’s a good show. I felt much closer to the people in the stadium so I could interact with them more; the people next to me where signaling for more spins. I couldn’t hear them, but I could see on their faces that they were going crazy. I really enjoyed being so close to the fans.”

The Vodafone Rally of Portugal, round four of the World Rally Championship, is taking place from 2-5 April 2009.

A new-look Rally Portugal returned to the calendar in 2007, moving from Portugal’s west coast to a new host town, Vilamoura, in the Algarve. After taking a year off in 2008, the event has returned to the calendar and will be the first pure gravel rally of the WRC 2009 season

The bulk of the stages are based in the Serra do Caldeirao hills, north of Faro, with drivers tackling a total of 18 stages and a competitive distance of 361.36km over the four-day event. The rally is again based at Estadio Algarve, which houses a Super Special Stage that opened the event this evening and will close it on Sunday afternoon.

Albuquerque will drive the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car on the Super Special Stage for a final time on Sunday 5 April at 12:45.

Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal takes place from 10-12 April at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. Tickets for the event can be acquired at Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and nationwide at FNAC, Media Markt, El Corte Inglês, Pavilhão Atlântico, Arena de Portimão and at www.autodromodoalgarve.com  Further information about the event can be found at www.A1GP.com

A1GP and Filipe Albuquerque to make Special Appearance at WRC Rally of Portugal
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (March 28, 2009) – A1GP World Cup of Motorsport and ACP today announced that Filipe Albuquerque will be making a special appearance at the special stages of the WRC Rally of Portugal.

Fans will be able to get their first glimpse of the A1GP car at a demonstration at the Algarve stadium on Wednesday 1 April following the completion of the days WRC stages. Albuquerque will then drive the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car on the special stage on Thursday 2 April at 17:30 and again on Sunday 5 April at 12:45.

Fans will also have an exclusive chance to get up close to the A1GP car in the exhibition area between Thursday 2 – Sunday 5 April. There will also be the opportunity to buy tickets for the A1GP Algarve event, taking place 10 – 12 April at the brand new Autódromo Internacional do Algarve circuit and information on how fans can win a FIAT 500. Filipe Albuquerque will also be visiting the stand to meet fans and sign autographs.

Filipe Albuquerque said, “I am very excited about the chance to drive the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car at the special stages of the Rally of Portugal. It is the first time an A1GP driver has had the opportunity to drive the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car at a WRC event and it is great chance to give Portuguese racing fans a taster of the action that lies ahead at A1GP Algarve.”

The Vodafone Rally of Portugal, round four of the World Rally Championship, is taking place from 2-5 April 2009. Further information about the event can be found at www.rallydeportugal.pt

A1GP Algarve, Portugal takes place from 10-12 April at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. Tickets for the event can be acquired at Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and nationwide at FNAC, Media Market, El Corte Inglês, Pavilhão Atlântico, Arena de Portimão and at www.autodromodoalgarve.com  Further information about the event can be found at www.A1GP.com

Switzerland Take Feature Race Victory in South Africa
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GAUTENG, South Africa (February 22, 2009) – Switzerland’s Neel Jani claimed victory in this afternoon’s Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa Feature race with what his Seat Holder, Max Welti, would most likely call a ‘gorgeous’ drive from fifth on the grid. The win means Neel Jani equals the all-time win record for a driver, Nico Hulkenberg’s record of nine wins for Germany.

Jani finished 13.176 seconds ahead of Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães, the 17-year-old putting in a mature drive to record the team’s best result of the year at the Kyalami circuit despite crashing heavily at the end of yesterday’s qualifying. Pole-sitter Clivio Piccione finished in third for Monaco after losing the lead to Switzerland in the first round of pit stops and then dropping behind Brazil after making a mistake.

As the Feature race got underway, Switzerland made a fantastic start to move from fifth to second into turn one. A1 Team Ireland’s Adam Carroll was making a move around the outside of Malaysia for fourth when the pair touched resulting in the championship leader being beached in the gravel and out of the race.

Brazil made a good start, running in sixth by the end of lap one, while the battle for third was on as Malaysia began putting pressure on New Zealand’s Earl Bamber. Bamber’s defensive driving kept Malaysia at bay until lap four when Malaysia touched the rear wheel of New Zealand with Bamber spinning into the gravel. Fauzy was then forced to pit with a suspected slow puncture from the incident and after changing a front tyre, he returned to the track, although now back in 16th place. A few laps later Fauzy returned to the pits for his mandatory stop and with four new tyres returned to the race track.

On the same lap, Mexico and France also came together at the same corner ending both their races.

On lap nine the first mandatory pit stops began with race-leader Monaco not having the quickest of stops. Switzerland’s slick team-work enabled Jani to leap-frog Piccione and take the lead in Kyalami. Despite having a good stop, Australia had a disaster in the pit lane when John Martin stalled as another car came across in front of him when he was about to leave his pit box. He eventually got going but dropped down from third to 15th as a result.

USA’s Marco Andretti was the last to pit, but on rejoining lost four positions as South Africa, Germany, Lebanon and Indonesia all found their way passed the American car.

Local A1 Team South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg was looking strong, having moved up from 15th to ninth, but on lap 17 coasted back to the pits and out of the race with gearbox problems.

Daniel Morad was putting in a good performance in the A1 Team Lebanon car to get passed Germany for seventh. Morad made his move around the outside of Michael Ammermüller through turn one before taking the inside line through turn two and the position.

On lap 19 the order was now Switzerland from Monaco, Brazil, Netherlands, Great Britain, Portugal, Lebanon, Germany, Indonesia and China.

As the race reached half distance, Brazil began closing the gap to Monaco. The Brazilian car was only 0.466-seconds adrift on lap 24 with the 17-year-old finally capitalising on a mistake by Piccione to take second position.

In the second round of pit stops Switzerland had a ten second lead and another clean stop brought Jani out with a comfortable lead.

After the second pit stops, Malaysia continued to struggle with the handling of the car and was finally forced to go back to the team garage. The team worked quickly to resolve the problems and were finally able to send Fauzy back on track. With no hope of finishing in the top ten to score points, the team took the decision to use the PowerBoost and set the fastest race lap to score one point and Fauzy quickly accomplished this recording a 1m28.306s.

In the final stages of the race India put pressure on Italy’s Edoardo Piscopo for tenth. Narain Karthikeyan tried on a number of occasions to pass the 21-year-old Italian but to no avail.

Lebanon’s Morad was now chasing Great Britain’s Danny Watts for sixth and, with three laps to go, made a fantastic move on Watts to record Lebanon’s best ever A1GP finish, only its second ever points-finish.

Switzerland’s Neel Jani took the chequered flag 13.075-seconds ahead of a delighted Felipe Guimarães who recorded the team’s best result of the season and become the youngest ever A1GP medal winner. Clivio Piccione finished third getting Monaco’s first ever podium in its debut season.

Switzerland is now top of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport standings with A1 Team Ireland crashing out on lap one after an incident with Malaysia.

Switzerland’s Neel Jani said: “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. 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. But after it I could really keep up my pace.”

Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães said: “I am so happy as it’s the first time I have been on the podium. Yesterday I had the big crash in qualifying and I didn’t think that today I would finish on the podium! But I had a great start then during the race the car was good. It was a bit worrying at the end because the engine was losing power, but we managed to keep going to the finish thankfully. I was pushing hard but not taking any risks and we brought it home in second. I really wanted to do a good job today and I have.”

Third placed Clivio Piccione commented: “At first we got in the lead and I kept a distance from Switzerland. The car felt pretty good as well. We got into our first stints and then comes the tricky bit – the pit stop. For now, we’re not the quickest team in the pit stops and we know it. But the team did the best they could and we know we’re going to work it out. Our second stint was a bit of a struggle as I suffered with a lot of understeer and I think my tyres were not at their best. I made a slight mistake and Brazil got through. Then we went for our last pit stop where we knew we had new tyres. We had a problem on the back wheel but got out in third. From there on I could push pretty hard and we were catching Brazil because they struggled as well. Still overall it’s a good result – I’m pleased with the final ending.”

On claiming the team’s first podium in its debut season he continued: “We are only six months old and we started a team from scratch. So we are a brand new team in a brand new series for us – and a new car, so we got used to it like everyone. We had a good start to the season then we had a struggle in the middle with some missed data. From this weekend on we knew what was wrong and we’re back at the front so I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and I hope to come back here many times.”

A1 Team South Africa’s Zaugg, who endured a difficult home event, commented: “The first laps were not bad at all and we were able to actually get past France as well. But already from lap six onwards I started to hear strange noises in the engine, especially in second gear. And I also then start to feel like a drop in power accelerating in second gear. But I just carried on. I informed the team but they just told me to carry on. And that’s what I did and eventually I started to get misfires. Eventually on the breaking and changing down to second gear, the engine just went off. I kept rolling and the engine went back on and eventually I tried to continue but it carried on misfiring so in the end I just had to give it up.

Taking about racing in front of his home crowds he continued: “that really boosted me, especially this morning when I saw the people there and after the drivers’ parade - all the people cheering for me. So I feel really sorry for all of them you. They all came here to see us race and do well and unfortunately we couldn’t finish the race. But I want to just say thanks to all the supporters. We have had a really difficult season so far. But I think we really improved with lots of things this weekend and I hope we can carry on positive from here.”
 

A1GP Title Fight Continues in South Africa
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (February 17, 2009) – A1GP World Cup of Motorsport makes its first ever visit to South Africa’s most famous motor racing circuit, Kyalami, this weekend for round five of the series, Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa on 20 - 22 February 2009.

The Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit is located in Gauteng province, just north of Johannesburg and has a rich history of international motorsport events on four and two wheels. —>MORE

Ireland Take Taupo Sprint Victory
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, New Zealand (January 24, 2009) – A1 Team Ireland’s Adam Carroll converted pole position into victory in the Sprint race at Taupo Motorsport Park this morning, extending the team’s lead at the top of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport standings.

Switzerland’s Neel Jani finished second after a great pit stop from the team helped bump him up the order, from fourth on the grid. The Netherlands’ Robert Doornbos finished third, ahead of France’s Loïc Duval. Home driver for A1 Team New Zealand, Chris van der Drift, brought Black Beauty home in fifth place.

Adam Carroll made a perfect getaway from the standing start to lead the pack into the first turn, and make an early break from the rest of the field. Doornbos also had a clean start from alongside him on the front row with the top five holding position as they completed the first lap. New Zealand had a slow start, much to the disappointment of the home crowd, while Great Britain’s Dan Clarke, Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães, USA’s Marco Andretti and Monaco’s Clivio Piccione all lost time on the first lap.

Ireland was the first team to dive into the pits and a slick stop from the crew helped retain the advantage. Switzerland’s fantastic work in the pits got Jani out two-seconds faster than the Irish crew, bringing him out right behind the emerald green car.

Doornbos stayed out an extra lap before pitting, but a slow getaway lost him time bringing him out in third. After making a good start, Portugal also lost out in the pit stops, dropping down to seventh from what looked to be a strong podium finish.

Australia’s John Martin made up a position off the start and was looking strong before Martin clipped the inside tyre barrier and damaged his front wishbone as well as the camera recording his indiscretion, leaving him to cruise back to the pit lane to retire.

With five-laps to go Jani began to slightly reduce the gap but a faultless drive from Carroll saw the Celtic Tiger take victory for the third time this season.

“It was a great race obviously from pole to win,” said Carroll. “I am very, very happy and just have to go and try and do it all again.”

Commenting on the circuit, he continued: “It is a hard little circuit and easy to make mistakes. If you push hard, miss your braking or go wide it is really dirty off line. There are some interesting bumps in some quick corners that unsettle the car and you have to work hard all the time.”

Switzerland’s Jani said: “I had to work to get to second, but I think the big job was done by my pit crew this time. That second place definitely is thanks to them.

“At the pit stop I couldn’t really get into the pits very well because Adam (Carroll) was sitting there, so I was not well placed, but they still managed to do a good pit stop and got me up to second. Once I was behind Adam I could keep up with his pace but it was very hard to follow him as he was kicking up some dust and it was getting into my eyes.

“I am a hundred per cent fit now, but obviously I feel the fact that I didn’t do anything for the last 12 days as I was just lying in bed.”

Third-placed Doornbos said: “It was quite okay as for the first time I got a good start, which I was quite happy about after China. Then Adam did a great first lap and I found it very slippery. I then closed the gap and just before the pit stops I was right on his tail. The team told me he had the advantage to pit one lap earlier so I had to really push but I was going well.

“When I was on the in-lap the pit limiter just dropped me down to 20 instead of 60. The pit stop went okay I think, but then as I went to pull away we had the same glitch with the software that went into anti-stall, and just would not get first gear. The seconds felt like minutes and I think I lost four or five crucial seconds. I am happy to have a podium but I am always looking for more. I like A1GP because you have two chances.”

Frustration for A1 Team Monaco at A1GP Taupo, New Zealand
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, 25 (January 2009): Team Monaco finished in 11th place in the Sprint race and in 18th position at the end of a frustrating Feature event today at the Taupo Motorsport Park, host of round four of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Powered by Ferrari. Today’s results mean that Team Monaco remains in 12th place in the championship with nine points and three Top Ten finishes.

A1GP organisers opted for a standing start for the 15-laps Sprint race due to problems in previous years caused by the short run between the start line and the first corner. The plan worked as all the teams made it through the first corner safely with Team Monaco driver Clivio Piccione making up three positions from 16th on the grid by overtaking teams Mexico, GBR and Brazil at turn one. After the mandatory pitstop window the Monegasque squad was running in 11th place and continued to remain just outside the top 10 until the chequered flag. Team Ireland, who took double pole in qualifying yesterday, came home to victory while Switzerland and the Netherlands were second and third respectively.

Team Monaco endured an exceedingly frustrating afternoon. Clivio made a promising start to the 50-laps Feature race as he climbed from 17th place on the grid to end lap one in 11th position. Clivio overtook USA and India in the following laps and was running in 9th place on lap 10 when Brazil closed the door in front of him as they were running wheel to wheel. Contact as Brazil spun across the track removed Clivio’s front wing and forced him to run off-track to avoid further collision. Clivio came back to the pits to allow the team to replace the car’s nose and front wing and he rejoined the Feature event in 18th position with 35 laps remaining. A problem with the left rear during the second mandatory pitstop meant a delay in the pitlane; however Monaco rejoined the race in the same position. A stop out on track on lap 33 brought Clivio’s race to a premature end and the Taupo weekend to a disappointing conclusion.

Clivio Piccione, Driver and Seat Holder: “I did not have a good start off the line for the Feature race. I had a lot of wheel spin and it is not easy to push forward when you are not going in a straight line. I made up a few positions at turns one and two and the car felt the best it had been all weekend so I was able to push. One by one I was overtaking people and gaining places until, unfortunately, Brazil turned into me on turn seven and pushed me into the gravel at full speed, damaging the nose and I had to go back to garage at a very slow pace. From then the race was effectively over. After the pitstop the car felt ok and I had the pace of the leaders, but the last set of tyres was not good and as I was pushing to try to make up time someone came off at turn eight and put sand on the track, so when I applied the brakes they locked up and I spun into the gravel.”

Graham Taylor, Team Principal: “The Sprint race went according to plan. We did not have a great start and Clivio had a coming together with Brazil in turn two when they braked too early and so we ran up the back of the car and took some damage. Our pitstop on lap six went well with the crew turning the pitstop round quickly and Clivio emerged in 11th place. Team hopes were high for the second race. We took an aggressive tyre strategy, which paid off in the first lap when Clivio was able to jump up to 11th as he picked off USA and India. He then caught up and was racing with Brazil, who then made a mistake giving Clivio the chance to attack. But Brazil collided with him, taking off his front wing and puncturing the front tyre, in essence ending the challenge right there. When the car came back to pitlane we changed the tyres and nose and when Clivio went out, he was lapping times close to the leaders. On the positive side, we see performance potential, but unfortunately this weekend we have been unable to show our true level.”

Ireland Dominate Taupo Qualifying
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, New Zealand (January 24, 2009) – A1 Team Ireland’s Adam Carroll dominated qualifying to put the Celtic Tiger on pole position for both of tomorrow’s races in Taupo, New Zealand.

Carroll initially took control of Sprint race qualifying, posting a time of 1 minute 15.197 seconds round the 2.06-mile circuit.

With so many incidents interrupting every session so far this weekend and no PowerBoost being available in qualifying for this event, the pressure was on for the drivers not to make any mistakes in each of their four flying laps this afternoon. In the blistering heat, China and Australia were first to emerge on track but it wasn’t until the final moments of the first qualifying segment that the real action began with Switzerland’s Neel Jani posting the quickest time of 1m 15.202s, only to be beaten by Ireland a few seconds later by 0.005-seconds.

Ireland then never looked like being beaten with Carroll going quicker with a 1m 14.507s in the final seconds. The Netherlands and Portugal both made improvements in the second qualifying segment to put Robert Doornbos alongside Carroll on the front row, and Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque in third for tomorrow’s standing start Sprint race. Local favourite, New Zealand’s Chris van der Drift, made a big improvement posting a 1m 15.457s to put him sixth on the grid, 1.684-seconds faster than his earlier effort.

Perhaps not surprisingly the top three also qualified in the same positions for the Feature race. As the chequered flag came out only six cars had recorded a time making it an exciting final minute in the first segment of Feature race qualifying. Ireland powered across the line to go quickest with a 1m 14.589 with Portugal second and Australia’s John Martin putting in a great drive to move Jackeroo up to third.

Carroll went even quicker in the final segment to post a 1m 14.411-second lap, the fastest time an A1GP car has ever lapped Taupo Motorsports Park. The Netherlands and Portugal once again found more time in the dying seconds to replicate the top three starting positions from the Sprint race.

After running off the track in the first Feature qualifying segment, USA’s Marco Andretti resisted the pressure and made up for his mistake by posting a 1m 15.527s, good enough for eighth. New Zealand improved again in the final segment of the day putting Black Beauty tenth on the grid for tomorrow’s Feature race, but with some ground to make up in front of the cheering home fans. Lebanon’s Daniel Morad also put in a good performance to record two top ten starts for tomorrow.

Double pole-sitter, Ireland’s Adam Carroll, commented: “I got four good clean laps in and we were quick. It was a good run. I put the new tyres on but you don’t really know what the grip levels are going to be or where you are going to be. You have just got to push hard and hope you are going to be at the front and put a nice tidy lap in at the end. It is a tricky circuit to put in a nice quick lap with no mistakes.

“The circuit just doesn’t have much grip so when you try hard you can have a spin or run wide, things like that. That is what practice is for, you push hard just to find where everything is. When it comes to the new tyres you just have to be smooth – you have still got to push a hundred per cent but you have got to put it all together.”

The Netherland’s Robert Doornbos said: “We have been working on finding a decent set up we are happy with. We had some minor problems with brake failure yesterday but this morning we had a good programme. We wanted to see the car on new tyres to get a good idea for qualifying. This practice went well so I had a good feeling for qualifying. In the sessions I pushed as I really wanted a TW Steel watch – now look at Adam as he has two and is showing off! I have to get a watch tomorrow.

“It is great to be back with A1 Team Netherlands and to get them a good result. I have promised our seat holder Jan Lammers, who is not here, to put the car on the podium like in China so we are going in a good way.”

New Zealand’s Chris van der Drift said: “It could have gone a lot better for sure, and it was difficult in the first run as I lost out when Adrian Zaugg went off, I think in turn four. I was right behind him so I came to the end of that run, and I had to take the second set of tyres for the second run. It sort of went like that. In Q4 I couldn’t put it all together, ran wide in turn five and that sort of mucked up my lap there.

“Okay the races are long tomorrow and I think it is about being consistent and staying on the track as offline it is very slippery.

“It is about being consistent and stable throughout the races. We have got a standing start in the Sprint race and a pit stop too, so that will juggle things up and it should be an exciting race.”

In a change to normal proceedings both of tomorrow’s races will begin with a standing start.

“A standing start is always tricky as these cars are quite difficult to get off the line and I haven’t really done a good start yet,” said Carroll, “so I have just got to concentrate on doing that tomorrow to get off the line and into turn one first, but I wouldn’t have minded a rolling start at all.”

Duran and Garcia are ready for Taupo
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, New Zealand, (January 20th, 2009) – A1 Team Mex drivers Salvador Duran and Juan Pablo Garcia arrived to New Zealand this Tuesday for the next round of the A1GP series which will take place this weekend in Taupo Motorsport Park.

”We were at the track today (yesterday), it is a track that I already know because I raced here in 2007. It is a difficult circuit, I walked around it and the track looks dirty. Later I had a chat with the team about the strategy," said Salvador Duran. “It is going to be a little difficult because there is not much information or data from the new car. A few things have changed since the last race but I think we can expect a good result, we want to work hard for it".

Salvador’s last race with the team was in Zandvoort, Netherlands, in 2007, where he was one spot short of the podium and finished fourth in both races but earned the first points of season 2007/2008 for the Mexican team.

"I am very happy to be back in the series. I’m starting to feel again all the excitement about these cars. People here are talking about the race, there are banners all over the city and I am very excited and thankful to all the guys in A1 Team Mex for their effort and for having me here. I also want to thank Escuderia Telmex for giving me their support to participate in this event,” Duran finished.

Salvador has been the team’s most successful driver and the only Mexican who has reached podiums (9), race wins (2), or pole positions in the series. Among his podium finishes the most relevant have been a third place in the first race of the series which took place in 2005 in Brands Hatch, Great Britain, and a double win in Laguna Seca, USA, where he also got a pole position and the fastest lap of the race for the first time.

The successful Mexican will have Juan Pablo Garcia as his teammate. Like Salvador, Juan Pablo is a Telmex driver too, and together they will represent Mexico and face the challenge of doing it for the first time with the new A1GP car powered by Ferrari.
About the subject, Juan Pablo Garcia said: “Today (yesterday) was my first day in Taupo. We arrived here in the morning and went to the track in the afternoon. I met the team and walked around the track to try and learn the layout as fast as I can. This will be my first time on this track and with this car, so I feel very excited about it and for being back with the A1 Team Mex”.

"I liked the new car from the very beginning. I am grateful to the team for giving me this opportunity. I am really happy to be back here as rookie driver, which is an important role during the weekend because I am the first driver who gets to the track and have to make sure everything is going well with the car and help with the set-up for Sunday’s race”.

About his performance, Juan Pablo said: “My first session is going to be difficult because the track is slippery and I have to get used to the car. He’s been helping me and my questions get clarified much faster".

"I’m looking forward to next Friday. I really want to be back driving a single seater and I want to thank all the people who made this possible,” added the Mexican driver, who finished 14th in Brands Hatch in his only race with the team back in 2007.

A1GP’s Adam Carroll for Race of Champions
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (December 2, 2008) – Adam Carroll’s exploits for the pride of his nation in A1GP World Cup of Motorsport have not gone un-noticed as the A1 Team Ireland driver has been invited to represent his country at the Race of Champions at London’s Wembley Stadium on the 14 December.

The driver from Portadown has taken his team to the top of the points’ standing in the series and now he is hoping to beat all comers, which will include seven times Formula One World Champion, Michael Schumacher, at the event which will see him drive rally cars and buggies. He will be teamed up with Irish rally star Gareth MacHale with this being the first time Ireland has been represented in this event.

"I am really looking forward to competing in the Race of Champions,” commented Carroll, ”because not only will it be great fun but also really interesting to drive so many types of vehicles against such an impressive line up of competitors. It's a unique opportunity to perform in such a famous venue as the new Wembley Stadium and to give motorsport fans a lot of entertainment over the course of one day. From a driving point of view, I am particularly looking forward to driving the World Rally Car and the buggies."

Fredrik Johnsson, President of event organisers IMP, said: “Ireland has a very rich heritage in motorsport. The fans there, especially in rallying, are among the most enthusiastic and passionate in the world, while the country has produced some wonderful drivers, from Eddie Irvine to Damien Faulkner.

“That’s why I am delighted to announce the first team to represent Ireland in The Race of Champions – they will have their work cut out as the new boys, but I’m certain they will rise to the challenge and, with the luck of the Irish on their side, who knows what they will achieve.”

With a host of well-known motorsport names including Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Tom Kristensen and Andy Priaulx, Ireland’s star-driver will take part in the ultimate racing celebration, which pits the best competitors from the world of two and four-wheeled motorsport together to show off their abilities on an asphalt track constructed on top of Wembley’s famous pitch.

Sixteen drivers will compete in a series of knockout heats in their own division to determine their class champion. Then, in a shoot-out to determine who the master of motorsport is, the winners from the two divisions will go head-to-head in a super final with the winner rewarded with the title “The Champion of Champions”.

Tickets for The Race of Champions are on sale now by calling +44 (0) 844 412 1743, or online at www.raceofchampions.com . Adult prices start at £18 and child tickets at £9.

Switzerland Wins Dramatic Sepang Sprint Race
Photos © A1GP.com
SEPANG, Malaysia (November 23, 2008) – Neel Jani became the fifth different race winner this season as A1 Team Switzerland took victory in a dramatic Sprint race at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. After a red flag, Switzerland controlled the re-start and made a slick pit-stop to take a comfortable win in the hot and humid conditions. France’s Loïc Duval finished second ahead of a charging Earl Bamber for A1 Team New Zealand.

As the cars came in formation towards the rolling start, an incident involving USA, Brazil and India brought out the red flag. The pack appeared to pick up pace as it approached the start line, but then backed off causing a concertina effect towards the back of the field.

The USA car of Marco Andretti and the Brazilian car of Felipe Guimarães took it in turn to climb over the back of Narain Karthikeyan’s Indian entry scattering debris across the pit straight.

Marco Andretti commented: “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.”

Australia's John Martin had lightening reactions to dive left and onto the grass to avoid the accident as the race was immediately red flagged.

After a 30-minute delay the cars lined up in single file to start behind the Safety Car, but Danny Watts was now in trouble having to crawl back to the pits as the Great Britain car was stuck in first gear.

With the race finally underway, Switzerland held the lead as the pack came round for a cautious single file race start. Further down the field, David Garza was under pressure losing out to The Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen, who grabbed seventh round the outside of the Mexican at Turn 9.

South Africa then made a move down the inside of the final hairpin to pass Mexico and as the pair both ran wide, home nation Malaysia was right in the thick of the action, as Fairuz Fauzy snatched eighth going through on the inside of both cars.

South Africa tried to fight back and as the pair went wheel-to-wheel they touched with Malaysia picking up a left rear puncture. Fauzy limped back to the pits much to the disappointment of the Malaysian crowd.

After 3 laps the order at the front settled with Switzerland having a 2.3-second lead from France, New Zealand, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa. With changes to the regulations this season, the cars headed towards their first ever mandatory Sprint race pit stop with France and New Zealand being the first to dive in.

France had a slower stop, and New Zealand’s Earl Bamber was released alongside France. With New Zealand’s nose being just ahead France was forced to ease off allowing Bamber to take the position as the pair exited the pit lane. However, the team made the call to give the position back to France to avoid any further penalty for what could be deemed to be an unsafe release.

A lap later Jani pitted and, after a slick stop by the Swiss crew, rejoined with a comfortable lead. A great stop from the Irish team also leap-frogged Adam Carroll ahead of Italy and into fifth. On lap 7 the order was Switzerland still up at the front from New Zealand, France, Portugal, Ireland, Netherlands, Italy and Australia.

Switzerland held on to win the Sepang Sprint race for the third year running to become the fifth different race winner in the five races so far this season.

“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.

“The big race is the Feature race though, and we are at the back of the grid so it’s a totally different task. It’s about the average of the weekend and we need to get a good points average.”

France’s Loïc Duval said: “The pit stop was not that good and I ended up third. I thought New Zealand may have a drive-through or something like that as the car was released in front of me from the stop, but he let me go back past. The car was not that good so we have to improve a little bit for this afternoon but after that, we were ok and there was no problem at all.”

“We got a really good pit stop,” said Bamber who brought Black Beauty home in third. “The team did a fantastic job and it was quite close between me and Loïc where I just squeezed past, but the team radioed me to let France back past because of an unsafe release. I let him pass on the back straight and then I finished the race in third. It was a good result so we will see how I do from 15th this afternoon.“

Despite what looked like an extremely bad crash at the start, USA, Brazil and India will all be ready to take the grid for this afternoon’s Feature race, where even more excitement can be expected.

Mechanical Problems Leave Mexican Team Out of the Points in Malaysia
Photos © A1GP.com
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (November  23rd, 2008) – A1 Team Mex had its better grid position of the season so far after David Garza set the 8th best time for the starting grid of the Sprint race. However, the Mexican driver was not able to capitalize on this and get his first points due to a fuel pump failure. This problem caused the car to lose power on high speed corners and positions to other cars, to finally cross the finish line on 14th position, 55 seconds behind the winner, Neel Jani from Switzerland.

The Mexican team fixed the problem between the Sprint and the Feature races which, despite starting the Feature race from the 18th spot on the grid, allowed David Garza to fight his way up the field to find himself among the top 10. It was not to be, and during the second half of the race, the Mexican car spun while trying to surpass Lebanon for 9th, losing several positions. Near the end, the engine started to lose power and David only managed to finish the race in 15th position, 1 minute and 30 seconds behind Adam Carroll from Ireland, who won the race.

”All I can say,” said Garza, “is that I am very disappointed with the end result because we have worked very hard, it’s been very difficult and when it looked like the first small reward was coming our way, everything went wrong for reasons out of our control. In the first race, almost from the start our chances were next to zero because a fuel pressure problem choked the engine on high speed corners. Later, in the second race we were doing very well considering our circumstances, until (Daniel) Morad decided to close the door when I was fighting him to reach the top 10. One positive outtake is that we are now fighting for places 8 - 14, as compared to the 15-20 we were two weeks ago in China”.

The A1GP will be back in action in January 23-25, 2009, in Taupo, New Zealand.
 

A1 Team Monaco – Practice Report, A1GP Sepang, Malaysia
Photos © A1GP.com
SEPANG Malaysia (21 November 2008) — Team Monaco finished in the top 10 on the time sheets once again during official practice for round three of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 2008/9 at the Sepang International Circuit this afternoon.

Whilst 17 rookie drivers took to the track to collect valuable data for other teams in the morning, Clivio Piccione went out immediately as the second practice session started at 14:00 (local time). He returned to the pits after one lap with a radio issue - the team could hear Clivio back in the garage, but the airwaves fell silent in the Team Monaco cockpit. Despite being unable to hear the team for the entire practice running, Clivio focused on familiarizing himself and the car with the 5.54 kilometres circuit, one of the longest on the A1GP calendar, in the extremely hot and humid conditions. The new team concentrated on car set-up in the short amount of track time it had today and Clivio honed his skills for the long sweeping corners in the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car.

Clivio set a fastest lap time of 1:50.618, crossing the finish line in ninth position at the end of the session with only a couple of hundredths of a second separating Teams Ireland, New Zealand and Monaco. It was Team GBR and defending 2007 Champions Switzerland who took the chequered flag in the top two positions today.

Clivio Piccione, Driver and Seat-Holder: “Sepang is an awesome track and I really enjoy it, but there are very high temperatures in the cock pit. We worked on set-up and made an improvement on the last lap. I was getting more and more comfortable in the car, getting to know the sweeping corners and trying to maximize our performance. We are quite confident and shall be starting on a good foot tomorrow. We know where we need to improve and I know where I need to push more.”

Graham Taylor, Team Principal: “Since our arrival in Malaysia the team has spent more time together improving the way we work. This includes pitstop practice, which is an area where we have been lacking in pace at the previous races. Only running for one practice session today is a handicap and it would be advantageous to have a rookie driver to allow us to catch up with some of the established teams. However, during the session Clivio was acclimatizing to the circuit and the engineering staff worked on ironing out initial balance problems. Overall, we are pleased to be in the top ten once again, but are looking forward to more track time tomorrow.”

A1 Team Mexico Arrived in Malaysia Ready For Its Second Race Weekend of the Season
Photos © A1GP.com
MEXICO CITY, NOVEMBER 19TH, 2008 – A1 Grand Prix World Cup of Motorsport is getting ready for its third event of the 2008/09 season, which will take place on 21 - 23 November at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit. The race track is located in Selangor, 60 km south of Kuala Lumpur. It has 15 corners and is 5.54 km long. The lap record for the A1GP series is 1m 49.221s and was set by Swiss driver Neel Jani on November 2007.

A1 Team Mex is ready for its second outing of the season after having suffered a set back in Chengdu, China two weeks ago, when some parts of the new car didn't arrive on time for David Garza – main driver for the Mexican team – to take part on Friday's practice sessions. Nevertheless, things look very different for this weekend as the car is ready and the team is negotiating with the race marshals to be allowed to take the track on Thursday in an attempt to compensate for some of the time that was lost in China.

This is the first time for the new A1GP chassis in Sepang and also David’s first experience on this track. However, the Mexican driver has already been training on this track using A1GP’s simulator in Italy, where he posted the second best time among the drivers who tested on the Malaysian circuit, which makes him confident to have a good performance this weekend.

The driver from Monterrey, Mexico, who has arrived to Malaysia, said, “Finally, we’re here. This travel is by far the longest I’ve ever done. But what’s important is that we’re here and ready to give it all. We were at the track today and all I can say is that it is amazing. I’ve never seen anything similar before. It really is something from a different world and I think it will fit the new car very well. The track is very wide, with fast corners, very long straights, and many places to overtake”, commented David. "Right now we are trying to get back some of the time (on track) that we lost due to the problems in Zandvoort and Chengdu, and if we get it, I think this place will be great to develop the car and try to catch up with the rest of the teams. I believe we got here in better shape than we did for the previous race, where we weren't even able to drive the car on Friday. So to start, just for that single reason I expect a better result this time. Having said that, I know it won’t be easy because it never is in motor racing and especially at this level, but I believe we’re starting on a better shape this weekend” he finished. So, just Friday, we need to catch up with the rest of the teams.

Official activities for the Mexican team will begin on Friday afternoon with Official Practice 2 and will continue on Saturday with a final practice and the qualifying sessions for the Sprint and Feature races that will take place on Sunday.

A1GP Prepares for Sepang
Photos © A1GP.com
SEPANG, Malaysia (November 17, 2008) – A1GP World Cup of Motorsport heads to Malaysia this weekend for round three of the 2008/09 Season on 21 – 23 November, with home favourite Fairuz Fauzy looking to keep his team top of the leader board at the Sepang International Circuit.

A1 Team Malaysia is the first nation in A1GP history to head to its home event leading the series. Fauzy will be looking to give the crowds something to cheer about by repeating his first round success in Zandvoort and make it back onto the top step of the podium on home soil.

“After such a brilliant start to the season at Zandvoort the pressure was on to stay at the front and leaving China with the lead has given me a big confidence boost,” said Fauzy. “I’m delighted A1 Team Malaysia has put its faith in me and given me the chance to compete for my country in my home race.”

Team-mate, Aaron Lim, was given his first outing in the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car in Chengdu. He was blown away by the performance of the new car and was thrilled by its power, acceleration, braking and cornering speeds. The 21-year-old will return to the cockpit to take part in the rookie sessions in Sepang: “I can’t wait to drive at Sepang and I’m very pleased the team has asked me to drive the rookie session. I don’t take anything for granted so, although I hoped to be given the job for this round, I kept my fingers crossed until I had the call from the team.”

Loïc Duval will return to the driving seat for A1 Team France in Sepang. The team currently sits joint second in the points with A1 Team Ireland, and Duval will be keen to keep in contention for the title at this early stage in the season.

“I am happy to be back behind the wheel of the new A1GP car,” said Duval. “I am sure the team has improved the car set up with Nicolas (Prost), and it will be the first time for me driving in dry conditions. I just hope that we will be as quick in Sepang as in Zandvoort and Chengdu. The aim is to lead the series at the end of the Malaysian weekend."

The rest of the field will also have a challenge to keep a fired-up Adam Carroll at bay. A1 Team Ireland will be retaining his services as the team hopes to take the top spot in the points after having its most successful weekend to date in Chengdu.

“This is the first time in seven seasons of racing I have come to a team without any pressure of money hanging over me,” said Carroll. “It means I can concentrate my efforts 100 per cent physically and mentally on the racing.

“I feel more prepared than I have ever been before and I feel that now is the time for me to step up and do the job. You don’t get many opportunities as good as this in life, and I’ve never been more ready.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen will return for A1 Team Netherlands, taking over driver duties from Robert Doornbos. After Doornbos’ podium finish in the Chengdu Sprint race, the team will be hoping for another good points haul to move up from fifth in the championship.

Filipe Albuquerque will also be looking to challenge the front runners after scoring A1 Team Portugal’s maiden victory in the Chengdu Feature race. However, the 23-year-old is aware there are some world-class drivers racing in the series this season who all know how to win championships and have their eyes on this year’s prize: “A1GP has some very experienced, talented and fast drivers so we will have good fun this year. It will be very close as they all know how to race well to secure championships. For example, they know that it isn’t worth risking throwing away the points for third place by going for second. Look at Ireland battling me for the win on Sunday – Adam Carroll pushed hard but he wasn’t going to take the huge risk of crashing and losing points by trying to pass me.

“I hope that in Sepang we can be up there again there but, like I said before, a small mistake will drop you from a win to seventh.”

Danny Watts made a fantastic debut for A1 Team Great Britain in China putting the British car on pole for the Feature race and taking two podium finishes. His performance did not go unnoticed as the British squad has recalled the services of the 28-year-old for the final event before the Christmas break.

“I am delighted to be representing A1 Team Great Britain again,” said Watts. “We had a strong start in Chengdu last weekend and it’s obviously important to continue that form in Sepang. The aim has got to be to target a couple more podiums, but we have already shown we are competitive, so race wins must be our primary goal from now on. I will do my upmost to achieve these goals for the team and move us higher up the points’ table”

Marco Andretti will also get a second outing in the A1 Team USA car: “I'm looking forward to the race in Malaysia. We should be able to take all the things we learned in China and make some good improvements this next time out. This is still a very new program for the team, but I feel confident that we will show more pace each time out.”

Earl Bamber will return to the driving seat for A1 Team New Zealand in Sepang. The 18-year-old has clocked up thousands of laps racing at the circuit since 2006 and is keen to get back behind the wheel to put his local knowledge to good use: “I’ve got some good knowledge of the track at Sepang so this should help us to be on the pace quickly. The race will be hard, because the other teams have had more time to prepare their new cars now so I expect our opposition to be stronger”

A thrilling start to the season has seen four different nations take victory from the four races so far. With the history books showing that every A1GP champion has won the Malaysian Feature race in the year it was crowned, the excitement looks sure to continue at the Sepang International Circuit.

The A1GP Sepang, Malaysia event runs from 21 – 23 November, kicking off with the rookie driver and developing nations’ sessions on Friday from 10.45 to 11.15 and again from 11.35 to 12.05. All teams can take part in the later practice session from 14.00 to 15.00. Final practice and qualifying for the Sprint and Feature races will take place on Saturday with the two races scheduled to run on Sunday at 11.00 and 15.00 respectively.
 

Ireland Dominate Chengdu Sprint Race
Photos © A1GP.com
CHENGDU, China (November 9, 2008) – Adam Carroll drove a faultless race to take A1 Team Ireland’s second series victory in Chengdu, China today. A1 Team Netherlands, Robert Doornbos came home a comfortable second, while Danny Watts held off a fierce challenge from Switzerland’s Neel Jani to claim the final podium position for A1 Team Great Britain.

As the cars came round the final corner for the rolling start, Carroll controlled the pack with Netherlands’ Doornbos making a good start alongside him to challenge into the first corner. Carroll held his line and by the end of the first lap had built up a 0.918s lead which he never looked in danger of relinquishing.

It an was impressive drive from Robert Doornbos on his debut for A1 Team Netherland’s taking a comfortable second position, the team’s best result in 19 races.

A1 Team Great Britain’s Watts, also having his first A1GP race, made a move around the outside of Switzerland’s Jani to take third position off the start and began to pull out a small gap.

In the closing laps of the 18-lap race, the battle for third began to heat up as Switzerland’s Jani closed in on the British car. Watts’ advantage over the Swiss driver was down to 0.686 seconds and Jani was preparing to make a move. In the final two laps the tension mounted but the experienced Watts held position, taking the first points of the season for A1 Team GBR.

Out at the front Carroll’s superb drive saw the Celtic Tiger cross the line two seconds ahead of the chasing pack, the dominance underlined as he continued to set fastest lap after fastest lap, eventually taking the extra point for his efforts on lap 16, a 1m 16.084s.

South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg brought Vulindlela home in fifth ahead of Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque. New Zealand’s Chris van der Drift, also on his race debut, brought Black Beauty home in the final points-paying position.

China’s Ho-Pin Tung had a spin on the first lap putting him further down the order. He made his way back to a lowly 17th and is looking to improve in front of his home crowd in this afternoon’s Feature race.

Brazil had electrical problems causing it to drop down the order and at one point stop out on track but, as the safety car waited on stand-by, Felipe Guimarães managed to crawl back to the pit lane.

“It’s brilliant,” said Carroll “The guy’s have worked so hard and were due the results and this year I think we are going to get what we deserve.

“I managed to get into turn one first and tried control it from there,” said Ireland’s Carroll. “Obviously, I knew Robert was going to be very quick and pushing extremely hard so I just kept my head down and tried not to make any mistakes, I know it’s going to be a pretty long race this afternoon.”

Doornbos commented: “It feels good; obviously, it’s the best impression you can make. We started strong, just missing pole by six thousandths, and in the race it was the same. We kept each other alive going into turn one, which is important because there is another race, but with second place, I am very happy. I think we had a strong pace compared to the rest of the field so we can be proud of this result.”

Great Britain’s Danny Watts said: “It’s a great result and a great reward for all the hard work all the boys have put in over the week, because they have put in a massive amount of hours through the nights. The third place is good points on the board.

“I had a good move round the outside of Jani at the first corner and I just had to pursue it. After that it was just a case of trying to hold onto the back of these two (Carroll and Doornbos). I had to keep it clean and tidy and not let Jani by again.”

The cars now prepare for this afternoon’s Feature race. Great Britain is on pole and hoping to take victory from Ireland, who are also starting from the front row and will be eager to make it back onto the top step of the podium.

A1GP Signs Up New Talent for its TV World Feed
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (October 27, 2008) – The millions of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport fans who follow the fortunes of the series on their TV screens will have two new personalities to watch and listen to in Season Four. The series will have Diana Binks and James Hinchcliffe as its world feed pit lane reporters, working alongside its regular, vastly experienced commentary team of John Watson and Ben Edwards.

This will not be totally new territory for Hinchcliffe, who raced for A1 Team Canada in Seasons Two and Three. He has been a co-commentator for Champ Cars’ international TV feed and also made a guest appearance in the A1GP pit lane as a reporter last season in Sepang. He views taking on the role full-time as a natural next step: “I am thrilled that A1GP has asked me to be part of the pit lane line up for Season Four,” he commented. “I got the opportunity to work with A1GP TV last season and it’s great to now be on board full-time. This is shaping up to be the best season of A1GP yet, with the introduction of the new car, and it's awesome to think that I get to watch all the action unfold from pit lane. “

Talking about how his A1GP experience behind the wheel will help, he commented: “Obviously having driven in A1GP I hope I am able to bring a little bit of the driver’s perspective to the fans watching at home. There is so much that is happening in the driver’s seat and being able to relay all that excitement to those watching on television will definitely be a new and fun challenge for me.”

Diana Binks, who was born in Scotland, is no stranger to the world of motorsport, as she has worked in various categories from bikes to cars and currently fronts the British Formula 3 and British GT Championship for Channel 4 in the UK. She also hosts late night sport for Five and is a regular reporter on sportscars, triathlon and endurance sports events. Binks knows how tough being a pit lane reporter can be, having spent 22 hours of a Le Mans 24-hours in the pit lane. She has a wealth of experience working both in front of and behind the camera for the likes of Channel 4, Five, ITV, Sky Sports, Speed TV in the USA and Motors TV in Europe.

After following the previous seasons of A1GP on Five, she is excited about joining the team in China: “I am delighted to be joining the A1GP Team. I am equally looking forward to teaming up again with Ben Edwards having worked with him previously in the British Touring Car Championship. To be joining the team is very exciting, it will present many new challenges and I can't wait. I look forward to the prospect of working with John and James and hope that my experience will add to what is already a great team."

Richard Dorfman, Director of Broadcasting commented: “we are delighted to welcome both Diana and James to A1GP's broadcast team. Diana will bring some fresh new insights into our pit lane reports and James , being an active driver, will be able to provide our viewers with a unique viewpoint as to what it really takes to run the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car around some of the world's most exciting motor racing venues.”

The first time the new team can be seen in action will be in A1GP Chengdu, China, 7-9 November 2008.

Ireland Bounce Back from Zandvoort Disappointment at Silverstone Test
Photos © A1GP.com
SILVERSTONE, Great Britain (October 23,2008)– A1GP World Cup of Motorsport was in action again today in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, UK with some teams taking the opportunity to get some extra track time ahead of the second round of the season A1GP Chengdu, China 7 – 9 November.

A1 Teams France, Brazil and Switzerland had no pre-season testing before arriving in Zandvoort for the season-opener earlier this month.

However, it was A1 Team Ireland who set the pace, with Adam Carroll putting the disappointment of spinning out of both Zandvoort races behind him, to clock a superb lap of 45.554-seconds right at the end of the day. The lap was more than two seconds quicker than the previous best A1GP lap on the National layout, set by India’s Narain Karthikeyan in testing one year ago.

Carroll said: “To get a couple of hours of running this afternoon is great, because I haven’t really had much time in the car and I didn’t get a whole lot of racing in at the weekend. It actually feels like it’s been a while since I was last in the cockpit. It only took me a few laps to get back into it though, but the car felt really good. Every time I drive the new car it just gets more and more impressive, with the speed and downforce both very good.”

Reigning champion Switzerland was just a fraction behind, with Neel Jani setting a lap just 0.148 seconds slower than Ireland. However, Jani is confident that there is much more speed to be found in the car.

Jani said: “We are still quite a way off getting 100 per cent out of the car. I remember in the very first season we tested on this layout and we were lapping at times of more than 50 seconds. Eventually we came down two seconds in two years, and it will be the same thing with the new car. Obviously I can push but testing is just about learning and then we can just see what happens with the lap time. We don’t chase the best lap time, we just try to see what happens when we make different changes.”

Although the lack of track time in Zandvoort didn’t seem to matter to A1 Team France, with Loïc Duval powering to victory in the Feature race, the team decided to make use of the optional test day to call upon the services of regular rookie Nicolas Prost, the son of four-time Formula 1 champion Alain.

Prost’s best time was good enough for third quickest – 0.756s behind Ireland’s best.

Prost said: “The car is easy to drive but not easy to go really fast because you have to push very hard. It’s great fun to drive because you can go in to the corner with a lot of speed. The traction is pretty good, the brakes amazing, there is a lot of downforce, so it’s really a fantastic car. I’ve only driven this circuit in the first A1GP car, and it is quite a big difference.”

Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães was happy to get some running in the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car, with it being his first chance to run the new car in the dry after the wet of Zandvoort.

Guimarães commented: “The first impression of the car was amazing. I told my engineer how really nice it was to drive. I’ve never driven anything as fast.”

Clivio Piccione was back in the A1 Team Monaco entry with Jin-Woo Hwang out for Korea, the two new teams for this season. While the conditions were not ideal, with morning temperatures of nine degrees Celsius, this did not stop all the drivers beating the previous fastest A1GP time round the Silverstone National Circuit.

Testing will continue at Silverstone next Monday (27 October) before the cars head to China for round two, A1GP Chengdu, 7-9 November 2008.

 

Malaysia Take First Victory in New Season
Photos © A1GP.com
THE NETHERLANDS (October 4, 2008) – A1 Team Malaysia has won the first race of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season at Circuit Park Zandvoort in The Netherlands. In a rain-soaked Sprint race, Fairuz Fauzy came from fourth on the grid to take the team’s first victory since Season Two, which was 27 races ago. After initially taking the lead from The Netherlands, Earl Bamber put in a great drive on his race debut for A1 Team New Zealand to take second place with Loic Duval storming through from 11th on the grid to take the final podium position for A1 Team France. Pole-sitter Jeroen Bleekemolen struggled in the extremely tricky conditions finishing fourth as the red flag came out to end the race.

In a thrilling start to the new season, the drama began before the cars even crossed the start line after doing two laps behind the Safety Car due to the atrocious conditions. On an extremely wet track, Ireland spun in the final corner with Monaco’s Clivio Piccione running into him, so putting the pair out the race before it had even started. As the new Powered by Ferrari cars came down the pit straight for the rolling start, the action behind gave the front row duo of the Netherlands and New Zealand a comfortable gap as they came across the start line for the first time.

Lebanon’s Daniel Morad ran wide in the first corner, narrowly avoiding USA’s Charlie Kimball, as both drivers made their race debut for their respective nations. A lap later, Korea’s Jin Woo Hwang collided with John Martin at the first corner while making an ambitious move down the inside of the Australia car which left both in the gravel and Korea out the race and with a fine and a drop to the back of the grid for race two for causing an avoidable accident and trying to overtake under a yellow flag.

Malaysia and Switzerland battled it out for third with Neel Jani getting ahead of Fauzy on lap four. From 16th on the grid, and having only done a few laps this weekend, China’s Ho Pin Tung was putting in a stunning drive to challenge Italy for seventh by lap five. China claimed the position taking the inside line through turn 11 and began chasing down South Africa.

Out at the front the race was really on with new-comer Bamber pushing the Netherlands for the lead. On lap seven the 18-year-old made a great move trying to go around the outside of Bleekemolen through the chicane. The Netherlands ran off the circuit while trying to defend the position but with a better run out the corner Bamber grabbed the lead.

As the rain continued to fall, Malaysia was flying, re-taking third from Switzerland before passing local hero Bleekemolen for second. Fauzy then set about closing the gap to New Zealand who was still in the lead. France moved up to fourth as Loic Duval took advantage of a mistake from Switzerland.

At the start of lap nine the order at the front was now New Zealand, Malaysia, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, China, South Africa and Italy.

Fauzy, whose car was working really well in the wet conditions, was right on the gearbox of Bamber and on lap nine made his move, snatching the lead through turn eleven. Meanwhile, France stole the final podium position from Netherlands.

China’s tremendous charge came to an end on lap ten when the back end got away from Ho Pin Tung and he spun coming out of the final corner, crashing out of fifth. With Brazil also crashing the red flag was brought out taking the final race classification back to the end of lap 10.

Race winner, A1 Team Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy said: “I am so happy to take this win. It was very difficult on the track today and made even more challenging with the lack of experience we have with this new car, but we have worked really hard as a team and now we have a fantastic win. We start from pole position for the next race as well, so I hope we can have more success, but if the weather stays like this it will be another huge challenge for everyone. I’m looking forward to it!”

A1 Team New Zealand’s Earl Bamber said: “Its pretty atrocious conditions this morning. We got a good start and then managed to get past the Netherlands. He (Bleekemolen) got on some oil which made him have a slow exit so I got down the outside into the chicane and then as he out-braked himself he ran wide and I managed to get in front. It was a good pass, but pretty close. We held the lead for quite a while but then Fairuz was just a little bit quicker and got past me on the infield. I think second is good and hopefully we can make some changes for this afternoon and see what happens with the weather.”

Third placed Loic Duval driving for A1 Team France said: “It’s very difficult to see anything but I’m really happy. We received the car yesterday, but just ran in the qualifying session so to finish on the podium today it’s great for us. Everything is possible for this afternoon so I am confident now. We lost a lot of laps yesterday morning, so this morning we had the chance for an extra test. We managed to work on the car and I think it’s been quite fair with the amount of laps everybody has had.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen was disappointed not to be on the podium in front of his home crowd: “When you start from pole you want to win the race, so it didn’t go to plan. The first few laps were alright but then I lost a lot of grip and people passed me on the outside, inside and everywhere so we need to find more grip and hopefully we can do better the second race. It’s really great to see the fans and even with this weather they are still here enjoying it so I hope I can give them a good result this afternoon.”

With this afternoon’s Feature race grid determined by the Sprint finishing order, Malaysia is in pole position to aim for a double victory in the opening weekend of the new season.

Andretti Green Racing to Run USA Team;
Michael Andretti to Unveil Driver Lineup at Zandvoort
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (October 2, 2008) – A name that stands for American racing royalty will join forces with A1GP World Cup of Motorsport for Season Four. Andretti Green Racing (AGR), the most successful team in Indy Racing League history, announced today it will run the US entry in A1GP beginning at Circuit Park Zandvoort, The Netherlands this weekend.

“We are very proud to be representing the United States on the level and competitive playing field that is provided by A1GP,” said team co-owner, Michael Andretti. “Andretti Green has been fortunate to enjoy a reasonable amount of success in just six seasons of operation and we’re looking forward to joining the world stage of A1GP.”

Andretti, who is a racing legend himself, will be on hand at Circuit Park Zandvoort to announce the team’s Season Four driver lineup.

Andretti Green Racing, which is owned by Andretti and partners Kim Green and Kevin Savoree, has taken three IndyCar Series championship titles (2004, 2005, 2007), two Indianapolis 500 wins (2005, 2007), one Firestone Indy Lights championship (2008), an overall American Le Mans Series (ALMS) victory at the 2008 Detroit Sports Car Challenge and an LMP2 class victory at the ALMS 12 Hours of Sebring (2007).

A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira, commented: “We are proud to have such a successful and well respected team involved with our series. Over the years some of the most famous names in motorsport have been associated with the A1GP, and to have one that is synonymous with racing at its highest level in the United States can only help to raise the profile of the series both there and worldwide. ”

All the action from A1GP Zandvoort, The Netherlands can be watched live this weekend on www.A1GP.com

A1GP Delays Start of Season Four
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (August 21, 2008) – A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has moved A1GP Mugello, Italy from the opening round of the 2008/09 championship following a delay in the build schedule of the new chassis. The first time all the nations will be seen in action will now be on the 4 – 5 October at A1GP Zandvoort, Netherlands.

The series set itself a tight schedule with less than 11 months to design, build and test the new car and make sure all the teams received identical machinery. Any delays in the schedule were always going to impact on the ability to deliver to all the teams. “It was always going to be an optimistic programme but we were confident we could achieve it. This in no way reflects on the work undertaken by the technical team and our partners, as it was due to circumstances beyond their control. I also want to thank all our technical partners for their support during our intensive testing programme, and especially Ferrari for the supply of engines,” said A1GP Chief Executive Officer, Pete da Silva.

“We now have to concentrate on what we have ahead of us rather than behind. We still have some great announcements to make. In the near future we shall be able to announce our full race calendar, as well as some deals that will enhance the overall package we are presenting to our fans for Season Four,” said da Silva.

A1 Team France on route of Le Tour De France
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (July 9, 2008) — From this Friday A1 Team France will be following the route of Le Tour De France, one of the world’s most famous sporting events, when it sends an A1GP World Cup of Motorsport car on a three week journey round France.

The event attracts millions of fans and they will be able to see an A1 Team France liveried car when they flock to arrival cities around the country to greet the world’s largest cycle race. The first stop on the car’s itinerary will be Château de Chambord in the Loire valley, which has been used as a castle in Disney movies. The route will also include key holiday destinations.

After the stop in the Loire the car heads to Toulouse for the 12 July and then St Genies d’Olt (13 July), Narbonne (17 July), Nîmes (18 July), Montpellier (19 July), La Grande Motte (20 July), Saint Etienne (21 July) and Paris for the event’s finish on the 27 July on the Champs-Élysées.

At each location A1 Team France will be distributing flyers to the crowds telling them about the team and the series. The fans and holidaymakers will also have the chance to enter a competition for two lucky people to win a weekend at a season four event and to see on track the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari cars. Fans will be able to visit www.a1gp.com and click onto the French team’s icon to enter. Also updates from the journey with photographs can be found on this site.

Brazilian President backs plans for A1GP in South America
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LONDON, Great Britain (June 27, 2008) - A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has received influential backing for the series to hold its first race in South America. This came during a meeting in Brazil between A1GP ambassador, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Brazilian President, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

The Brazilian President pledged his support for A1 Team Brazil's quest to secure a home race after meeting with Fittipaldi, who is the team's seat holder. The meeting happened last week when Fittipaldi was racing in the Brazilian GT3 Championship with his brother, Wilson. The two influential Brazilians, along with the Brazilian Minister of Sport, Orlando Silva, discussed the team ahead of the new A1GP season, during which all the teams will use the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari cars.

Following the meeting Fittipaldi commented: "We are working hard at A1 Team Brazil to raise the profile and awareness of the national team. It is invaluable to have the support of President Lula, Orlando Silva and the Government, and it is a goal of ours, in the not too distant future, to have a race in Brazil, so we will work with them on this important project.

"Another important side to A1GP is the Think Greener Racing campaign, and some of President Lula's ideas on the use of Brazilian ethanol could be very interesting for the series to explore. I am excited to think about the future of A1GP and I think A1 Team Brazil has an important part to play in it."

Tony Teixeira, A1GP Chairman, said: "We have always wanted to take an A1GP race to South America and Brazil would be our chosen location given its heritage and amazing drivers like Emerson. We are proud to have him as an A1GP ambassador as he is one of the best known and well respected former motor racing drivers. The support the series gets from the Brazilian fans is fantastic but to now also have the support of the Brazilian government is a big step forward in bringing a race to the region."

Switzerland Wins A1GP Title as Great Britain Takes Superb Home Sprint Victory
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BRANDS HATCH, Great Britain (May 4, 2008) - A1 Team Switzerland has won the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, after finishing fourth in this morning's sensational Brands Hatch Sprint race in the UK, in which Great Britain's Robbie Kerr took a fantastic home race victory ahead of USA and Ireland.

The crowd went wild as home favourite GBR's Robbie Kerr dominated the action from pole position to win the 20-minute race, moving the British team up into third place in the championship before this afternoon's final race of the season. Kerr, who took victory in the Brands Hatch Sprint race last year, has now scored three wins for his nation during his A1GP career.

Much to the delight of the home fans, Ireland's Adam Carroll finished on the podium in third place, after making a brilliant start from fourth on the grid, diving past the Swiss car going into Paddock Hill and seizing third. Twenty-five-year-old Carroll has now notched up a total of four podium finishes - including one win - for the Irish team in his debut A1GP season.

USA's Jonathan Summerton, who started second and has been on impressive form all weekend, held position throughout the race and, despite pressure from Carroll in the Celtic Tiger, went on to finish second and take his third podium for the American squad this season.

New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who had a poor qualifying session on Saturday but was still in with a chance of overhauling the Swiss team in the title fight this morning, crossed the line eighth. The Kiwis are now preparing to defend second overall in the championship during this afternoon's season finale Feature race, as third-placed GBR is set to pile on the pressure.

An emotional Max Welti, seat holder of newly crowned A1GP champion A1 Team Switzerland, said:

'It's absolutely outstanding. It's such a great feeling - you just cannot believe it! To represent Switzerland all over the globe and to actually do it is fantastic. We're writing a page in the history books. Neel came on the radio after he crossed the line to thank the team - he knows that to win the world championship is not only his achievement, but everybody in the team as well.'

Great Britain on top at Brands Hatch
Photos © A1GP.com
BRANDS HATCH, Great Britain( 02 May 2008) – Home nation A1 Team Great Britain topped the time sheets in the second of today’s two free practice sessions at Brands Hatch, as the final round of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway at the legendary Kent circuit in Great Britain in changeable weather conditions.

Despite spending some of the hour long session confined to the garage while the team worked on the car, GBR’s Robbie Kerr stamped his authority on the first day of A1GP track action on home soil, setting a fastest lap of 1m14.891s around the challenging 4.22 km / 2.62 miles Grand Prix circuit.

China’s Congfu Cheng, who knows the Brands Hatch circuit well, set the second fastest time of the day while Jonathan Summerton, who scored USA’s maiden A1GP race win last time out in Shanghai, set the third fastest lap time.

Current title leader Switzerland’s Neel Jani enjoyed a trouble-free session, finishing the afternoon in a comfortable fourth position, followed by Ireland’s Adam Carroll and India’s Narain Karthikeyan in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Championship rival A1 Team New Zealand got the weekend off to a strong start this morning, with new boy Chris van der Drift - who has only taken part in one rookie session prior to this weekend - topping the time sheets. Lead driver Jonny Reid took over this afternoon and set the eighth fastest time overall behind the Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen in seventh.

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque, who clocked the second fastest time this morning, finished the day ninth overall, closely followed by France’s Franck Montagny, who has never driven the Brands Hatch circuit before, in 10th.

Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr reflected on the first day of action on home soil and looked ahead to qualifying tomorrow:

‘We went out early on this afternoon and the car was reasonable but we had a couple of little issues and rather than waste time and laps trying to solve it gradually we decided to take the tyres off and go through everything properly. We took our time and made a few changes then we got the car back together and went out at the end of the session and went quicker. The car has definitely got a good balance but there are still things we can improve on. We’re fairly confident but we’re not going to predict anything. We’ve just got to go out there and keep working at it. Qualifying is key in A1GP – if you’re not there at the top on that first flying lap, you’re not going to be there at the end.’

Epic Title Race Heads to Shanghai
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SHANGHAI, China (April 4, 2008) - As the thrilling third season of A1GP draws to a close, the title battle is wide open and the competition is tighter than ever, with eight teams still mathematically in contention for the honours, as the World Cup of Motorsport returns to China for the penultimate round in Shanghai next weekend (11-13 April).

With 64 points still up for grabs at the final two rounds, eight of the 22 competing nations, including A1 Team Ireland, who secured its first ever A1GP victory when Adam Carroll won the Mexico City Feature race last month, are still mathematically in with a chance of winning the prestigious championship.

New Zealand's Jonny Reid took his third Sprint race victory of the season in Mexico, moving the Kiwis up to second place in the championship, 15 points behind Switzerland. Reid, who holds the lap record around the 4.6 km circuit, has previously performed well at Shanghai, storming to a commanding victory in the Feature race last year. Current title leader Switzerland arrives in China on 128 points ahead of New Zealand on 113 and season one champion France, who failed to pick up any points in Mexico, on 108.

Switzerland's Neel Jani has never raced at the Shanghai Circuit before but in theory his nation could leave China as series champion, if it increases its title lead to at least 33 points.

Great Britain's Robbie Kerr returns to the scene of his maiden A1GP victory, having won the Shanghai Sprint race last year, and will be aiming for a repeat performance ahead of his nation's home event, the A1GP season finale at Brands Hatch in four weeks time. Duncan Tappy, who joined the team in Mexico, returns to perform GBR rookie duties and support Kerr throughout the weekend. GBR made great strides towards third position in the championship standings, its final classification at the end of both season one and two, after achieving an impressive double-podium finish in Mexico last month with Oliver Jarvis at the wheel.

Ferrari Festival: This weekend's Shanghai event offers a glimpse into the future of the series, with a special partnership that could prove to be the first of many. As work continues behind the scenes to design and manufacture the new A1GP car for the 2008/09 season in consultation with Ferrari, A1GP is proud to welcome the Ferrari Festival to Shanghai.

A1GP has visited the ultra-modern Shanghai International Circuit for the past two seasons and it has provided four different winners. Malaysia, Czech Republic, Great Britain and New Zealand have all tasted victory at the facility, which continues to receive plaudits as one of the most well-built and modern race tracks in the world.

An alternative, 4.6 km version will be used, as in 2006/07, which misses out three corners and adds a chicane, bunching the field up for a longer period of time throughout the circuit and creating even more exciting, closer racing.

The 1 km straight at the end of the lap also provides an opportunity for frequent overtaking manoeuvres, but it is the first corner that has provided the most spectacular passes. Czech Republic's Tomas Enge and New Zealand's Jonny Reid both took their victories thanks to superb manoeuvres at this constantly tightening corner.

Pre-event PR activity: The PR activity for the Shanghai race weekend will take place on Thursday (10 April) morning at the Shanghai International Circuit. A short press conference with A1GP, A1 Team China, SIC and FASC representatives will be held in the press conference room, followed by a Sports Challenge in the paddock involving three traditional Chinese sports: shuttlecock kicking, Chinese yo-yo (similar to diabolo) and rope skipping. The drivers will take part in a training session with Congfu (Franky) Cheng and local sports coaches and students, before competing to score points in each sport. At the end of the event, the overall winner will be presented with an award and this will be followed by a media interview session.

Drivers from the following nations will be taking part in the event: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, GBR, India, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland.

GBR on Top in Mexico City
Photos © A1GP.com
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (March 15, 2008) — A1 Team Great Britain topped the time sheets in the second of today's two free practice sessions in Mexico City, as the eighth round of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in warm and sunny weather conditions.

Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis, who took the British team's first A1GP victory at the Mexican circuit last year, was the man to beat this afternoon, clocking a 1m21.431s lap of the 4.08km circuit. Having set the pace early on in the hour, Jarvis improved on his lap time with 15 minutes of the session remaining, reclaiming the top spot and demoting current title leader Switzerland’s Neel Jani to second.

The Swiss car was closely followed by Ireland's Adam Carroll in third, ending a strong day for the Irish squad, rookie Niall Quinn having posted the second fastest time this morning. Jeroen Bleekemolen was fourth quickest in the Dutch car this afternoon while South Africa's Adrian Zaugg finished the day fifth overall.

GBR's position was momentarily under threat by a late charge from New Zealand's Jonny Reid; however the Kiwi's time was deleted as he cut the tight chicane leading into the Peraltada corner, moving him down the order to sixth overall. Reid was not alone, many drivers committed the same offence throughout both practice sessions, causing their lap to be ruined and their time deleted.

This afternoon's session was incredibly close, with the top 14 drivers separated by just over a second. The track is renowned for its bumpy surface and turn four seemed to cause the most problems for the drivers today, many commenting on the bumps and rough surface making handling difficult.

GBR's Oliver Jarvis was delighted with his team's performance and is targeting a repeat performance of last year's Feature race win:

'I'm very happy to be back here in Mexico, where I got my first win last year. I'm slightly disappointed that it's not the same circuit layout - I can understand the chicane being put in to slow you down but turn four is a bit of a disappointment to drive with the bad surface. It's still a very good track though and the surface will get better as the weekend goes on and more rubber gets laid down giving us more grip. I'm delighted to be at the top of the times. We're very close to Switzerland but that's to be expected, Neel Jani's having a great time at the moment - his confidence is very high and they've got the car sorted and I think it's going to be very close come qualifying tomorrow.'

Mexico's David Martinez set the fifth fastest time this morning while team-mate David Garza finished 19th overall this afternoon. Garza was disappointed but remains optimistic ahead of qualifying tomorrow:

'We struggled a lot with the car and the problems are really hurting us. It's really easy to lock the brakes and we're on the rev limiter in sixth gear the whole way down the long straight. That along with the altitude here is really a big problem for us. I hope the car for tomorrow will be better and I'll be working hard on the set up of the car tonight to try and make something work.'

A1 Team Italy led the way in the opening free practice session this morning, with A1GP new boy Davide Rigon making an instant impression, lapping the circuit nearly three tenths quicker than anyone else. Niall Quinn was second quickest for Ireland, which was his best showing in the three rookie sessions he has competed in this season. South Africa's Wesleigh Orr was third fastest ahead of French rookie Nicolas Prost.

This morning's session was the first time the A1GP drivers experienced the revised layout of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with the shorter version proving about three seconds quicker than last season's layout.

In addition to adding a chicane just before the final high-speed Peraltada corner to aid overtaking and improve safety, three corners will also be missed out in the middle of the course to keep the lap time and race lengths at roughly the same distance as last year's, using one of the alternate layouts of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Turn four has now become a left-hand turn instead of a right-hander and the track rejoins the original course at turn nine, making the circuit length 4.08km, instead of the 4.42km it was last season.
 

Canada Takes Sprint Race Victory in Durban
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DURBAN, South Africa (February 24, 2008) — A1 Team Canada secured its first ever Sprint race victory in this morning's action-packed race held around the streets of Durban in glorious sunshine, while Switzerland regained the title lead as France failed to score any points and New Zealand picked up one point for setting the fastest lap.

Eighteen-year-old rookie Robert Wickens, the youngest ever pole-sitter in A1GP, got a good start and despite being hit from behind by New Zealand's Jonny Reid at turn one and losing his five second lead due to a safety car period towards the end of the thrilling 15-lap race, Wickens managed to keep Great Britain and Switzerland behind him to take Canada's maiden Sprint race victory and the first win of his A1GP career.

GBR's Oliver Jarvis, who was wheel-to-wheel with Jonny Reid in Black Beauty as the pack tussled for position going into turn one, managed to gain two places and hold second position, despite sustaining damage to the distinctive red, white and blue car. Reid was forced to pit for repairs and was finally classified 21st.

Canada and GBR were joined on the podium by Switzerland's Neel Jani in third position. The 24-year-old Swiss star started the race fifth and made up two places to score crucial championship points for his nation and regain the title lead from New Zealand.

China's Congfu Cheng was on superb form, racing from 10th on the grid to finish fourth. Fifth place was taken by the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen who was taken out of the race as it approached its final lap by Germany's Michael Ammermüller.

After a safety card period for Bruno Junqueira, who hit the wall on lap nine after bouncing over the kerbs on the chicane and damaging the bodywork of the Brazilian car, the action restarted with just two laps remaining. The pressure was on and with Germany close behind the Netherlands, Ammermüller pushed to overtake, running into the back of the Dutch car taking them both out of the race and bringing it to a premature conclusion. German driver Michael Ammermüller was later excluded from the race for this manoeuvre.

A1 Team Australia's John Martin, who was hospitalised overnight with a suspected stomach bug, brought his car home in an impressive seventh position while Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque crossed the line eighth on his A1GP race debut with Mexico and Malaysia taking ninth and tenth. All the teams moved up a place as a result of Germany's exclusion.

France's Loic Duval, who arrived in South Africa on Saturday morning from a prior commitment in Japan, finished the incident-packed race 12th behind USA's Jonathan Summerton in 11th. Host nation South Africa's Adrian Zaugg, who started from 20th on the grid, worked his way through the field to cross the line in 14th position behind Pakistan's Adam Khan. Again, each team moved up one place as a result of the German exclusion, giving the USA an additional point in its championship campaign.

India started the Sprint race from the back of the grid and will start the Feature race from the same position, as the team chose to replace regular race driver Narain Karthikeyan, who injured his wrist in free practice on Friday, with rookie Parthiva Sureshwaren.

The 22 nations are now preparing for the main event of the weekend in Durban, a 70-minute Feature race with two compulsory pit stops, which starts at 15:00 this afternoon.

Robert Wickens, who is clearly enjoying racing around the streets of Durban, was delighted to give Canada its first Sprint race victory:

'It's a great experience. I knew that we had a very good chance at winning the race because we were quick in qualifying and we had a really solid race car through practice so I was basically going into the start with my whole goal just to make it into the first corner, and that was slightly hairy. I broke and I think either Jonny thought I was going to break later or maybe he over shot it, I don't know. I'm not going to jump to any conclusions but I saw him coming really quick behind me so I actually let off the break to try and give him more space, but we still made contact and damaged my car a little bit as well. I love the circuit, I've always really enjoyed street circuits my entire life and this ones no different. It's a really fast street circuit and it's probably one of the coolest street circuits I've ever raced on.'

GBR's Oliver Jarvis, who raced from fourth on the grid to finish second despite damage sustained at the start, is also a big fan of street circuits:

'It's great to come back to South Africa; they have done a fantastic job. I've had some good results on street tracks so I was looking forward to coming here. I got a great start and managed to break extremely late around the outside, I actually thought I was going to get the lead but unfortunately New Zealand tagged Robbie Wickens of Canada, which just pushed him out wide which compromised me a little bit. Then as I tried to go around the outside of the corner, New Zealand again drove into the side of me and damaged the car quite a bit. I managed to get into second but from then on I was really struggling so was never quick enough to challenge for the lead but was happy to finish on the podium. The car will be fixed and we will try to make a few changes assuming that it was the set up and not the damage that we are struggling with and hopefully we can have a repeat performance.

'I think it's great that A1GP has included street tracks in the calendar. It offers something very different as a driver. It's very technical, it's a particularly fast street track but there's just no room for error. It takes a lot of courage but also a lot of finesse to be quick round here and it's fantastic that we have returned here once again.'

This afternoon's Feature race pole-sitter Switzerland's Neel Jani, who now leads the championship by six points from New Zealand, said:

'Well I started fifth so I knew it would be already tight and at the first corner it was. Then I was quicker than Jarvis (GBR) but he was making so many mistakes I thought I'd better keep my gap and see what he does, in case he got too nervous so I could challenge him. So I guess I just went for the points because I knew the other two (New Zealand and France) were out of the points, so I've got that championship lead back now. I think we have a quick car so we should be able to fight for the win this afternoon.'

Netherlands Tops Durban Friday Practice
Photos © A1GP.com
DURBAN, South Africa (February 22, 2008) — A1 Team Netherlands set the pace in the second of today's two free practice sessions in South Africa as round seven of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season got underway around the streets of Durban in hot and humid weather conditions.

Jeroen Bleekemolen recorded the best lap time of the day, a 1m18.738s, around the 3.28 km circuit, just over half a second off Brazil's lap record. Germany's Michael Ammermüller, who was an impressive 1.3 seconds quicker than the rest of the field at the end of the rookie practice session this morning, clocked the second fastest time of the day.

Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis, who hasn't driven an A1GP car since December 2007, and USA's Jonathan Summerton were on good form this afternoon, setting the third and fifth fastest lap times respectively. This was particularly impressive as both nations did not have the benefit of this morning's rookie session. Switzerland's Neel Jani was sandwiched between GBR and USA in fourth.

Home nation South Africa's Adrian Zaugg pleased his local fans by setting the sixth fastest time of the day despite limited track time, closely followed by Australia's John Martin in seventh. Title leaders A1 Team New Zealand and France had a tough time around the streets of Durban, finishing the session 11th and 15th respectively.

Canada's Robert Wickens only managed 10 minutes of track time and completed four laps in this afternoon's session, as the team had to repair damage sustained to the car during this morning's rookie session, when new boy Daniel Morad, the youngest driver to sign-on this season, was behind the wheel.

With concrete walls surrounding the perimeter of the tight and twisty street circuit, some of the teams and drivers ran into trouble with session-stopping incidents. A1 Team Mexico's David Garza had a big accident this morning, hitting the wall as he exited turn six. Garza was unhurt but the car was so badly damaged that the Mexican team had to sit out the second session and spend the afternoon setting up one of A1GP's spare cars for qualifying tomorrow.

The Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen set the fastest time overall today and is feeling happier with the set up of the Dutch car:

'It was a lot of fun to drive. I love street circuits so it's been going really well. I won last year in Monaco with the Porsche Supercup and I won with A1GP in Beijing so I just like racing on these tracks. We have been struggling a lot with the car the last few races and it's going much better on street circuits, as it did in the past with Jos Verstappen, so I think we have a much better set up for that and it looks like we have a good chance for this weekend. We just need to work on the normal circuit set up.'

South Africa's Adrian Zaugg, who set the sixth fastest lap this afternoon, is feeling quietly confident ahead of his home event in Durban this weekend:

'We had problems with rebalancing the tyres today so we just tried to do one lap at the end which wasn't too bad under the circumstances, so we're looking alright. It's very competitive and A1GP is getting more and more competitive with each season and I think the times will stay pretty close all weekend. I'm pretty confident - we'll see after qualifying on Saturday afternoon but I think we should be in good shape.'

France Ends Victory Drought with Fantastic Win in the Wet
Photos © A1GP.com
SYDNEY, Australia (February 2, 2008) - A1 Team France has taken the title lead in the thrilling 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season, having dominated this morning's wet Sprint race at Sydney's Eastern Creek from start to finish to take its first win in 37 races.

Loic Duval pulled out a comfortable lead at the start of the 14-lap race and was never threatened by the remaining 21-car pack, continuing to pull away from Switzerland and New Zealand as the rain got heavier. Duval finally crossed the line in first place, nine seconds ahead of Jonny Reid in Black Beauty, who masterfully snatched second position from Neel Jani on lap nine. The Swiss driver spun off later in the race and lost valuable championship points.

The win is 25-year-old Frenchman Duval's first victory in A1GP and ends season one champion France's race win drought. The team has not occupied the top step of the podium since Alexandre Premat won the Mexico Feature race in 2006.

France and New Zealand were joined on the podium by 18-year-old Canadian rookie Robert Wickens, who put in an incredible performance in the wet to race from 15th on the grid to a finish in a superb third place and pick up ten valuable championship points for his nation.

Germany's Michael Ammermüller crossed the line fourth having started from seventh on the grid, closely followed by USA's Jonathan Summerton in fifth, the team's best finish so far this season.

Host nation A1 Team Australia's John Martin gave his home fans something to cheer about, pushing hard throughout the race and improving three places from the start to cross the line in sixth position, ahead of South Africa's Adrian Zaugg and Brazil's Sergio Jimenez in seventh and eighth places respectively.

The Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen finished the incident-packed race ninth while Switzerland's Neel Jani, who was running in second for much of the race, fell back to tenth after he ran wide with two laps to go.

Great Britain's Robbie Kerr, whose race engineer had struggled from his hospital bed to stand on the pit wall with his broken leg in a plaster cast, got a great start from eighth on the grid but lost time when the team decided to pit for wet tyres on lap eight, ultimately crossing the line a disappointing 16th.

The 22 nations are now preparing for the main event of the weekend at Eastern Creek, a thrilling 70-minute Feature race with two compulsory pit stops, which starts at 15:00 this afternoon.

France's Loic Duval, who took his first ever A1GP win in what he says will be his last event for the team this year, reflected on what the result means to him and the team:

'It feels great. We've been running behind for a long time so it's really good for us to win this race and the team did a great job. It was perfect and we needed it. It was important for us to win a race and this may be my last race in A1GP so I'm really happy to leave the series with a victory. It was really hard in the rain but because of our pace in the dry conditions I had a really good gap so we were not really worried about the other guys. We were just trying to stay on the track and not take any risks.'

New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who raced to a solid second place from fourth on the grid, and is starting this afternoon's Feature race from pole, said:

'We had to fight for it a little bit. It was a good battle with Neel and once I got in front I gradually pulled away and started concentrating on Loic, but he was doing a good job in tricky conditions and I didn't want to take any risks and compromise the championship. Pole for the Feature race is a good position to start from but as we've seen before a million times it's tricky. We've got a lot of competition out there and everyone's in the hunt. We can really do a good job but it's going to be interesting to see what the weather does.'

Eighteen-year-old Canada's Robert Wickens, who put in an amazing performance to race from 15th to third, commented on the wet conditions:

'It was a great drive. We were struggling a little bit with the pace in the dry and we were just running in 13th or 14th. I think I had more trust in the car early on in the race and I actually made the majority of my passes when it was at the intermediate stage. A lot of drivers were staying on the dry line and I was one of the first ones to go on the wet line. If it rains in the Feature race we can just hope for the best and try to score some more points.'
 

New Zealand Storms to Home Race Win
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, New Zealand (January 20, 2008) - New Zealand made A1GP history today dominating the Taupo Sprint race from lights-to-flag to take its first ever A1GP win at home. It became only the second team to win a home race in the history of the thrilling series. Jonny Reid led from pole to take the chequered flag and score 15 crucial points, moving ahead of France for second in the championship.

Current title leader Switzerland's race was over on the first lap due to a turn one collision, moving the Kiwis to just five points behind the Swiss in the championship battle.

The packed grandstands were on their feet as Reid crossed the line three seconds ahead of defending champion Germany's Christian Vietoris, to secure the first win for New Zealand since taking the double victory in Brno earlier this season. Germany's Vietoris, who picked up a bonus point for clocking the fastest lap of the race on lap nine, started from fourth on the grid but quickly closed in on South Africa and France to take second by lap six.

New Zealand and Germany were joined on the podium by France's Loic Duval, who raced to a strong third place, followed by South Africa's Adrian Zaugg in fourth.

The Netherlands, Ireland and USA finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively while Portugal recorded its best finish this season when Joao Urbano crossed the line in eighth position. Australia's John Martin and India's Narain Karthikeyan fought hard to take the final two points-paying positions while Pakistan's Adam Khan put in his best performance of the season to secure 11th behind India.

A1 Team Lebanon was on course for its first ever A1GP point when the Czech Republic's Tomas Enge hit Chris Alajajian from behind on the ninth lap, causing him to pit for repairs. The Lebanese team finally finished the race in 15th behind China.

Four cars were involved in a first lap incident, Malaysia, Switzerland, Brazil and Canada tangling into turn one, bringing out the safety car for two laps. Malaysia's Alex Yoong and championship leader Switzerland's Neel Jani were forced out of the action but Canada's Robert Wickens and Brazil's Sergio Jimenez were able to rejoin after pitting for repairs.

All 22 nations are now preparing for the main event of the weekend at Taupo, a thrilling and unpredictable 70-minute Feature race, which starts at 15:00 this afternoon.

New Zealand's Jonny Reid was ecstatic with his first home win and is eager for another in this afternoon's Feature race:

'It's huge, absolutely huge. It's the greatest moment in my motorsport career. It means a lot to me and the pressure's been on all weekend. It's been all go since I got back from the Christmas break and it's really, really satisfying to get one on the board for everyone. The pole position was nice but now we've got the points and that's what matters in the championship. It's great to have all the home support and I'm just stoked to be number one in the Sprint.

'We can definitely move forward in the Feature, it's a long race and we've just got to tune the car a bit more for the conditions and we'll be right there I'm sure. We've got to control the emotions a little bit after this first victory and look for another.'

Germany's Christian Vietoris, who raced to a superb second position, said:

'The main aim was to get on the podium for the Sprint race so I'm really happy. I feel really comfortable and the car now feels fine and I'm looking forward to the Feature race. I'm starting from the first row and with a good start I hope I can do well.'

France's Loic Duval, who finished third in the Sprint race and is on pole for the Feature race, said:

'I think Adrian took a really good start and actually was in front of Jonny. Christian could pass me in the first two corners and then I managed to come back and get on the podium. I had a good chance to overtake the South African car so it wasn't too bad and the car was ok. We are going to start first for the Feature race so I'm still really confident. I have to take a good start and if I am leading from the front then I think we have a really good chance.'

France Tops Friday Practice in Taupo
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, New Zealand (January 18, 2008) - A1 Team France topped the time sheets in the second of today's two free practice sessions at Taupo as all 22 drivers took to the track with biofuel in their tanks, making history at round five of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season.

Despite not taking part in the rookie session this morning, 25-year-old French driver Loic Duval clocked the best lap of the day, completing the 3.5km circuit in 1m15.545s in glorious sunshine.

'It was a good session for us especially without the rookie session this morning', Duval said. 'We worked with the data from last year and I think the car was great, I feel really good here. Actually it means nothing to be on the front row on Friday, it happened many times last year and I didn't get pole position, so that is my target for tomorrow.'

The magnificent Lake Taupo provides the backdrop for one of the most picturesque races of the season and Duval sites the event as one of the highlights on the A1GP calendar:

'For me this is the best country we go to, it's really good here. It feels more like a holiday. I love the track, the people, the mentality, it's just perfect to be here.'

Ireland's Adam Carroll, who was the quickest man on track in the first 25-minute practice segment this morning, set the second fastest time of the day while championship leader Switzerland's Neel Jani finished third, just over a tenth of a second off the emerald green car.

Defending champion Germany's Christian Vietoris has been on strong form all day and the 18-year-old from Gönnersdorf set the fourth fastest time of the day while USA's Jonathan Summerton took the fifth spot. A1 Team Great Britain driver Robbie Kerr finished the day in sixth place, closely followed by Canada's Robert Wickens in seventh, who was on superb form in this morning's rookie session.

Home nation A1 Team New Zealand's Jonny Reid was eighth quickest this afternoon but remains optimistic for the weekend ahead. The 24-year-old from Auckland finished the day eighth fastest overall.

'It was a very tough session,' Reid said. 'Everyone was very very tight in the times but we've got some areas where we can improve. The track conditions were changing a lot and obviously we didn't get as close as we would have liked, but there's still plenty of time over these early days. There's not too much to change overnight really. We had a small problem which we will improve but if we actually look at all my sector times I'm sure we're very close to France, so we just need to capitalise on one small area and hopefully we will be there.'

Australia's new lead driver John Martin was an impressive second fastest in both sessions this morning, finally ending the day in 12th place behind Italy's Edoardo Piscopo.

The times are just under a second slower than last year, largely due to Turn 12 being a much tighter corner, designed to increase overtaking opportunities.

India Takes Incredible Maiden Victory at Zhuhai
Photos © A1GP.com
ZHUHAI, China (December 16, 2007) - A1 Team India's Narain Karthikeyan made history today when he took his and the team's first ever A1GP race win in this afternoon's incident-packed Feature race at China's Zhuhai International Circuit. Karthikeyan was joined on the podium by New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who started from 10th on the grid, and South Africa's Adrian Zaugg in third.

The 30-year-old Indian driver, who started from third on the grid, took the lead from New Zealand during the second pit stop window on lap 29 and, despite a huge amount of pressure and some excellent racing from Reid, Karthikeyan held off Black Beauty and went on the cross the line in first place and score India's first A1GP win in the history of the sport.

South Africa's Zaugg also enjoyed a strong race to take the final podium position, having started from ninth on the grid. Zaugg was under attack from Germany's Michael Ammermüller during the last 10 laps of the 45 lap race but the 21-year-old South African pushed hard to take third place ahead of the German rookie who ultimately finished fourth.

Fifth place was taken by Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis, who got away well from second on the grid and snatched the early lead from pole sitter Switzerland as Brazil, Ireland, Canada and Malaysia were all involved in an incident behind them at turn one, bringing out the safety car for four laps. Fast work in the pits during the first pit stop window allowed Switzerland to steal the lead when they rejoined the action while GBR fell back to sixth place.

Having enjoyed an early lead, the British and Swiss teams were both hampered with delays in their second pit stops due to technical issues, ultimately finishing in fifth and sixth positions respectively. Despite a disappointing finish, GBR's Jarvis was clearly pushing hard, picking up a bonus point for setting the fastest lap in the Feature race on lap 29.

France, who finished the race seventh, was hit with a drive through penalty on lap 16 due to releasing their car unsafely from its first pit stop. As he drove past the USA pit box, Loic Duval caught the hose connected to one of the airguns causing a USA mechanic to be pulled to the ground.

Tomas Enge, making his A1GP race return for the Czech Republic after an absence of 10 months, had a superb afternoon, racing from 16th on the grid to finish a solid eighth.

Home nation China's CongFu Cheng, who was running in sixth place on lap 31 after the second round of pit stops, fell down the order to 10th after taking a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The Chinese star was determined not to give up, charging past USA with five laps remaining and finally crossing the line in ninth place, picking up two valuable championship points, moving the team up one position in the overall championship standings.

Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen was forced out of the action on lap nine due to a puncture caused by suspected suspension failure at the final corner while 12th placed Portugal received a drive through penalty on lap five for making a false start.

Narain Karthikeyan, who made history today by scoring India's first ever A1GP win, praised his team's brilliant work in the pits:

'The team has been working really hard at pit stop practices and they've done a really good job this weekend. Both the pit stops were excellent and we got ahead but unfortunately I got stuck behind Pakistan on my out lap so I couldn't push but I came out just ahead of Jonny. There was a lot of pressure towards the end but then his tyres went off as well as mine and then we were equal - after that I just got the job done.'

Jonny Reid, who raced from 10th on the grid to finish a superb second, was delighted with New Zealand's team work this weekend:

'It was a fantastic team effort. Obviously I'm very pleased to come from P10 on the grid and having struggled in qualifying to threaten for the win in the end. It's a credit to the team. My in laps were good, my out laps were good, and there were a few mistakes from my side of the fence so overall I'm very pleased with the whole team this weekend. Fantastic effort.'

South Africa's Adrian Zaugg was pleasantly surprised by his team's podium finish today and enjoyed some competitive racing:

'I was quite surprised myself that we had the pace to finish on the podium. We were quite strong from the beginning of the race and passed quite a few people, Great Britain was one of them. He (Oliver Jarvis) made a slight mistake into the second last turn so I got a good run down the straight and passed him into the last turn. It was really good racing.'

Switzerland has extended its championship lead to 79 points, 19 ahead of second-placed France on 60, closely followed by New Zealand just one point behind in third place on 59 points.

The championship now takes a five-week break before heading to New Zealand for round five in Taupo, marking the first race of the New Year on 18-20 January 2008.

Germany and Switzerland on Pole at Zhuhai
Photos © A1GP.com
ZHUHAI, China (December 14, 2007) - Defending champion A1 Team Germany qualified in pole position for tomorrow morning's Sprint race at the inaugural Huatai A1GP Zhuhai, China while the Feature race will be led off the grid by current championship leader Switzerland.

Sprint race qualifying
German rookie Michael Ammermuller set the fastest lap during the second 15-minute qualifying segment to snatch pole position for tomorrow morning's Sprint race from Ireland's Adam Carroll, who was quickest around the 4.3km Chinese circuit in Q1.

Switzerland's Neel Jani will line up alongside Germany on the front row, after a superb last lap charge during Q2 demoted Ireland's Adam Carroll and China's CongFu Cheng to third and fourth place respectively. Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis and Czech Republic's Tomas Enge will line up on the third row of the grid in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Feature race qualifying
Switzerland's Neel Jani went one better in the final qualifying segment to secure pole for the Feature race ahead of GBR's Oliver Jarvis who will line up alongside him on the front row.

India's Narain Karthikeyan put in a sensational lap in Q4 to secure third position on the grid, closely followed by France's Loic Duval who will start from fourth. Germany took the fifth spot while home nation China's CongFu Cheng continued to impress the home fans by qualifying in sixth position and achieving China's best combined qualifying performance to date.

Germany's Michael Ammermüller was delighted with his first pole position in only his second A1GP appearance and is looking forward to taking on the challenging Zhuhai circuit tomorrow morning:

'We did a good job to get first place in qualifying and it's a great result for the whole team. We were struggling a bit in free practice but then we got a really good car and we were quite dominant in the first qualifying. The track got a bit worse towards the end and we weren't in the top three but still I think it's a good result. It's better to be first in the first race because it's a short race and quite difficult to overtake and in the second race it's all about strategy and anything is possible.'

Sepang double race winner Neel Jani, who has been struggling with brake problems on the Swiss car, was pleased with his team's qualifying performance:

'We had another great qualifying - second for the Sprint race and first for the Feature race - but it's very tight this time and all very close, every little mistake can put you three spots back. I'm very pleased as yesterday we had a lot of brake problems so the team did a great job to get it solved for today.'

Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis will start both the Sprint and Feature races from second on the grid. The 23-year-old said:

'The free practice and qualifying sessions have been pretty tough. Like Neel said, the track adheres to very close times so a small mistake can make a big difference. It's also very difficult to get a full lap together, there are a lot of heavy braking zones and it's very easy to make a mistake. We've struggled a little bit so far but hopefully we can have very good races and score a lot of points.'

Tomorrow's Sprint race at Zhuhai International Circuit, China will start at 11.00 local time and the 70-minute Feature race will start at 15.00.
 

A1 Grand Prix of Nations
Pedal to the Metal for First Race of A1GP Season Five
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (July 23, 2009) — A spectacular 24-strong parachute drop over Main Beach this morning heralded the official launch of a ‘new era’ for Australia’s premier motorsport event – the Nitro SuperGP on Queensland’s Gold Coast – which will kick off Season Five of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport later this year.

Now less than 100 days away from the starter’s flag, the Nitro SuperGP will see more than 20 nations battle head-to-head when A1GP joins the Australian V8 Supercars Championship Series on the streets of Surfers Paradise from October 22-25.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said for the 19th year in a row the world’s motorsport spotlight would shine on the Gold Coast event – making it one of the longest-running and most successful of its kind in the world.

“The Gold Coast has become a permanent fixture on the international motorsport circuit and the festival has been entertaining locals and visitors alike for nearly two decades. And this year is expected to be bigger and better with the sleek, Ferrari-powered A1GPs mixing it with the pure muscle and brute force of our home-grown V8 Supercars,” said Ms Bligh.

A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira, explained just what this meant to the series: “I am still pinching myself that we have managed to do a deal to bring our Powered by Ferrari cars to such an iconic event. The Nitro SuperGP is one of the most eagerly awaited events in A1GP history and I know the reputation of this event worldwide is incredible. I cannot count the number of people who have told me that I shall be blown away by the superb organisation, the loyal fans, the great racing and the knowledgeable media. I don’t doubt any of these claims.

Joining the launch celebration was Gold Coast resident and Seat Holder for A1 Team Australia, Alan Jones. For once he was delighted to have his photo taken with one of his arch rivals, as the A1 Team Malaysia car had been flown out from the UK so the locals could view the sort of machinery they can expect to see on their streets in October.

Explaining more about what the event means to the area Ms Bligh said: “Over 300,000 are expected to attend the 2009 Nitro SuperGP, not to mention the 700 international media that will take this great city to the world. And this attention brings big business to the Gold Coast and Queensland.

“Our hotels and hospitality industry will benefit from more than 173,000 visitor nights; locals will benefit from the equivalent of over 550 casual, full-time jobs; and the Queensland economy will get a $60 million shot in the arm.

“Events like this are the lifeblood of Queensland tourism meccas like the Gold Coast and the Government is proud to continue its support of the motorsport festival,” she said.

Nitro SuperGP Chairman Terry Mackenroth echoed the sentiments of the Premier and unveiled details of an enhanced race program for the event.

“The 2009 race program will provide fans with more racing than ever before,” said Mackenroth.

“Thursday for the first time will see open-wheel action, with the first practice session of A1GP, as well as actual open-wheel racing on both the Saturday and Sunday, while the V8 Supercars take to the track for two 200km races after completing practice and the first stage of qualifying on Friday,” said Mackenroth.

“This exciting new race format will provide more on-track action and racing to our spectators than ever before and deliver great value for money for everyone.

“Expanding on the race program developments, 2009 also sees major works to the pit area and, after 18-years, an investment in a completely new hospitality and pit garage facility.”

Also on hand to witness the spectacle along with the invited guests were V8 Supercar drivers Alex Davison, Shane van Gisbergen, Michael Patrizi, Fabian Coulthard, as well as the first of the official Nitro SuperGP ambassadors.

Event organisers are selecting ‘ambassadors’ for each nation from the community to cheer on their team during and in the lead-up to the October 22-25 event.

Serginho van Dijk of the Brisbane Roar and Joey Wright, coach of the Gold Coast Blaze, were in attendance at the event launch as the ambassadors for A1 Team Netherlands and A1 Team USA respectively.

Nitro SuperGP General Manager Greg Hooton said the idea behind the ambassador program was to celebrate the many different nationalities which will be coming to the Gold Coast in October and racing in front of the fans.

Malaysian Club of Queensland president Teng Hee Tan (A1 Team Malaysia) was also in attendance, taking a particular interest in the A1 Team Malaysia race car on display.

The 2009 Nitro SuperGP will host Event 11 of the V8 Supercars Championship Series and the first round of the 2009/10 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season. The event is produced through a partnership between the Queensland Government and IMG - tickets for this year’s event are on sale now through Ticketek on 1300 303 103.

For all the latest ticket information visit the event’s website www.SuperGP.com.
 

Ireland Wins A1GP Title in Style
Photos © A1GP.com
BRANDS HATCH, Great Britain (May 3, 2009) – A1 Team Ireland lifted the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport trophy high above Brands Hatch today after the perfect weekend for the team and its driver, Adam Carroll. They completely dominated the weekend from the time they took to the track on Friday. Two poles, victory in the Sprint race and then another lights-to-flag win in the Feature race was the perfect end for them to the 2008/09 championship.

After an aborted start when South Africa’s Alan van der Merwe stalled on the grid, the race finally got underway with Carroll getting off the line to lead into Paddock Hill Bend. As the field came through the first corner an incident involving China, USA and India left China and India in the gravel and out of the race and brought out the Safety Car as the cars came round to complete the first lap. USA’s John R Hildebrand Jr limped back to the pits for a new nose cone but rejoined the race.

The order behind the Safety Car was Ireland from Monaco, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, France, Great Britain and Italy.

Ireland had a good run out of the final corner on the restart to come across the line 0.653-seconds ahead of the chasing pack. Further down the field Mexico’s Salvador Duran took tenth from Italy’s Vitantonio Liuzzi.

By the end of lap five Carroll had a 1.424-second lead before New Zealand’s Earl Bamber spun Black Beauty into the gravel and out of the race at Westfield.

As the pit window opened for the first round of stops race-leader Ireland was the first to dive in, closely followed by Portugal. Another slick pit stop from the Irish crew saw Carroll safely back out in the lead. Switzerland and Netherlands came in a lap later with Monaco opting to stay out a lap extra. The strategy didn’t work, however, as Clivio Piccione fell to fifth after the stops.

Mexico had a good stop to get out in front of Australia with the order on lap fifteen now Ireland 6.956-seconds from Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Monaco, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, Italy and Lebanon.

Great Britain’s Dan Clarke was flying on home soil placing his car perfectly on the inside of Paddock hill Bend to take seventh from John Martin. He then began attacking Mexico for sixth while Netherlands started to close the gap to Ireland up ahead.

On lap 26 Germany’s Michael Ammermüller rolled to a halt bringing his season to an early end. Ireland was now being held up by USA’s Hildebrand as Carroll came round to lap the American car.

Malaysia Aaron Lim ran wide and crashed out at druids bringing a disappointing end to his weekend just as the second mandatory pit window opened.

Ireland was first to come in again to get a new set of tyres along with South Africa, Lebanon, Indonesia and Mexico. Great Britain and the Netherlands made their stops a lap later with orange car remaining in second despite Ireland having a slightly slower stop this time around.

John Martin was flying in Jackeroo giving Australia the fastest lap, with a 1m 12.754s, which he beat a couple of laps later recording a 1m 12.698s.

Ireland was in control at the front but there was a great battle for third with Switzerland holding off Monaco and Portugal. Great Britain’s’ Dan Clarke was also putting pressure on Mexico for sixth.

With five laps to go the order was Ireland from Netherlands, Switzerland, Monaco, Portugal, Mexico, Great Britain, Australia, Italy and France.

Carroll held his nerve to bring the Celtic Tiger across the line to take victory by 10.156-seconds from the Netherlands and Switzerland, and with it sealed the team’s maiden A1GP title. Ireland had been in control all weekend, claiming two pole positions yesterday which were both converted into wins today.

After an amazing season of A1GP racing the title went right down to the final race with A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira, presenting A1 Team Ireland’s seat holder Mark Gallagher and an elated Adam Carroll with the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport trophy in front of the cheering crowds. Neel Jani’s third place finish secured the runner-up spot in this year’s championship. Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque came home in fifth to give them third place in the final championship rankings.

Ireland’s Adam Carroll said: “It was a perfect weekend for us, it’s what we needed to come here to do, and it was the plan so it really did come through. We knew by the pace we set in Portugal that if we came here and everything worked out ok we would be really hard to beat, and that was the way it worked out so it couldn’t have been better.

“I didn’t get a great start again, it’s really hard to start from pole, but I knew if I stayed where I was there wouldn’t be any bumping in to each other.

“In the second pit stop the team were nothing to do with why we were slow, the guys did their job but had to hold me because Switzerland was coming in and if they had let me go it would have been very dangerous so we lost some time.

“The team are just unbelievable, they are the best team on the face of this earth in motorsport and I believe that fully. Their commitment is second to none and we are the best in this pit lane. These guys left on Friday night after 29 hours in the pit lane, which says it all.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen, who came in second today said: “We started working together with Ireland this season and obviously they are very strong, but I think we have a great group of people too. It was great working with them and I think we both took advantage of that. We have had some bad luck and I’ve been sharing a car with Robert Doornbos. If it goes your way you are fighting for the championship, but we’ve had a few races that didn’t go our way although we can be happy with the season.”

Switzerland’s Neel Jani said: “It was bad luck in the Feature, but on the other hand I am happy because we finally found some pace this weekend as we have been struggling since Friday. This morning we were way too slow to win any championship in the world so I am really happy that in the end this afternoon we were somewhere around even though we had a broken exhaust.

“It had been interesting, lots of close battles, especially within the points. I knew it would be hard to win the title here against Ireland because last year they were very quick and we struggled. I would have liked to have come here with a bigger points lead and I think one of the biggest mistakes was in Malaysia in the Feature race when I spun it. Ireland did a great job though, they had a fantastic year and if I don’t win, I don’t mind if they win.”
 

A1 Team Monaco scores Front-Row Start for Feature at Brands Finale
Photos © A1GP.com
BRANDS HATCH, (2 May 2009) — A1 Team Monaco’s Clivio Piccione will start in second position for the Feature event and from the seventh row of the grid for the Sprint race - the final rounds of the 2008/9 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brands Hatch tomorrow.

Clivio made an immediate impact on the time sheet when he ventured out on track in the opening minutes of this morning’s Official Practice 3. In the early stages of the sixty-minute session current circuit best lap time setters team Netherlands set the bench mark of running in the 1:12’s. Clivio sat in P3, only 0.4 seconds off the leaders pace, for the first half of the session. A further push improved his time to 1:13.039, however this now only secured Clivio fifth place. With only 15 minutes left on the clock a Red Flag situation suspended running for several minutes. When the session re-started a further Red Flag was immediately deployed and the decision was made to conclude running. Clivio was therefore unable to improve on his time and ended the session in fifth position overall.

In the afternoon the complete field of 20 teams waited in the pits until the closing stint of Sprint Qualifying 1. With the exception of Germany, everyone timed their last minute outing to ensure that they took the chequered flag. Clivio crossed the line in a respectable 8th position with a 1:13.507. In SQ2 the Monegasque squad sent Clivio on to a clear track with over four minutes remaining. Clivio started his hot lap with a stunning first sector time, but unfortunately ran wide as he pushed the car to the limit, costing him valuable time. Whilst the top of the time sheet scored in the 1:11’s, Clivio set a fastest lap time of 1:13.260 to put him in 14th position for tomorrow’s Sprint race.

Clivio set his best time of the weekend so far - a 1:12.113 - to sit in third position at the end of Feature Qualifying 1. When the final qualifying segment got underway he utilised the PowerBoost button, setting a fastest lap time of 1:11.085 to sit in provisional pole. Championship contenders Switzerland and Ireland waited until the last possible moment before leaving the pitlane to chase Monaco’s fantastic time. In an exciting climax to the final Saturday session of the season it was Ireland who snatched the double-pole, with Team Monaco lining up alongside them on the first row of the grid, in second position for the start of the A1GP Brands Hatch feature event tomorrow.

Clivio Piccione, Driver and Seat Holder: “We are disappointed in the qualifying for the Sprint race as we struggled with a gearbox issue in both the runs. We had a look at the data and I changed my driving style for the problem corners and the changes worked. In the first feature qualifying session we used old tyres and went considerably quicker, so that was encouraging. We knew that we were quick from our times in practice, so we knew that we could achieve the time we needed to. In the last session I used the push-to-pass early and the lap was pretty good. To be on the front row of the grid with the championship contenders for the last race of year feels great.”

Graham Taylor, Team Principal: “First and foremost I would like to congratulate Clivio for a great lap and the team for a job well done. Team Monaco had a lot of work to do this weekend. The boys worked extremely hard to get the car on to the circuit and the performance of our driver put paid to their efforts. We are now looking forward to ending our inaugural season on a very high note.”

A1 Team Mexico to start from the front row at Brands Hatch
LONDON (May 2, 2009) – The Mexican team keep showing big steps forward after they earned their first A1GP points of the season on the past round, in Portugal. Salvador Duran, the team’s main driver did a great job taking the snake eyed car to its best starting position of the year by setting a qualifying time of 1:11,653 that ended up being the second best time for the Sprint race, only 4 hundredths of a second behind Team Ireland.

“We used the Power Boost on our second run, we had the car to get the pole position but a problem in the rear of the car cost us time and we had to settle for second”, said Duran. “We will try to have a good start tomorrow and with a good pit strategy be able to fight for the win”.

Having used the Power Boost during qualifying for the Sprint race, and suffering with yellow flags while qualifying for the Feature, the Mexican team still managed to get a good grid position for this race with a lap time of 1:12,740, good to start from row 7.

“First we went out on used tires and the car felt really good. For the second run we were on new tires but a yellow flag ruined the lap and we will have to climb up the field and adjust our strategy during the race".

A1GP Mexico City Cancelled
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (April 29, 2009) — A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has been forced to cancel round eight of the 2008/09 season, A1GP Mexico City, Mexico on 22-24 May after the recent outbreaks of swine flu and the advisory from the UK Foreign Office to cancel non essential travel to the country.

“To say we are disappointed to have to make this call is an understatement,” said A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira. “When the news of the health problems broke last week we made sure we kept ourselves up to date with the latest information. It soon became obvious this was not an isolated health risk, and when the UK Foreign Office put out its advisory and the World Health Organization raised the level of influenza pandemic alert that was when we had to make our decision. We must have the safety of all members of the A1GP community as well as the thousands of loyal fans in Mexico City as our prime concern,” he added.

The cargo was due to be flown out to Mexico directly after the Brands Hatch race and so this was another factor in the decision. “If we had flown our cars out and not been able to send the teams to run them it would have been a waste of time and money. However, this cancellation does not impact on the future of the series and once Brands Hatch is over we shall be concentrating on Season Five, for which plans are already well advanced,” said Teixeira.

Now this weekend’s race A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain will be the final round of the championship. Going into this race there are three teams A1Team Switzerland, A1 Team Ireland and A1 Team Portugal who can still win the coveted trophy. This will mean the title race will go down to the wire as none of these teams can win the title in the Sprint race.

The permutations are numerous and complicated meaning it will be a real cliff hanger and are as follows:

Switzerland will win the title if the following cases BOTH happen

* if Ireland scores less than 3 points or Switzerland outscores Ireland by at least 2 points
+ if Portugal scores less than 7 points or Portugal doesn't outscore Switzerland by more than 2 points
+ if scores are tied Switzerland need to maintain its better tie-break results – presently Switzerland has four wins to Ireland’s three and Portugal's one

Ireland will win the title if the following ALL happen:

* if Ireland scores at least 3 points
+ if Ireland doesn't lose more than 1 point to Switzerland
+ if Ireland doesn't lose more than 4 points to Portugal
+ if scores are tied Ireland needs to have better tie-break results – presently Switzerland has four wins to Ireland’s three, and Portugal's one

Portugal will win the title if the following ALL happen:
* if Portugal scores at least 7 points
+ if Portugal outscores Switzerland by at least 3 points
+ if Portugal outscores Ireland by at least 5 points

If nations are tied on points at the end of the season, the number of victories will determine the champion. If that is the same, it is number of second places, then third places and so on until a winner is determined.
 

Jani Wins Dramatic Portuguese Feature Race
Photos © A1GP.com
ALGARVE, Portugal (April 12, 2009) – Switzerland’s Neel Jani emerged victorious from an action packed Feature race at Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal this afternoon. The result means Jani now has ten A1GP victories to his name – more than any other driver in the history of the sport. Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque drove a fantastic race to come through to second, while Fairuz Fauzy was third for Malaysia. Ireland’s Adam Carroll finished second on the road, but a subsequent penalty dropped him to fifth.

The drama started before the race had even begun as pole-man Robert Doornbos stopped his A1 Team Netherlands car out on track while the field was coming to line up on the grid. The wiring loom chafing ended the Dutchman’s hopes of leaving the team on a high on his last A1GP race of the season.

Effectively on pole now, Carroll also had drama as his crew was last off the grid after trouble getting his car started. Brazil was absent from fifth on the grid after being unable to repair the car after crashing out of the Sprint race earlier in the day. As the race finally got underway, Ireland led the pack into turn one while USA’s Marco Andretti made a fantastic start to move ahead of Malaysia and Portugal into fourth. Albuquerque responded immediately with a great move to re-take fourth from the American driver.

As the cars came around to complete the first racing lap the order was Ireland from Switzerland, South Africa, Portugal, USA, New Zealand, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico and Lebanon.

Lebanon and Mexico made contact resulting in a puncture for Lebanon’s Daniel Morad, whose race then ended in the gravel at turn six. Australia's John Martin had a problem at the first turn which dropped him down the order.

By lap three, Ireland had a 1.8-second advantage over Switzerland with the pair beginning to pull away from the rest of the field.

A great battle was continuing further down the field for the final points paying positions between Malaysia, Monaco, Mexico, Great Britain and India, with Monaco’s Clivio Piccione pushing hard to pass the Malaysian car. On lap seven there was bad news for the Irish squad as Adam Carroll was given a drive-through penalty for a jump start. With the order now Ireland from Switzerland, South Africa, Portugal, USA, New Zealand, Italy, Monaco, Malaysia and Mexico, the window opened for the first round of pit stops.

Portugal, Italy and South Africa were among the first to pit while Ireland came through for its penalty. A lap later the Celtic Tiger was back in for its mandatory pit stop but with time lost had dropped right down the field. Switzerland made a clean stop to remain out in front while New Zealand had a fantastic stop boosting Earl Bamber up to an effective third ahead of both Portugal and the USA.

Monaco rejoined ahead of USA but came out on cold tyres, Clivio Piccione made an error and let Marco Andretti through into what was sixth after everyone pitted.

Black Beauty was now flying in the hands of Bamber who was right on the back of South Africa. Zaugg was under immense pressure but defended well coming down the main straight. However, going into turn three Bamber appeared to lock up and crashed into the rear of South Africa. Portugal narrowly avoided the collision up ahead thanks to Albuquerque’s lightening reactions as the incident brought the Safety Car out on lap 15.

As Switzerland’s 15-second lead disappeared, the field closed up with the order behind Jani now Portugal, Italy, USA, Mexico, Monaco, Malaysia, India, Germany and Ireland. As Switzerland’s 15-second lead disappeared, the incident brought Ireland right back into contention.

The race re-started on lap 19 and Filipe Albuquerque made a brilliant manoeuvre around the outside of Jani at turn one to take the lead in front of the roaring crowds. USA made a move on Italy and as Vitantonio Liuzzi tried to come back on the inside at turn nine, the pair touched, with the Italian car spinning into the innocent car of Monaco leaving all three out of the race.

The Safety Car was straight back out with the order now Portugal leading from Switzerland, Mexico, Malaysia, India, Australia, Ireland, Germany, France and Indonesia.

On lap 23 the race was back underway with Portugal under immense pressure from Switzerland. The second pit stop window opened on lap 27 with Portugal, Malaysia, India and Ireland coming straight in. Ireland jumped both India and Malaysia after a stunning stop from the Irish team getting Adam Carroll out just behind Portugal. A lap later Switzerland pitted and a quick stop from the Swiss team got their man out comfortably in the lead. Mexico’s Salvador Duran was running an impressive third after great pit stop strategy from the Mexican squad.

With 12 laps to go Albuquerque’s mirrors were full of the emerald green car as Jani continued to pull away in the lead. On lap 32 the timing screens flashed with more bad news as Ireland was awarded another drive-through penalty for overtaking behind the Safety Car. The stewards then made the decision to investigate the incident after the race allowing Ireland to continue its race. Germany also had bad news as Andre Lotterer was given a drive-through penalty also for overtaking under Safety Car conditions.

As Mexico came in for its final stop of the day, Ireland finally made a move on Portugal to take second. In the closing stages of the race, India's Narain Karthikeyan spun into retirement while Australia retired in the pits.

Ireland now had the gap to Switzerland down to 0.6-seconds as Carroll chased the win in the dying stages of the race. Switzerland held on to the win making Jani the driver who has won the most race victories in A1GP history.

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque drove a fantastic race to come through from seventh on the grid to take the final podium position in front of his home fans. The 23-year-old bowed down and thanked the crowd for their support this weekend to an almost deafening cheer.

The final race order at the flag was Switzerland from Ireland, Portugal, Malaysia, Mexico, France, Great Britain, China, Germany and Indonesia, however, following a stewards’ enquiry, Ireland’s penalty was upheld. The teams had a 25-second time penalty applied for overtaking Australia under the Safety Car just before a re-start which dropped it down to fifth in the order.

Switzerland therefore regained its championship lead with 88 points from Ireland (86) and Portugal (82) however if dropped scores were taken into account at this stage, Ireland would still remain at the top of the championship by two points.

Race-winner Neel Jani said: “There was everything in it (the race). Coming from third, having second, then to the pit stop and getting the lead, losing the lead and having Adam really put me under pressure at the end. We were a bit lucky today and we were very unlucky yesterday so it’s a balance.

“On the restart he (Albuquerque) caught me down the straight and I just thought I can’t hold it, so don’t fight him too much and just try to get him on the second pit stop, which worked well.

“I saw cars going off and I thought ‘oh that’s another position for Adam coming from the back’ I think it was a great race for us. We can be really happy with what we have achieved today. I had to fight quite hard because Adam (Carroll) was really quick and Portugal too, so I think it will be between the three of us in the end.”

“It was very hard at the beginning,” said local hero Filipe Albuquerque. “We then had a really poor pit stop – another car was coming and didn’t let me out. I still pushed with the new tyres, but I was really disappointed with the third stint – I think the pressures were too high on the tyres.

“I am very proud and coming from P7 I was very lucky and had to fight a lot. I was in the middle of all the battles. I lost my left mirror so I couldn’t see the crash between New Zealand and South Africa. I am pleased to get a podium. It’s good for the standings in the championship. Getting two podiums on home soil is just perfect.”

Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy commented: “Taking our third podium finish of the season today is a good result for us. It has moved us into sixth place of the overall standings, but we’re only three points behind France, so we can fight for this as well. We had a good car and this, combined with our teamwork and a strong race strategy – and a little bit of good fortune - ensured we took a top three spot.”
 

A1 Team Mexico is Feeling Good for Sunday

News from A1 Team Mexico

Photos © A1GP.com

ALGARVE, Portugal (April 11th, 2009) — A1GP Team Mexico has overcome the problems they faced on Friday when the gas pump prevented the A1GP car Powered by Ferrari to reach high RPMs, and they have a positive feeling about Sunday’s Sprint and Feature races. Today, the team was finally able to take the track of the new racetrack of Algarve, Portugal, with a car that is 100% fit. However, having lost Friday’s practice has reduced the team’s track time and they have had to work harder during the final practice today to set up the car for qualifying.

“I think our qualifying times for the first race do not reflect what we really have, because there were red flags caused by China and Switzerland that prevented us from improving our time,” said Salvador Duran, the team’s main driver. “Qualifying for the second race we made some progress, but not as much as we had wished for. Anyway, what's important is that we know that we as a team have room for improvement, while the other teams are already on their limits", added Duran.

Activities for the sixth round of the calendar finish tomorrow with the Sprint and Feature races, which will be broadcast by Canal Speed in Mexico and Latin America at 7:30 a.m., Central Mexico time.
 

A1 Team Monaco starts 10th and 9th at  Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal
News from A1 Team Monaco

Photos © A1GP.com
PORTIMÃO, (11 April 2009): A1 Team Monaco qualified in the top ten for both A1GP World Cup of Motorsport races tomorrow at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. Clivio Piccione will line up on the grid in 10th place for the morning’s Sprint Race and in 9th position for the start of the Feature event in the afternoon.

This morning Team Monaco took to the track for Official Practice 3 after an early Red Flag situation by Indonesia. Clivio’s lap times remained consistently in the top ten as the rest of the field joined the session and the circuit rubbered in. A further Red Flag interrupted running momentarily before Clivio was able to improve on his time, putting the team in P5 with 25 minutes of the hour-long session remaining. As team times continued to improve their times until the end of the session, it was Netherlands, Ireland and defending champions Switzerland who ultimately topped the time sheet, with Monaco’s best lap time of 1:31.984 putting the team in 8th position when Official Practice concluded. “We opted for an alternative qualifying strategy which would enable us to use two new sets of tyres tomorrow instead of one, “said Piccione. “In SQ2 I had to stop [due to a Red Flag] after our out lap and so lost the best of tyres. We set a reasonable time overall, but it should have been better. We used these tyres for the first Feature Qualifying session, but overall our lap time was not good. We used a new set of tyres and the push-to-pass (PowerBoost) in FQ2, but the session did not go to plan and I was struggling for grip. We tried something different today and it didn’t work out, so for sure we have ground to make up tomorrow. Everyone in the team is still pushing hard and we have hope for the rest of the weekend.”

In the afternoon Team Monaco ventured out on track in the closing stages of Sprint Qualifying 1 after a Red Flag took up vital minutes of the short 10-minute session. As the cars lined up waiting for the Green Light to go on at the end of the pitlane, Team Monaco skillfully placed Clivio behind Portugal at the head of the queue for the track and was one of only 13 cars to set a lap time before the chequered flag was raised. Clivio crossed the line in a respectable 7th position. Due to the over running of SQ1, SQ2 commenced almost immediately and the Monegasque squad sent Clivio on to a clear track with 5 minutes remaining. Unfortunately the swift turnaround was in vain as a further Red Flag was deployed after Switzerland lost power at turn one. Clivio returned to the pits to join the queue to complete the session and set a 1:32.420 in the dying moments to put him in the top ten for tomorrow’s Sprint race.

“The morning session was a little disrupted by the early rain,” said Graham Taylor, tam principal. “The couple of changes we tried did not benefit the car, so for this afternoon we reverted back to what we knew. In Qualifying the Red Flag in SQ2 took the edge away from the tyres for the proper run and for the Feature race qualifying Clivio had lost some grip. We would prefer to be further up the grid, but feel we can still achieve some good results tomorrow.”

Clivio set a hot lap of 1:33.664 to sit in 17th position at the end of Feature Qualifying 1 this afternoon. When the final qualifying segment got underway Clivio utilised the PowerBoost button to set a fastest lap time of 1:31.495. Team Monaco will line up on the 5th row of the grid in 9th place for the start of the A1GP Algarve feature event tomorrow.
 

TW Steel – A1GP R6 Preview – Algarve, Portugal

By Stuart Morrison
Photos © A1GP.com
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands (April 10, 2009) – Portugal makes a welcome return to the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport schedule with the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve hosting Round 6 of the 2008-09 A1GP season this weekend, Friday 10th – Sunday 12th April.  —>MORE

A1 Team Italy Signs Vitantonio Liuzzi
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (April 6, 2009) – A1 Team Italy has pulled off a coup by signing one of Italy’s most talented drivers, Vitantonio Liuzzi, to represent his country in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. Liuzzi has been successful in all categories he has contested up to Formula 1, and his first race with A1 Team Italy will be the Vodafone A1GP Algarve, Portugal event over the Easter weekend.

Liuzzi was at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia at the weekend as reserve driver for the Force India Formula 1 team, but flew back to Europe on Saturday night and his first A1GP experience is driving the series’ simulator in Modena today and tomorrow. Then he will get behind the wheel of the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car for the first time in the practice session that starts at 14.00 hours on Friday, 10 April at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.

For Liuzzi the opportunity to get to race again is appealing: “I’m really looking forward to trying the A1GP car and to get back to racing, which is the thing I like to do most. I am pleased that Vijay Mallya and Force India agreed to release me for these races so I can feel the adrenalin of a race atmosphere again.” It is planned that Liuzzi will also drive for the team at A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain, but the team is hopeful these will not be the only races he will contest with them.

“This is amazing news for the series. Obviously his reputation goes before him and I am delighted that a driver of this calibre is happy to sit in an A1GP car for the pride of his nation,” said A1GP CEO, Pete da Silva.

Liuzzi began karting at the age of ten and became Karting World Champion in 2001, when he also made the move to single-seaters and was instantly successful, taking second in the German Formula Renault championship. This brought him a Formula 1 test drives and a move to the FIA Formula 3000 International Championship, where he was the top rookie in 2003 and he then took the 2004 championship with nine poles and seven wins from ten races. He has driven in Formula 1 for both the Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso teams, scoring points in all of his three Formula 1 seasons.
 

Mexico City Confirmed as A1GP Season Finale
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (April 1, 2009) – A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has been given FIA approval to hold A1GP Mexico City, Mexico on the weekend of the 22-24 May 2009, thus making this the eighth and final round of Season Four.

This popular event, which has been included on the A1GP calendar since Season Two, has never before been the series decider. After receiving the news A1GP CEO, Pete da Silva, said: “It is very important for the series to go back to Mexico City, especially as it won the award for being the best run event of Season Three. The fans have always given us a warm welcome, and it will be great to let them witness the finale of what has been a very exciting first season for the A1GP Powered by Ferrari cars.”

The approval is subject to the completion of FIA stipulated track changes that will allow the granting of the necessary license. This work is due to start soon.

A1GP has visited Mexico every season with Fundidora Park in Monterrey being the track used in Season One and Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City in Seasons Two and Three.
 

The Netherlands Take First Win of Season Four
Photos © A1GP.com
GAUTENG, South Africa (February 22, 2009) – Jeroen Bleekemolen took the Netherlands’ first victory in Season Four in this morning’s Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa Sprint race. Bleekemolen drove a faultless race around the 2.65-mile Kyalami circuit to win by 4.407-seconds from Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque. Switzerland’s Neel Jani had a good start to move up to second off the standing start, but finished third after losing time trying to manoeuvre round Malaysia’s car, which had pitted in front of him.

Bleekemolen made a clean getaway from the standing start to lead the chasing pack into turn one for the first time. Switzerland had a great start from third to take second position from Portugal while India’s Narain Karthikeyan also had a good start to move up from fifth to fourth.

India was not able to hold position for long as an aggressive move by Clivio Piccione moved Monaco ahead into fourth with Ireland’s Adam Carroll also sensing an opportunity to get ahead only a few corners later, so pushing India down to sixth.

China's Ho Pin Tung and New Zealand's Earl Bamber were having a good battle for eleventh. China made a move at turn 13 on lap three but out-braked himself allowing New Zealand to re-take the position.

Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy moved up ahead of France’s Nicolas Prost for eighth, while the Netherlands’ was storming away at the front with Bleekemolen having a 4.686-second lead over Switzerland by lap four.

With the order now the Netherlands from Switzerland, Portugal, Monaco, Ireland, India, South Africa, Malaysia, France and Italy, the pit window opened. The Netherlands and Switzerland were first in the pits with the following three runners staying out on track an extra lap. Bleekemolen had a smooth stop but Switzerland lost time having to get away slowly to manoeuvre round Malaysia’s car, which had pitted just in front. Portugal pitted a lap later and was able to re-take second from Switzerland. After the only mandatory stop of the race the order was now the Netherlands leading by 6.4 seconds from Portugal, Switzerland, Monaco, Ireland, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Malaysia, France.

A1 Team Australia’s fantastic pit work boosted John Martin six places up the field to his eventual finishing position, twelfth. While A1 Team New Zealand moved up three places after the stop.

Portugal was on a charge setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 9 with a time of 1m29.072s, slightly closing the gap to the Netherlands.

Further down the field, Great Britain’s Danny watts and Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães came together fighting for fifteenth. The pair touched heading into turn one with Watts’ car spinning into the gravel and out the race.

A very happy Bleekemolen came through to take the chequered flag and record the team’s first win in 45 races. Obviously South Africa is lucky for the team as its first of three wins to date was round the streets of Durban in Season One. Switzerland and Portugal completed the podium with Ireland taking fourth from Monaco on the last lap, retaining its championship lead.

Race winner Jeroen Bleekemolen said: “I’m feeling pretty good. It all just went amazingly. 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 one and half or two seconds, but luckily we were still able to win.

“In the beginning we were really quick, I don’t know why we were so much faster, but everything worked. The car worked really well until the problem came but then it still was exciting for me.”

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque said: “The team did a very good job and I managed to pass Switzerland. I’m really happy with the fastest lap and second place.”

“I’m still aiming for the lead of the championship. It’s going to be an interesting Feature race now because we are all together in the middle of the grid. We will see who the luckiest guy is because anything can happen. “

Switzerland’s Neel Jani said: “We were second and then unfortunately we had some problems at the pit stop. First of all the pit stop was not that quick, and then I couldn’t get out because Malaysia was parked in front of me. We have to be happy with third though as its still points so let’s see what happens in the next race. “
 

Monaco and Netherlands take pole positions in South Africa
Photos © A1GP.com
GAUTENG, South Africa (February 21, 2009) – The Netherlands and Monaco were the toast of Kyalami today as their respective drivers, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Clivio Piccione, claimed the coveted pole position spots for the Sprint and Feature races of round Five of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season, Go-GP.Org A1GP Gauteng, South Africa. While it was pole number four for the Dutch driver it was the first ever for Monaco.

It proved to be an exciting qualifying afternoon at the 2.65-mile Kyalami circuit, which is 2000 metres above sea level. Both grids look very different thanks to the return of the PowerBoost qualifying rule, where teams got to choose when to engage an extra 60 brake horse power for the entirety of one of their four runs, and a big crash to Brazil’s Felipe Guimaraes in the final of the four qualifying segments. This accident caught the majority of the field out and prevented them from completing their final runs when the red flag was out.

A1 Team Portugal first took provisional pole position having gone fastest in the first segment of the day, however by the time the second Sprint qualifying segment had ended, Bleekemolen had made use of his PowerBoost lap to record a 1m 27.717 lap, 0.355s ahead of Albuquerque.

Reigning champion Switzerland will start the race third, with Neel Jani behind the wheel again showing good pace, recording a lap 0.436s adrift of Bleekemolen.

After a great start to the weekend, Lebanon had a disappointing time in qualifying. Morad looked to be on a good lap during the second segment while utilising his only PowerBoost of the session, but the car had a misfire and lost power ruining his final lap, also putting him out of Feature qualifying.

Monaco was also in good form, setting the fourth quickest time.

The stage was set for an epic Feature race qualifying, with many teams having not utilised their PowerBoost presses yet. In the first segment, Australia’s John Martin set the fastest time with a 1m 28.439s lap.

But the second qualifying segment came to an end a minute and a half early after Brazil‘s crash, with only five cars having chosen to go out setting a time prior to the accident.

Monaco, choosing to go early, had already recorded a time of 1m 27.269s before the red flag came out and therefore claimed the team’s first ever pole position in its debut season and at its ninth attempt.

Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy came back from a difficult day after losing all of today’s practice time due to an engine change earlier in the day. After also choosing to go out early, Fauzy’s time of 1m 27.405s puts him alongside Monaco on the front row.

New Zealand’s Earl Bamber will start third on his return to the team, having sat out his home race last month in Taupo.

A1 Team Germany made its season debut this weekend and will start the races in 11th and 15th with Michael Ammermüller back in the cockpit. Local South African driver Adrian Zaugg will start 8th and sixteenth.

A1 Team Mexico was excluded from Feature race qualifying for failing to stop at the weighing bay. The team will drop to the back of the grid from thirteenth.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s 2008 Formula 1 World Championship runner-up, Felipe Massa, also enjoyed his first visit to an A1GP event today, joining A1 Team Brazil for qualifying. Massa watched the sessions from the pit wall with team principal, and two-time F1 World Champion, Emerson Fittipaldi, before getting the opportunity to drive a hot lap of Kyalami in the A1GP Ferrari 599 safety car.

After qualifying Massa commented: “It’s really interesting visiting A1GP and I’ve enjoyed seeing the quality of the new car. The championship has a nice style. It’s quite competitive, so I’m happy to be here getting this first experience of watching A1GP. It’s an intelligent format to have countries against countries and a good idea.”

The drivers who had secured the top spots on the grid were even happier.

Sprint pole-sitter Jeroen Bleekemolen commented: “I didn’t have a great lap, but it was still enough. It was good that we took at least one pole position.

“It’s always tricky with pit stops because anything can go wrong. I mean it’s the same for anyone so I think the guys are doing a great job so far, and they are getting very fast. Normally you shouldn’t be worried, but as a driver you want to do the job and finish the race in front so hopefully everything goes right.”

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque said: “I am really pleased with the pace because we were really on it. We were just slightly off pole position in the Sprint but I am not so happy in the Feature because we are seventh - that’s not what I want as we’re also behind Ireland and Switzerland. It’s always hard to overtake with experienced drivers, so it’s going to be hard for sure. But I will push so hard for it because I really need to start to get ahead of them if I want to continue to fight for the championship.”

Clivio Piccione was delighted to claim Monaco’s first pole position for tomorrow’s Feature race: “I think the whole thing for me was to be on form for the Feature race. We had a bit of a struggle at the beginning of the season but I think we found most of the problems, and now we’re back on the pace. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season – especially tomorrow.

“Monaco is such a small country and we have a huge heritage in motorsport and it’s great to have our Prince behind such a project. He has been following me since the beginning of my career and I’m very proud to have him on our side. The pressure is on. I mean, it’s a long race with two pit stops, so there are two major stages where it’s going to be tricky. It’s going to be pretty hot if it doesn’t rain tomorrow. It will be a tough race because I think it will be quite hard on the tyres but we’ll do our best and we’ll keep pushing.”

Malaysia’s Fauzy, who will line-up on the front row in tomorrow’s Feature race, commented: “We had a problem in Taupo with the engine; so we had a brand new engine fitted yesterday for the first rookie session but there was a problem so there was another last minute change today. We missed the practice session this morning so we were not sure which set up to use for the qualifying, and so just got the best information to put it together. I must say thank you to the team and Ferrari. They worked very hard to get the car ready for qualifying.”

The day began with two additional practice sessions aimed at giving the teams more time after slight delays in fitting additional parts to the cars to enable them to contend with Kyalami’s high altitude. Daniel Morad kept up Lebanon’s astounding pace this weekend in the first additional rookie session, with A1 Team China went fastest in the second session with Ho-Pin Tung.

A1 Team Netherlands became the team to beat going into qualifying topping the times in the final free practice session.
 

Switzerland Claims Feature Race Victory in New Zealand
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, New Zealand (January 25, 2009) – A1 Team Switzerland claimed its second win of the season in this afternoon’s Feature race in A1GP Taupo, New Zealand. Neel Jani finished ahead of Ireland’s Adam Carroll and Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque with Ireland retaining its position at the top of the A1GP championship standing.

Ireland had a clean getaway from pole position but the Netherlands’ Robert Doornbos was slow off the mark from the front row, allowing Portugal to take advantage, and so dropping back to fifth. Albuquerque was right on the gearbox of Ireland as the field headed into turn one, tapping the Irish car and briefly losing momentum allowing a quick-starting Jani to move up from fourth on the grid to second.

Australia’s John Martin made an aggressive start to his Feature race, getting Jackeroo ahead of the Netherlands after first dropping behind Switzerland but remaining in fourth. New Zealand’s Chris van der Drift had a problematic start having to pit with a puncture after a collision with Lebanon’s Daniel Morad. Morad retired in the pit lane, but New Zealand was able to rejoin, albeit a lap down.

By the end of lap one Ireland led from Switzerland, Portugal, Australia, Netherlands, France and Malaysia, Brazil, USA and India.

Ireland began to pull out a small gap at the front, which was 0.874-seconds from Jani by the end of lap four. Carroll continued to record fastest laps while Monaco’s Clivio Piccione capitalized on a mistake from India’s Narain Karthikeyan to take ninth.

On lap eight the first pit stop window opened and the emerald green far was first in the pit lane. A good stop from the Irish squad saw the Celtic Tiger retain the lead, while another great stop from the Australian squad got Martin out closer to the leader. Switzerland pitted but wasn’t able to take the lead, while Portugal stayed out deep into the pit window in an attempt to make up ground. After recording the fastest lap Albuquerque dived into the pit lane, but with Carroll’s new tyres working well he rejoined in third place.

On lap 10 Monaco and Brazil were running wheel-to-wheel when the young Brazilian seemingly closed the door causing the pair to touch, with the result being Brazil spinning across the track and Piccione losing his front wing and running off-track.

After the first round of pit stops the order settled and was Ireland from Switzerland, Portugal, Australia, France, Netherlands, Malaysia, India., USA and Great Britain. Ireland now had a comfortable 3.773-second lead over Switzerland.

On his return to A1GP action China’s Congfu Cheng had a spin shortly before Great Britain’s Dan Clarke spun under braking into turn 11 on his race debut for the British team. The 25-year-old kept the engine running and rejoined in fifteenth.

On lap 22, the second mandatory pit stop window opened with Australia being first in this time around. Ireland and Switzerland both pitted on the same lap with the Irish team getting their man away a fraction quicker than the Swiss. However, after Carroll had pulled away from his pit box and looked to have retained his lead the anti-stall system kicked in and halted his progress. The car then stalled and as Carroll got his machine moving again Switzerland took the opportunity to get ahead and snatched the lead of the race. Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal was now the top three after Albuquerque had another clean stop to retain position. China had a problematic second stop with Cheng leaving the pits with the rear jack still attached, resulting in a drive-through penalty a few laps later.

On lap 29 the order was now Switzerland leading from Ireland., Portugal, Australia, France, Netherlands, Malaysia, India, Italy, USA and South Africa.

Switzerland had a 1.6-second advantage over Ireland and Portugal was continuing to push, with Albuquerque setting the fastest lap of the race, a 1m 14.898s on lap 30.

On lap 37, Clivio Piccione went off at Turn 11 and beached the Monaco car at the gravel resulting in the Safety Car being deployed. As the field closed back up the scene was set for the final exciting laps of the race. Switzerland controlled on the re-start on Lap 41 as the field made its way through Turn 1 incident-free.

USA’s Marco Andretti moved ahead of Italy to take ninth before Indonesia's Satrio Hermanto spun at Turn 12, closely followed by Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy, who lost seventh and a solid-points finish at the same time at the same corner. While the action at Turn 12 was going on, Netherlands' Robert Doornbos took advantage and made a move to pass France's Loïc Duval.

As the chequered flag came out the top three crossed the line only a few seconds apart. An extremely happy Jani took victory for Switzerland, an even more remarkable achievement given that he was rushed into hospital last week with suspected meningitis, and only came back to full fitness today.

Ireland’s points haul means it retains the championship lead with 65 points while Switzerland (52) move up to second ahead of Portugal (49).

“What a weekend in the end,” said race-winner Neel Jani. “On Monday I still felt really bad, but I just got better every day with the warm weather in New Zealand, and it looks like the clean, fresh air helped me as well, so that is good.

“The first race was already good, a great pit stop put me up to second, but here coming up from fifth to first was nothing we had ever thought of. I had a great start from fifth to second and I was already next to Adam. I settled for second, but then we had a little problem on the first pit stop as I didn’t really get off well as I had a problem with the clutch, and then the second pit stop was fantastic, very quick from the guys. I saw Adam next to me and heard his engine revving on the limiter and thought there must be a problem, and I just kept on my side then and was able to take him like that. Then I was just able to control the race.

“It was a great, great weekend and a fantastic car. This was the most points we have scored on a weekend this season and so now it is starting to come good for us, but there are still a lot of points needed to catch up Ireland.”

Commenting on the first corner tap from Portugal, Ireland’s Adam Carroll commented: “I needed just a little push to get off the line from behind, and Felipe (Albuquerque) gave me that.

“It was all a bit close and quite interesting,” he continued. “But everything was going well until the second pit stop. Basically as I left the engine just went. It didn’t stall immediately as to begin with it was okay. Actually the anti-stall system came in, then it stalled completely and I had to bump start it and go again. I don’t really know what happened. I was actually lucky not to lose more places. It was unfortunate but second place is still good.

“I pushed hard and got some decent times in. Then the guys did a fantastic job in the pits for the first stop and we were able to come out with a good gap, which I was maintaining until the second stop where it all went wrong.”

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque said: “I think the race pace and our speed this weekend was really there, but it was just a question of being in front. It was interesting to see the gaps between us when Adam was leading and I would have liked to be in front to see if I could have gone at the same pace. I need to congratulate Neel for a good start. I could not do much as I was pushing a lot and here you never rest.

“Offline was really dirty, and once I almost disappeared as it was so grippy on the normal track, but if you went off there was no grip. But I think it was just whoever didn’t make a mistake would get third place.”

Home favourite Chris van der Drift had a disappointing weekend, ending the Feature race in thirteenth: “The first lap was what gave us the problems during the whole race. We had the anti-stall problem at the start which was unfortunate. Then on the first lap, I don’t know who it was, but someone ran into the back of me. It was unfortunate as after that you can’t really do much when you are a lap down.

“It was just a pity we couldn’t have a better result here for team New Zealand.”
 

A1 Team Monaco start 8th and 17th at Taupo
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO (24 January 20089) — A1 Team Monaco will start on the 8th row of the grid for the Sprint Race and in 17th position for the start of the Feature race tomorrow after a downturn in fortune at the Taupo Motorsport Park in New Zealand.

The PowerBoost feature was not available for use in qualifying today. The new system was trialed at the previous round in Sepang where the teams had the option of using one joker-style ‘PowerBoost’ lap in qualifying, causing mixed grids for both the Sprint and Feature races. The series reverted to the original system for Taupo due to a mixed reaction to the PowerBoost feature, with further review taking place before the next round of the championship in South Africa.

During Free Practice 3 (FP3) Team Monaco was unable to improve on its fourth place achieved yesterday due to numerous red and yellow flag interruptions during the entire morning running. Clivio Piccione took to the tarmac as soon as the green light went on in the pitlane to take full advantage of the hour-long running and immediately set the fifth fastest lap time of 1:21.286. As the circuit rubbered in, Clivio was able to take three seconds off his initial quick lap time and the team held P8 until a series of further red and yellow flags interrupted the session on several occasions once again. With 30 minutes remaining on the clock Clivio pushed the car back up to P4 with a 1:16.835, however he was unable to improve on this time for the remainder of the session as a final red flag disrupted proceedings with only 15 minutes to go. Team Monaco ended Free Practice 3 in 15th position on the time sheet.

In the afternoon the Monegasque squad ventured out on track midway through SQ1 (Sprint race Qualifying Session 1). In a surge to record a lap time with all 19 teams out at once, Clivio pushed the car to improve on his morning’s practice time with a 1:16.424. In SQ2 he set a time of 1:16.917 and will start the Sprint race on the 8th row of the grid in 16th position tomorrow.

Clivio set a late hot lap of 1:16.735 to sit in 15th position at the end of FQ3, the first qualifying session for tomorrow’s Feature race. After the final five minutes respite the last qualifying segment got underway and Clivio left the Team Monaco garage with two minutes of the session remaining. After a yellow flag was raised towards the end of the running Clivio was only able to set a time of 1:31.700 to finish the segment in 17th position.

Clivio Piccione, Driver and Seat Holder: “In the morning we started where we had finished yesterday and the car felt alright from beginning. We had a few red flags and so we tried a few things to improve the car and in one direction it felt a little bit better. We also knew at that time that the tyres were at the end of their life as I was struggling for grip. Overall it was not a good practice session as we were not top of the time sheet, but we knew what we had to do. The start of qualifying was not perfect. I know that I could have been quicker on my first run as I made one mistake on braking and lost a bit of time. For SQ2 we put on a new set of tyres, but unfortunately we were not able to improve as someone ran wide in front of me and covered the track in dust. The car then felt worse and my feeling was that the new tyres were not as good as the old ones. So we went into FQ3 on an old set, with no expectations but to try some other changes, but we made no improvement. For our final run we changed the set-up to that from the beginning and the car felt a little better, but far from what I expected. The yellow flag towards the end of the run meant we had to back off, and that was it, game over. It is very disappointing considering our performance yesterday, and it’s going to be a tough day tomorrow.”

Graham Taylor, Team Principal: “We ran through our standard practice programme to follow on from yesterday. Once again there were a lot of red flags and interruptions, but we completed our plan. The ambient and track temperatures rose for qualifying and Clivio reported a lack of grip, even with new tyres. A yellow flag on Olivio’s last quick run necessitated our slowing down, as per regulation, so overall it was a disappointing day following the promise shown yesterday. We shall work overnight to overcome the problems and look forward to the races tomorrow.”
 

A1 Team Monaco – Ready to Get Back On Track in Taupo

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MONACO (19 January 2009) — After a long mid-season gap between races, A1 Team Monaco is ready to ‘get back on track’ and has arrived in New Zealand, refreshed and ready to go! Round four of the 2008/9 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport (23-25 January 2009) will be held at the new Taupo Motorsport Park racetrack complex. The new development is being built on the original site used for the existing Taupo Car Club. The old 1.4 kilometre circuit underwent an upgrade and lengthening to create the new international layout in 2006.

The complex now also includes a motorsport business park and driver and training centre. The track includes three alternative track configurations, with two separate pit areas and start/finish lanes to allow simultaneous use of two tracks. The international circuit, used for the A1GP series, is 3.32 kilometres (2.06 miles) with 14 corners. It features an 830-metre straight, which also doubles as a drag strip, and was altered slightly for 2008 with a tighter chicane introduced at the end of the back straight. This was instrumental in providing more overtaking opportunities at last season’s event.

The Lake Taupo District, on the country’s North Island, is a vibrant region with a diverse range of resources including forestry, agriculture and recreational attractions. In addition to stunning scenery, the area is rapidly developing a reputation as a top event destination, with an all year program of sporting events and festivals.
In proximity to Tongariro National Park and the Whakapapa ski fields, the stunning sights of the Lake Taupo District make it one of the country's most popular visitor destinations, attracting over one million visitors per year.

Clivio Piccione, Driver and Seat-Holder, A1 Team Monaco: “I arrived in Taupo last week and am enjoying the beautiful area, acclimatizing since the long journey from Europe. The last race was disappointing as we retired with a mechanical issue, so we must do everything we can to be at the front of the grid again. I hope during the second half of the season we will be able to step up a level in terms of our achievements. The team has prepared for the Taupo Motorsport Park by studying data and watching video footage from last year’s race. The circuit is narrow like a go kart track, so there will be some very close racing. I cannot wait to get back in to the cockpit - there has been something missing in my life since Malaysia!”

Graham Taylor, Team Principal, A1 Team Monaco: “It has been a long time since we were in Sepang and we cannot wait to get started again. The team will pick up from where we left off in 2008, but I am expecting a relative increase in performance for the start of 2009. I saw the first three A1GP events as our introduction to the championship and now we should be fully up to speed and able to show our true potential. With the disappointment of retirement at the last event, we are very much looking forward to getting back to racing.”
 

Ireland Commands Sepang Feature Race

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SEPANG, Malaysia (November 23, 2008) – A1 Team Ireland became the first nation to score two victories this season, as Adam Carroll dominated the Sepang Feature race in Malaysia. Filipe Albuquerque took an excellent second place for Portugal while Marco Andretti finished a great third for the USA from eighth on the grid. Ireland now leads the championship heading into the Christmas break.

As the lights went out, Adam Carroll got a clean start from pole position to lead the pack into the first corner. Daniel Morad got a brilliant start from third, capitalizing on Lebanon’s best ever grid slot to move ahead of a slow starting Danny Watts for Great Britain in second.

In an eventful first lap, Netherlands and India collided with Narain Karthikeyan spinning into retirement. A good start from Portugal helped Albuquerque move from fifth to third into Turn 1, before Albuquerque moved ahead of Lebanon for second. Switzerland then spun, resulting in the safety car being deployed at the end of lap one to allow the marshals time to pick up both the Swiss and Indian cars from dangerous places.

A couple of laps later and the race was back on, with Ireland leading from Portugal, Lebanon, Malaysia, Great Britain, Netherlands, USA and France.

Monaco’s race ended early as Clivio Piccione pitted with technical problems. Boosted by his home crowds, Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy made a move around the outside of Morad to grab fourth. Great Britain’s Watts then began putting pressure on Lebanon as he tried to make up for his bad start. Watts made a move but the pair ran wide allowing Netherlands and the USA to get through. Brazil dived up the inside of a recovering Watts, but France, to the right of him, chopped across in front taking off the British car’s nose and leaving France with a puncture.

The order at the front was now Ireland from Portugal, Malaysia, Netherlands, USA, Lebanon, China and Brazil.

On lap eight the first pit window opened and Malaysia was first in, followed by Netherlands, USA, China and Lebanon. China had a fantastic stop which got it out ahead of both USA and Lebanon. Portugal pitted on the next lap as Ireland remained out in front, still putting in consistently quick lap times.

Marco Andretti in the USA car was now piling the pressure on China, eventually making his move stick around the outside of the hairpin at Turn 9.

With a 15-second lead, Ireland pitted with another fantastic stop from the Irish crew, getting Carroll back out comfortably at the front.

Netherland’s Jeroen Bleekemolen, was in fourth when he received a drive-through penalty for the first lap collision with India, which was deemed avoidable, dropping him down the field to a disappointing 14th. Australia’s John Martin passed China down the main straight and then started attacking Adrian Zaugg, whose South African team had got him out quickly in the pit stops.

After the first round of pit stops Ireland had a five-second lead over Portugal, Malaysia, USA, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, China, Lebanon and New Zealand.

Lebanon’s Morad made a mistake through Turns 7 and 8 and ran wide, losing a further two places to drop him down to 11th.

On lap17, from third position, home favourite Fairuz Fauzy confused his team and the watching crowds by diving into the pit lane unexpectedly. A communications glitch meant he received a radio call that only he heard, to pit that was from another team. His bemused team sent him straight off, but the time lost cost him a potential podium and dropped the Malaysian to 14th.

The USA’s Marco Andretti was now promoted to third. After being involved in a huge start line crash earlier in the day; the 21-year-old was back on track with the help of Korea’s rear wing as the Korean team didn’t make either race due to technical problems that couldn’t be resolved after qualifying.

New Zealand’s Earl Bamber, who started down in 15th, was making good progress, passing China's Ho-Pin Tung around the outside of the final hairpin for eighth.

On lap 18 Mexico's David Garza threw away tenth place by spinning while challenging Daniel Morad's Lebanon car.

Out at the front Portugal was keeping Ireland honest, with the pair putting in consistently close lap times in the blistering heat.

On lap 22, the second pit window was open and the cars began coming in. Australia’s mechanics did another superb job getting John Martin out ahead of South Africa, in what would eventually be fourth position after all the pit stops.

A1 Team Ireland kept up its reputation of being one of the best crews in the pit lane, helping their man retain a healthy lead from Portugal.

Great Britain was back in the pits again on lap 25 to fix a brake problem, getting Watts back out although six laps down, to end a disappointing day for the team with no points scored.

In the closing stages of the race Malaysia was fighting hard as Fauzy passed Lebanon to move up into 12th. Italy's Eduardo Piscopo gave away ninth place by running wide at the final hairpin and promoting Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen. Malaysia and Italy then had a great battle for the final point.
In a great wheel-to-wheel battle, Fauzy’s superb driving got him ahead of Piscopo to take tenth, much to the delight of the cheering crowds.

As the chequered flag came out, Ireland claimed its second victory of the season ahead of Portugal. USA’s Marco Andretti and Australia’s John Martin both put in great drives to come through the field to finish a commendable third and fourth respectively.

Adam Carroll completed the perfect race taking the win, pole position and fastest lap to give the team an eight-point lead at the top of the championship as A1GP World Cup of Motorsport heads into the Christmas break.

He said: “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.

“It’s all team work though; it doesn’t just come down to one person as everybody works extremely hard. It’s been hard for the guys to be out here since Tuesday at the circuit in this heat and humidity, but they practiced pit stops every night to make sure they did a good job.

“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.”

Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque said: “I achieved our goals. Actually, I went better than what we were expecting. We wanted to go to the first pit stop in third, but it was even better as we were in second. I was doing whatever I could to keep the pace, but it all needs to be perfect, and Ireland did a good pit stop and we didn’t. We are also missing one guy from our crew who’s in hospital, so I wish him the best. In the end it was good to just take the points. You cannot win every time and they were just perfect and I’m really happy with the second place. “

A1 Team USA’s Marco Andretti said: “The start was a bit of survival and I used the PowerBoost when everybody was close together and we needed the track position. The boys did a good job in the pits and then we weren’t threatened from behind, but I had nothing on these guys in front so I was just enjoying the car and Sepang. It’s a lovely circuit.”

Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy expressed his disappointment saying: “Throughout the race my car was very strong, but I just suffered a few handling problems, nothing major though. 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 oversteer 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 I heard ‘Box this lap’ twice, and then ‘Copy that’, then I pitted. 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.

“Considering we had the extra pit stop it was a really good recovery, the car was very strong. If we hadn't had the pit issue, we would have had a podium easily. After the last pit stop, I was running about a second quicker. It’s tough for us all.

“At the end of the day, we win, we lose, we are one team and the most important thing is the support. The crowd showed me such support, so I was able to use this and to catch up and finish in the top 10. The most important thing is we scored one point; every point is like gold and will make a lot of difference towards the end of the season.”

With Portugal, France, and next event-holders New Zealand close behind in the points’ standings, Ireland will be looking to continue its dominance when battle resumes in New Zealand on 23 – 25 January 2009.

 

Switzerland and Ireland on Pole in Sepang
Photos © A1GP.com
SEPANG, Malaysia (November 22, 2008) – Switzerland and Ireland took a pole position apiece for tomorrow’s races in Sepang, Malaysia for round three of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. In an afternoon which resulted in two of the most diverse grids to date, Neel Jani put in a phenomenal time of 1m 47.154s to give the Swiss the Sprint race advantage. Adam Carroll went even faster in Feature race qualifying, setting a 1m 47.124s. However, the big surprise of the exciting qualifying session was Daniel Morad securing Lebanon’s best ever grid position with third in the Feature race.

In heat of 30 degrees Celsius with humidity of 66%, the A1GP drivers were pushed to their limits this afternoon as they took to the demanding Sepang International Circuit.

The A1 teams also had the first chance to play a PowerBoost ‘joker’ in qualifying today, with a new rule aimed at adding a new strategic element to Saturdays. The functionality of the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car allows for the PowerBoost button to be available for an entire lap of Qualifying, and teams will be allowed to use it for one of their four flying laps. The PowerBoost button gives an extra 60bhp on application, so the ability to use it throughout a lap is likely to make a significant difference to the car’s capability.

The first segment of qualifying was interrupted by a red flag when Korea’s Jin Woo Hwang stopped out on track. The clock continued to tick down while the car was moved, resulting in a frantic rush in the dying seconds of the session as the rest of the field attempted to get over the line to start a flying lap before the chequered flag came out.

Monaco, Mexico, Malaysia and Brazil missed the cut while France took the initial advantage with a 1m 49.173s. In the second Sprint qualifying segment, New Zealand used the PowerBoost to take provisional pole position with a strong lap from Earl Bamber of 1m 47.779s.

Switzerland’s Neel Jani then put in a great lap to grab the Sprint race pole position, recording a 1m 47.154s without the help of the PowerBoost button.

France’s Loïc Duval will start alongside him on the front row with New Zealand’s Earl Bamber taking advantage of the new qualifying PowerBoost system to post the third fastest time. Portugal will start fourth and Italy fifth, in its best qualifying performance of the season.

With about two and a half minutes of the first session of Feature qualifying remaining, all the teams piled out of the pits. Ireland took provisional pole position, ahead of France, Australia and Monaco with Switzerland down in fifth.

In the final segment, Ireland’s Adam Carroll put in a fantastic lap on PowerBoost to keep his place at the top while Great Britain, also on PowerBoost, went second quickest. As the rest of the field recorded their times, Ireland remained on top thanks to beating last year’s best time by half a second. In the final seconds Daniel Morad put in a staggering performance to take third on the grid with a 1m 47.645s; the best ever grid position for Lebanon, by some margin.

“It’s nice to bring Lebanon forward seeing how they have struggled in the past,” said Morad, “but it’s just another race and I’m going to try to do the best I can. I know the team is going to do great and we are one of the quickest during the pit stops so I think we can actually move forward from this position. You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow, it could rain, it could be dry, but I’m just really excited to be so high up.”

Sprint pole-sitter Jani will start 16th for the Feature race making for two completely different looking grids for tomorrow’s races.

Sprint race pole-sitter, Switzerland’s Neel Jani said: “We had some troubles in Q1 with traffic, but we did a better lap in Q2 which was enough for my sixth pole here so I’m pretty happy about that.

“Unfortunately, with this new rule allowing PowerBoost on one of the qualifying segments, I used it in Q2 and some used it in Q4. The ones using it in Q4 would be ahead so it was pretty clear that I wouldn’t get pole for that one.

“It was good for the Sprint race but not as good for the Feature race, I think I’m as far back as I’ve ever been in my A1GP career.”

France’s Duval, also on the front row for the Sprint race and ninth for the Feature said: “It was not so bad, I mean the first qualifying for the Sprint race I did quite a good lap, I just made some mistakes at the end because of the car set up, so we improved a bit and at the end it was quite good. We’re not fast enough without the PowerBoost but we are still ninth for the Feature race so we still have a good chance.”

Commenting on the team’s decision to use PowerBoost for the Sprint race, he continued: “I didn’t want to take it. It was not wrong but just not lucky; I mean 80% of the guys took it for the last segment and 20% for the second one. It was quite a good qualifying, I made a mistake for the Sprint race and actually I think I did a good lap for the Feature race because I did 1m 47.9s without the PowerBoost so I’m quite happy about that.”

Feature race pole-sitter Adam Carroll said: “That was my first pole for the Feature race and I wanted that one badly. It was quite a good lap but obviously there is the PowerBoost and that’s when I chose to use it.

“It’s going to be hot tomorrow, so we will be even redder and sweatier. There is not much you can do in England to prepare for temperatures like this, not only is it hot but it’s really humid and that what makes it quite difficult.“

Great Britain’s Danny Watts, sixth and second tomorrow, was surprised by his Feature race effort: “I came straight on the radio to the team to say I’m sorry as it didn’t feel like a particularly good lap and I made a couple of mistakes so I was relieved, but I should have driven a lot quicker, because I was too slow for the Sprint race.

“It’s the big day tomorrow though so that’s where it all matters, and it’s good that we’ve got the pace and we’ll focus on that now.”

Home nation, A1 Team Malaysia made up for the disappointment in Sprint qualifying by posting a 1m 47.648s to start fourth in the Feature race. Fairuz Fauzy commented: “There’s mixed emotions, but overall I’m happy with our performance. We went out early for the first run but were caught out by the red flag. Being the furthest in the pitlane made it difficult to get back out in time for another run and we didn’t make it, so I only had one shot at the Sprint race qualifying. On my second run we went out and tried to find a space, but ended up catching the traffic, so I’m a bit disappointed for the Sprint race qualifying. For the Feature race we started over and put in a solid lap to start with, saving our PowerBoost for the final run and making a very strong recovery.

“After the Sprint race qualifying I was very disappointed and frustrated in the car but I tried to keep my mind strong and think positive and was feeling very determined. I think we can target the top three for the Feature race tomorrow, with a good strategy and good weather on our side. For the Sprint race the aim will be a points’ finish and I think that’s achievable.”

With the weather also a factor in tomorrow’s races and with two very different looking grids, both races look set to be just as thrilling as today’s qualifying sessions.

 

Great Britain Top Friday Practice In Malaysia
Photos © A1GP.com

SEPANG, Malaysia (November 21, 2008) – Round three of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport got underway at the Sepang International Circuit this morning with France’s Nicolas Prost starting the day as the quickest rookie and Great Britain’s Danny Watts ending the day quickest overall in Malaysia.

A1 Team France got off to a flying start in the rookie session with Nicolas Prost topping the timesheets right at the end of the session. His time of 1-minute 50.679s was nearly half a second quicker than anyone else.

Great Britain’s Danny Watts was second quickest, ahead of Earl Bamber on his return for New Zealand. India’s Armaan Ebrahim was fourth, just beating home nation Malaysia, who had Aaron Lim behind the wheel to start the day.

“Chengdu was mostly about bumps rather than turns but this track is really amazing,” said Prost. “I was really looking forward to coming here because it's one of the nicest tracks in the world, and I think it was the first time we could get the real potential out the car, especially in the quick corners. Turns 5 and 6, the quick left and right, in particular were pretty good.”

In hot and humid conditions, Great Britain topped the timesheets in the afternoon’s official practice session. Watts’ time of 1m 50.038s set on his second flying lap couldn’t be bettered during the hour practice.

Due to a gearbox problem, A1 Team Switzerland didn’t make it out on track during this morning’s session, but the lack of track time didn’t hinder Neel Jani. Last season, Jani had the perfect weekend claiming both pole positions and converting them into wins, so it was no surprise that after doing only nine laps today, he clocked a time of 1m 50.110s, just 0.072 adrift of Watts.

A1 Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan’s time of 1m 50.187s in the final minutes of the session was, just 0.149s from pole while Loïc Duval took over the wheel of the French car to finish the day fourth-quickest.

“With the extra running I got this morning I was always going to be there or there abouts,” said Watts. “I think looking at the times, the top ten are very close and there's hardly anything in it. It will be the same story tomorrow so it will be very tight at the top.”

Home nation Malaysia ended the day tenth. Fairuz Fauzy said: “There is a bit of pressure, but its good pressure. The last lap was a good run. We managed to do a bit of work on the car, as at the beginning of the session I was struggling with grip, especially on low speed corners. I was struggling to get the front to turn in and I got massive under steer. I was a second off the pace to begin with but during the session we did change the car and the last lap was a good one – only six tenths off the fastest.
 

A1 Team Monaco sets sights on top five finish at Sepang International Circuit
Photos © A1GP.com

MONACO (17 November 2008): A1 Team Monaco has set its sights on a top five finish this weekend at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, which plays host to round three of the 2008/9 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport (22-23 November 2008).
 

The internationally-acclaimed Sepang International Circuit (SIC), located in Selangor, 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, was officially opened in 1999, the year in which it hosted the first Formula 1 Grand Prix event in Southeast Asia. Built in a natural stadium, all spectators can see at least 50 per cent of the circuit regardless of where they sit, making the A1GP race in Malaysia one of the best races to witness the new breed of A1GP Powered by Ferrari cars first hand.
 

Hailed as a benchmark in track design, the Sepang circuit boasts superb pit garage and media facilities, as well as impressive grandstands and patron amenities. The circuit was the first in a succession of state-of-the-art motor racing complexes designed and realised by German engineer Hermann Tilke, whose name is now synonymous with new international circuit conception and existing circuit overhaul and re-design.
 

The main circuit at Sepang, on which A1GP competes, is raced in a clockwise direction. It is 5.54 kilometres (3.44 miles) long and is noted for its sweeping corners (15 corners in total) and wide straights. The minimum track width is 16 metres making for plenty of overtaking opportunities. The layout is quite unusual, with a very long back straight separated from the pit straight by just one very tight hairpin. Other configurations of the Sepang circuit can also be used, namely the shorter north and south circuits, and the facility also includes a kart racing track and motocross circuit.

The A1GP lap record at Sepang is 1m 49.221s, set by A1 Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani in November 2007.

Said Clivio Piccione, Driver and Seat-Holder, A1 Team Monaco: “I am really looking forward to this race, especially as the track is one of the first on the calendar to show the real potential of the car we are driving. There are a lot of high-speed corners and it will be great to experience the car on an F1 track. The race will be physically demanding, with the high down force and high temperatures, but I have had the chance to arrive in Malaysia already and spend a full week training, so I am acclimatised to the weather and time difference already and feel tuned-up for the race meeting. I hope that we can keep building on what the team has done so far and that we have another good weekend."
 

Graham Taylor, Team Principal, A1 Team Monaco: “Personally it will feel a little strange returning to Sepang after being there with an F1 car already this year. However, our visit this week allows the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car to stretch its legs on a proven F1 circuit. The performance and down force of the car will give rise to intense competition throughout the weekend. A1 Team Monaco is looking forward to taking the next step in its evolution and we are on course following our point-scoring rounds at Zandvoort and Chengdu. The climate in Malaysia can give rise to changeable weather situations, but given that we have been competitive in both dry and wet circumstances, we are hoping for another strong weekend.“
 

A1GP Chengdu Paddock Round Up
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (November 13, 2008)  – While all the thrills of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport continued on the track in Chengdu, China, there was also plenty of action going in the paddock and in the build up to the race last weekend.

The week kicked off with a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. With many drivers and teams finding the time to visit the centre, none of them were left disappointed at getting the chance to see these much loved creatures up close. —> MORE
 

Great Britain and Ireland on Pole in Chengdu
Photos © A1GP.com
CHENGDU, China (November 7, 2008) – A1 Team Great Britain’s Danny Watts claimed pole position for tomorrow’s Feature race in A1GP Chengdu, China posting the fastest lap of the weekend so far, a 1m 15.325s. Adam Carroll put in a great performance to take Ireland’s maiden A1GP pole position for tomorrow morning’s Sprint race.

In the first qualifying segment Australia was first on track to get a banker lap because half the grid opted to wait for the final few minutes of the 10-minute session to record their times. With the dusty track making it difficult to judge how hard to push, many of the teams came out on track late in the hope of getting a clear run.

Switzerland’s Neel Jani went out early in the first session clocking a time of 1:15.683s, the quickest of the weekend at that point and good enough for an eventual third place on the grid. Robert Doornbos, on his debut for A1 Team Netherlands, jumped to the top of the timesheets as the seconds ticked away but his time wasn’t enough to hold off the late charge from Ireland.

As the chequered flag came out Italy’s Edoardo Piscopo went into the gravel due to a broken wish-bone, and caused a lengthy delay. Eventually time ran out due to a logistical problem when trying to recover the car from the gravel trap in turn ten, so the second Sprint race qualifying segment was cancelled.

Carroll’s time of 1m 15.423s was therefore good enough to give the Irish squad its first ever A1GP pole position.

A1 Team Netherlands will start alongside Ireland on the front row of the grid, with reigning champions Switzerland third.

As qualifying segment three for the Feature race got underway, Indonesia was first to emerge before Marco Andretti, on his first weekend in the US car, provisionally went quickest with a time of 1m 16.557s. Brazil was next to head the grid but in the final minutes Switzerland, Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland were all gunning for the top-spot.

Danny Watts put in a fantastic lap of 1m 15.325s as the time ran out. Switzerland provisionally moved into second before being pushed down by a flying Adam Carroll whose time was only 0.031s slower than Great Britain. Filipe Albuquerque had a great final run to boost Portugal up to third, just 0.075s from Watts.

The drivers were geared up for a thrilling session as they prepared to take to the track for the final qualifying segment of the day but France’s Nicolas Prost, on an extremely quick lap, went off into the gravel bringing out the red flag.

After a short delay the session restarted, but with none of the top three improving their times and no one else going quicker the top four remained the same. Malaysia made a big improvement from 14th in the Sprint qualifying posting a 1m 15.963s, putting it sixth, behind South Africa for the Feature.

A1 Team China had a disappointing start to the weekend and will start 18th for tomorrow’s Sprint race after only setting a time on old tyres due to the cancellation of qualifying two. Ho-Pin Tung then made a mistake on both his runs in Feature race qualifying leaving him 17th on the grid.

After a close-fought session, Watts held onto pole position on Team GBR’s first outing of the season.

“I think it was nine days ago I found out that I was actually coming here,” said Watts, “so to be sitting here now, in pole position for the Feature race is really amazing. I think the credit’s got to go to the team. They’ve had four hours sleep in the last two nights, working through the night just getting the car prepared and ready for practice yesterday. It’s been an amazing few days. It’s a new car for the team to get used to. A new driver in the car for Team GBR and luckily the whole package has come together really nicely.”

"It feels great to get Ireland's first ever pole position and to make it a double front row start is even better," said a delighted Carroll. "It's quite a bumpy circuit so it's very important to put together a really clean lap.

"We were quick in final practice but we didn't focus too much on lap times from there because we knew we would be quite a lot faster in qualifying with the new rubber. The times are so close and the drivers are of such quality that it feels great to be at the front. The new Powered by Ferrari car is extremely quick with huge levels of downforce and it has really suited the team and my driving so far."

A1 Team Netherland’s Doornbos said: “It’s great to be here in A1GP. When Jan Lammers called me and asked if I wanted to drive for my own country, it sounded quite cool but I think the car made a big difference in me actually considering it. This year’s car is actually quite fast so I can use my experience. I knew there was no time for testing so I had to come straight to China and get on with it.”

Commenting on the car he continued: “I couldn’t even fit my TW Steel watch in because I don’t have a millimetre to spare, but the car has been good. The team has been working well which we showed with fastest time in practice. Unfortunately Adam just pipped me to pole but I think the front row is good.”

After two thrilling fights for pole the Chengdu International Circuit looks set to provide the scene for two equally thrilling races tomorrow.

A1GP Chairman Tony Teixeira said: “I want to say a personal thank you to everyone who has made this race possible. There has been a lot of hard work done to bring the track up to the correct standard and I think the result is amazing. We realise the people of this province went through many traumas due to the earthquake, and hope we can highlight their plight and also help by contributing to the Sichuan Earthquake Relief Fund.”

Sunday’s Sprint race at Chengdu, China will start at11.00 local time with the 70-minute Feature race at 15:00.

A1 Team Monaco welcomes Xpress Coffee UK Ltd as Official Team Partner
Photos © A1GP.com
MONACO (23 October 2008): A1 Team Monaco is proud to welcome Xpress Coffee UK Ltd as an Official Team Partner and Coffee Supplier for the 2008/09 season.

Xpress Coffee UK will be providing the A1 Team Monaco and its guests with a bespoke Jura Coffee Machine and its branded Xpress Coffee blend of freshly roasted beans. A1 Team Monaco will house the luxury coffee machine in a branded refreshments area within the team’s garage at every racing circuit on the A1GP World Cup of Motor sport Powered by Ferrari championship global calendar. The product partnership deal will also see one of Xpress Coffee UK’s machines and deluxe coffee blends situated at the A1 Team Monaco HQ in the Principality.

Chris Palmer, Managing Director of Xpress Coffee UK, is a self-confessed racing fan and his company, which celebrated its first anniversary this year, supports a variety of teams within motor sport. Xpress Coffee UK currently supplies its own blends of freshly roasted coffee, along with their own bespoke Jura Coffee Machines, to teams in Porsche Carrera Cup, Renault World Series, Supersport 600, Porsche Super Cup, Formula 3, British Super Bikes Cup, British Super Bikes, World Super Bikes and also supports professional racing driver Sam Hancock.

Chris Palmer comments: “I am extremely excited about this prestigious partnership with A1 Team Monaco. It is Xpress Coffee UK’s latest motor sport venture as we continue to promote our highly successful and bespoke Jura Commercial Coffee Machines and our own trademarked Xpress Coffee brand around racing Paddocks across the UK and around the world."

Hubertus Bahlsen, Seat Holder, A1 Team Monaco adds: "We are very pleased to welcome Xpress Coffee UK Ltd in to our partnership portfolio. We would like to thank Chris for choosing to partner A1 Team Monaco; I am sure that our guests will enjoy tasting the exotic blends on offer and that the travelling team will appreciate the benefits of enjoying superior coffee wherever they are in the world. We hope for a long and successful partnership with Xpress Coffee UK."
 

France Storms to Victory in Rain-Soaked Feature Race
Photos © A1GP.com
THE NETHERLANDS (October 6, 2008) – A1 Team France has claimed the first Feature race victory of the season in extremely wet conditions at Circuit Park Zandvoort in The Netherlands.

From third on the grid Loic Duval put in a mature drive, taking the lead before the first round of pit stops and holding on until the end despite two safety car periods curtailing his advantage.

Sprint race winner Fairuz Fauzy finished second for Malaysia, losing time in the first pit stop due to a problem with the left-rear wheel. Earl Bamber put in an outstanding performance this weekend on his race debut for A1 Team New Zealand claiming third, his second podium finish of the day.

Full race report to follow
 

A1 Team Monaco joins Series at Inaugural Race Weekend of 2008/9 Season

News from Team Monaco

Photos © A1GP.com

ZANDVOORT (3 October 2008) — A1 Team Monaco is proud to be in attendance at Circuit Park Zandvoort, Netherlands, for the inaugural race weekend (4 - 5 October) of the 2008/9 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. Monegasque racing driver Clivio Piccione will be making his A1GP debut not only behind the wheel of the new A1GP ‘powered by Ferrari’ car, but as Seat Holder for the Team.

Clivio Piccione comments on his latest venture: “I am really happy to see the group of people that we have got together. We have a team of extremely professional people, most of them coming from Formula 1, and with the help of Graham Taylor we look very strong on paper. I have been able to see the guys working on the car and think that our work is already very well synchronized and everyone is up for it, so I am very happy about that.”

Circuit Park Zandvoort

Positioned within the sand dunes in one of Holland’s most popular seaside resorts, the Circuit Park Zandvoort has a long history at the highest level of international motorsport. Although a race was held on a street circuit in Zandvoort in 1939, a permanent race track was not built until after the Second World War. Based around access roads built by the occupying German forces in WW2, the historic 4.1km circuit was opened in 1948.

In 1952 the Formula 1 World Championship made its first visit to the circuit for the Dutch Grand Prix, a race that was won by the legendary Alberto Ascari in the Ferrari 500. Formula 1 would visit Zandvoort 30 times, missing races in only 1954 and 1957, with the winners’ list reading like a who’s who of F1 nobility: Fangio, Moss, Hill, Clark, Stewart, Lauda, Piquet and Prost just some of the names to have stood atop the Dutch podium at Zandvoort. But the track had its detractors too, and following the deaths of both Piers Courage and Roger Williamson it was never viewed in quite the same light in which it once had been by the F1 community.

The final F1 race took place at Zandvoort in 1985, after which the circuit operators went out of business. With half of the land sold to housing developers, what remained of the circuit was salvaged and remodeled into a shortened 2km track. But with government intervention in 1992, the circuit was able to develop a brand new International course, giving the track the layout it holds today, with the full circuit extending to 4.3km.

Between 1991 and 2006, Zandvoort was home to the legendary Marlboro Masters F3 race, a one-off winner takes all event which was been won by the likes of David Coulthard, local hero Jos Verstappen, Takuma Sato and Lewis Hamilton.

In 2006 the circuit confirmed the arrival of A1GP and the start of a new era of excitement and international racing. In the four races held thus far, South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg has taken glory in the 2006 and 2007 sprint events, while in the feature race victory has gone to Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg (2006) and Britain’s Oliver Jarvis (2007).

Clivio has previously raced at Zandvoort and gives his impressions of the circuit: “I have been able to race here once a couple of years ago in Formula 3 Masters. I like the layout; it’s a nice, undulating track which you don’t see very much nowadays. A good lap around Zandvoort is quite demanding due to the physical effect, but also because it is quite a tricky track as well. There is only one racing line for the perfect lap, and some parts of the track are quite narrow, so it is quite difficult for overtaking. I think that Qualifying will be the key to a good race. Overall, it is a good track and I am really looking forward to the first race.”

A1GP Impresses at First Team Test
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (September 11, 2008) – Trouble free was the best way to describe the second day of testing at Donington Park with the new A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Powered by Ferrari cars. Heavy rain interrupted day one on Tuesday, but today was much drier with the cars covering a total of 466 laps of the 2.5-mile circuit between them and also beating the circuit’s 15-year-old track record.

The honour of going faster than the lap record went to A1 Team Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy who continued where he left off on Tuesday on top of today’s timesheets. The 25-year-old, who has competed in ten races for his nation with fifth in South Africa this year being his best result, was the driver who beat the time set by Ayrton Senna in the 1993 Grand Prix of Europe. “It was great today; the team did a good job to get the car together with no problems. Today we did a lot of laps and the more we do, the more data we are collecting. To finish fastest today and beat the lap record is a real achievement but we still need to work hard and I am looking forward to Zandvoort,” Fauzy said.

A1 Team Netherlands was in action with Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Dutch car. “The level of downforce and brakes are a lot better than before. The power doesn’t seem much greater but I think that is due to the fact we have a lot more downforce now. I don’t think the top speed will be a lot higher but lap times will be a lot faster because of both the downforce and brakes,” he commented.

John Martin also put in a good performance for A1 Team Australia, with the team announcing him as its main driver for the 2008/09 season. Martin impressed the squad last year during his 12 A1GP races, with his best finish being a popular fifth place on home soil at Eastern Creek. His comment was: “It feels really good to be back and I’m glad I impressed them enough last year. I like the new car so it should be a really good season.”

Adrian Zaugg continued the testing programme for A1 Team South Africa while Edoardo Piscopo and Euro F3000 championship leader Fabio Onidi both had time in the A1 Team Italy car. Chris van der Drift, who competed in and was quickest in the rookie session at the Season Three finale at Brands Hatch, took to the track for A1 Team New Zealand.

A1 Team Pakistan has also confirmed Adam Khan will not only race for the team in Season Four, but will also be its new seat holder. “I am looking forward to building the awareness for the team in Pakistan through my role as seat holder, while also racing for the nation at the A1GP events around the globe. Combining the two responsibilities will certainly keep me busy, but I also believe that having total focus on the team will help to bring us more success both commercially and on the track, “said Khan.
 

A1GP Powered by Ferrari car completes wind tunnel testing
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (August 4, 2008) – Wind tunnel testing has been a key element in the development of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Powered by Ferrari car for season four. The car that had its first public running at the Mugello circuit was the product of many hours spent by the A1GP technical team in wind tunnels at the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences.

John Travis, A1GP Technical Director: “To ensure we continue the A1GP tradition of strong racing, coupled with lots of overtaking, the effort of the design team has been to provide a chassis that has a good level of down force, but without the normal penalties. This will make for much closer racing particularly in the corners as cars will be able to run together. We have spent in excess of 300 hours in the wind tunnel and have tried hundreds of different aerodynamic variations to ensure the close, exciting racing the series is famous for not only continues but gets better.”

The University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences has a variety of wind tunnels which have been used extensively by Formula One and CART racing teams over the years. A 40 per cent scale model of the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car was tested at the facility and performed just as expected giving the development team a good set of aerodynamic data to work with as they continue the on track testing programme in Europe.

The testing has been continuing in France with Andrea Bertolini in the car for three days at Paul Ricard near Marseille with 400-kilometres covered on one day alone. Testing then moved to Magny-Cours, with Patrick Friesacher at the wheel last week increasing the total distance covered by the new A1GP car to 5,667 kilometres.

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 2008-09 season will officially get underway later this year with A1GP Mugello, Italy, 19 – 21 September 2008.
 

A1GP car covers half a season's distance in testing
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (July 7, 2008) - A total of 3,500 kilometres, the equivalent of over half a season's mileage, is the distance covered to date by the new A1GP World Cup of Motorsport Powered by Ferrari car. The latest series of tests for the car were in Spain with five days at the Guadix Circuit near Granada followed by three days at Jerez.

Scuderia Ferrari test driver, Marc Gene, has now had his first taste of the car and his first impressions were: "It's an interesting car and I had a lot of fun. It's not an F1 car but it's not intended to be one; it will produce exciting racing, allows overtaking, and is an extreme drive." However, the majority of the testing has been undertaken by Andrea Bertolini, while Patrick Friesacher has also been behind the wheel. Feedback has been good with them finding the car well balanced, the tyres have been working well and the gearshift and electronics have been reliable; all in all they have found it an extremely drivable car.

A1GP General Manager, Technical and Operations, John Wickham: "The car has now completed about 3,500 km testing, equivalent to about half a season's mileage, and is looking reliable. We have spent the majority of time working on the engine and control systems but there's also been work on the tyres and chassis so there has been no down time. There have been a number of small issues, which is to be expected from a completely new package, but there is nothing we can't resolve in the coming tests so we are happy with how things are progressing."

With the development programme moving forward positively, the car will be back out at Jerez in a couple of weeks before testing moves to France later this month. The teams are expected to get their first test in Silverstone in August and then a few weeks later at another UK location.
 

A1GP Reveals First Image of 'Powered by Ferrari' Car Ahead of UK Shakedown
Photos © A1GP.com
LONDON, Great Britain (May 12, 2008) — A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has revealed the first image of its brand new 'Powered by Ferrari' car for use in season four (2008/09). The CAD drawing was released ahead of the car's inaugural shakedown test in Southern England.

A1GP's own TV commentator and Formula One legend, John Watson, will have the honour of driving the car for the first time, powered by a V8 Ferrari engine producing in the region of 600 bhp.

The chassis is based on the design of the highly successful F2004 chassis, incorporating A1GP's core values to deliver close, exciting racing among a competitive field where overtaking is an essential part of the entertainment.

A1GP Technical Director, John Travis, is overseeing the design, development and production of the car from premises in Bognor Regis in the UK, with Rory Byrne acting as a consultant. Meanwhile the work on the manufacture and supply of the A1GP engine is being overseen by Ferrari's Jean-Jacques His.

The Powered by Ferrari project was first announced on 11 October 2007 when the most famous name in motorsport signed a six-year agreement to manufacture and supply all A1GP engines for this unique series and provide consultancy on the design of all A1GP chassis from season four onwards.

Speaking ahead of the shakedown and what will be an intensive testing programme for the new car and engine, Tony Teixeira, Chairman of A1GP, said:

'Everyone is very excited about this project and it will be fantastic to see the new A1GP powered by Ferrari car turn a wheel for the first time on Friday. We obviously still have a lot of work to do as this is just the first step in what will be an intense development and testing programme, but I am very happy with the progress made so far. We have a small, dedicated group of people in Bognor Regis and are very lucky to be able to use some well known motor racing companies for certain areas of expertise. I am pleased to say we are on schedule and we will be announcing the date of the official unveiling of the car soon.'
 

India Wins as GBR Takes Home Race Podium
Photos © A1GP.com
BRANDS HATCH, Great Britain (May 4, 2008) - A1 Team India secured its second win of the season when Narain Karthikeyan took victory in the Brands Hatch season finale Feature race this afternoon while GBR's Robbie Kerr notched up another home race podium after a beautiful drive, just losing out to India during the second pit stop.

Newly crowned A1GP champion A1 Team Switzerland's Neel Jani joined India and GBR on the podium in third position while China's Congfu Cheng finished in a superb fourth place after a great weekend at a circuit he knows so well.

Fifth was taken by Franck Montagny, helping France to fourth place in the championship, followed by the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen in a solid sixth.

New Zealand's Jonny Reid did just enough to secure second in the championship behind Switzerland, who took the prestigious title honours this morning. Reid carved his way through the pack from 17th to seventh during the course of the 48-lap race, partly due to swift work in the pits from the New Zealand crew. Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque snatched seventh from the Kiwi with just four laps remaining, demoting Reid to eighth at the chequered flag, which was enough to take second in the championship, beating GBR by just one point.

Indonesia's Satrio Hermanto crossed the line 10th to score his nation's first point this season. Hermanto put in a superb effort to hang onto the final points-paying position, after last lap pressure from the Czech Republic and South Africa.

Ireland's Adam Carroll, who was on course for another podium finish after a sterling drive to third in the Sprint race this morning, crossed the line 13th to secure sixth in the final championship standings. Carroll got a great start and ran in third for the first part of the race, before losing his car's front wing and being forced to pit for repairs outside the compulsory pit stop windows. The Northern Irish star was clearly pushing hard after rejoining in 18th on lap 20, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 44.

Narain Karthikeyan, who took his maiden A1GP race win in Zhuhai, China in December last year, was delighted to score India's second race win:

'I think I made a good start. Robbie tried to go round the outside but I defended that move. When we came out of the first pit stop I had a coming together with Adam Carroll - I didn't see him because I had a moment and he tried to go up the inside and I hit him. But anyway, a great result for A1 Team India and after the final pit stop my car was mega. I made a mistake at Sheen but at the end it was all good!'

Robbie Kerr, who won this morning's Sprint race and finished second in the main event this afternoon, was visibly disappointed to just miss out on doing the double on home soil, 'It was a fantastic weekend for GBR, it was just a shame we couldn't pull the second win off. Narain and I were so equal and after the first pit stop we thought we had done enough. Then unfortunately the second pit stop didn't quite go our way, but it's a team sport and we all worked hard. It's just one of those things.’
 

Great Britain and India on Pole at Brands Hatch
Photos © A1GP.com
BRANDS HATCH, Great Britain (03 May 2008)- GBR's Robbie Kerr put in a sensational performance to qualify in pole position for tomorrow morning's Sprint race at the A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain, much to the delight of his home fans. The British racer will also start the Feature race from the front row of the grid, lining up in second place alongside Narain Karthikeyan, who has secured India's first pole position.

Sprint race qualifying
Twenty-eight-year-old Robbie Kerr set the fastest lap in the closing moments of the second 15-minute qualifying segment to snatch pole position for tomorrow morning's Sprint race from Switzerland's Neel Jani, who set the fastest lap during Q1.

USA's Jonathan Summerton, who was third fastest on Friday but struggled a little bit this morning, put in a superb lap in Q2 to qualify second and demote current title leader Switzerland to third. Ireland's Adam Carroll will line up alongside Jani on the second row in fourth position while India's Narain Karthikeyan and Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque will start from fifth and sixth place respectively.

South Africa's Adrian Zaugg and France's Franck Montagny will line up behind them in seventh and eighth place, followed by Germany's Michael Ammermüller in ninth. Title contender New Zealand's Jonny Reid endured a difficult session, qualifying Black Beauty in 10th position on the fifth row.

Feature race qualifying
Having secured the Sprint race pole, GBR's Robbie Kerr took provisional pole for the Feature race during Q3, only to be demoted to second when India's Narain Karthikeyan snatched the top spot in the closing moments of the final qualifying segment, taking his nation's first A1GP pole position.

Switzerland's Neel Jani, who only needs to finish seventh in one of the races tomorrow to win the championship, and Ireland's Adam Carroll will line up on row two in third and fourth position followed by Germany's Michael Ammermüller and France's Franck Montagny in fifth and sixth place respectively.

South Africa's Adrian Zaugg and China's Congfu Cheng qualified seventh and eighth while USA's Jonathan Summerton and the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen complete the top 10 grid positions.

New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who needs to win at least one race tomorrow to be in with a chance of overhauling Switzerland and taking the prestigious title honours, could only manage 17th on the grid.

GBR's Robbie Kerr, who won the Brands Hatch Sprint race last year and is aiming for a double victory tomorrow, said:

'We've been pushing really hard all weekend. We've got to be happy with the result but it's just a shame we're not one place higher on the Feature race grid. We got a bit caught out by waiting right till the last moment before we went out. We wait so late purely so that other cars have driven round the circuit before us - they clean it up and put some rubber down which gives us the opportunity to get that extra bit of grip and a faster lap time. Everyone does the same though so it's a hard call to get it right every time and unfortunately we didn't get it quite right for the Feature race grid. We're happy with our performance so far this weekend and we've just got to carry it on till tomorrow.'

Narain Karthikeyan, who will start the Feature race from pole in the Indian car for the first time, put his top grid position down to good team work and his previous experience at the challenging Kent circuit:

'I've always done well here at Brands Hatch and it's one of my favourite circuits. The car has been up there all weekend. We put the lap together and the team has done a great job and the set up is not too far off. I think there will be a lot of Indian fans here tomorrow so we'll see what we can do.'

Tomorrow's A1GP season finale Sprint race at Brands Hatch will start at 11.00 local time and the 70-minute Feature race will start at 14.30.
 

A1GP Driver Congfu Cheng To Carry Olympic Torch
Photos © A1GP.com
BEIJING, China (March 20, 2008) — A1 Team China driver, Congfu Cheng, is about to become part of history as he participates in the Olympic Torch Relay, a tradition that goes back to the year 766 BC, when the first recorded Olympic games were held. In an honour that is afforded to very few athletes, let alone racing drivers, he will be a Torchbearer for the Olympic Flame as it sets out on its path across Greece on Monday (24 March), its final journey before the Games of the XXIX Olympiad - Beijing 2008.

With the driver, who is usually known as 'Franky', coming from Beijing, it is obviously very special for him to be involved in the flame's final journey before it is officially handed over to Beijing:

'It is my great honour and a dream for all sports people to be nominated as one of the Torchbearers and to carry the flame in Greece. Hopefully my appearance in the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay will help promote motorsport in China, and encourage more Chinese people to get involved in this exciting sport. I will try my best to bring more honours to my country in A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. I would like to welcome all the people going to my home town for this great event.'

The games will be held from 8 - 24 August 2008, and A1 Team China driver Cheng has a double reason to celebrate as his 24th birthday is on 15 August.

Franky and the flame have a lot in common as they travel the length and the breadth of the world. A1GP World Cup of Motorsport visits five continents and so does the flame on its relay that takes 130 days and covers 137,000 kilometres. The theme is 'Journey of Harmony' and its slogan is 'Light of Passion, Share the Dream' a message the Beijing organising committee wants to share with the world. A1GP also wants to share the dream of nation versus nation competition and has already made the journey to Beijing, as in its second season it held the first ever motor race round the streets of the city.

The journey of the flame in Greece is full of ancient symbolism. On Monday  24 March, the flame will come to life in Olympia and the High Priestess will hand it over to the first of the Torchbearers. Cheng's duties will be on the first day of its 1528 km journey, in the hands of 605 Torchbearers, through 16 prefectures, 43 municipalities, 12 municipality districts, and four communities while 29 ceremonies will be held. It will arrive on 30 March in the Panathenian Stadium with the final Torchbearer and then on the eve of the handover to Beijing the flame will spend the night on the ancient Acropolis.

After his torch bearing duties, Franky will head to Shanghai for the penultimate round of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport where he will compete for his country against 21 nations at the Shanghai International Circuit from 11 - 13 April 2008.
 

A1GP Title Fight Heads to Mexico City

Photos © A1GP.com
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (March 8, 2008) - With just three rounds of the 2007/08 season remaining, the prestigious A1GP title honours are still up for grabs, as the World Cup of Motorsport gears up for round eight in Mexico City next weekend (14-16 March).

Switzerland put in an impressive performance last time out in Durban to regain the series lead, now 10 points ahead of France, after a commanding Feature race win and Sprint race podium finish. France lies in second place on 108 points while New Zealand arrives in Mexico in third place on 98 points after enduring a frustrating weekend in South Africa.
A1GP's inaugural visit to Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in March 2007 will be remembered for A1 Team Great Britain's maiden victory. Becoming the 13th nation in history to win an A1GP race, it was the inexperienced rookie driver Oliver Jarvis who blitzed the Feature, beating Sprint race winner, and therefore Feature race pole-sitter, Alex Yoong of A1 Team Malaysia.

2007 Formula Renault UK champion, Duncan Tappy, will join GBR in Mexico this year to take on the driving duties for the British team in the rookie session on Friday morning. Twenty-three-year-old Tappy, who was named Autosport Club Driver of the Year in 2007 and has twice been a finalist for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, won the 2005 Formula Ford Festival and finished second in the UK championship.

Last season's event was a tough weekend for host nation Mexico, who collided with neighbouring Brazil on the opening lap of the Sprint race, pushing the Brazilian car over the nose of the Mexican and into championship leader Germany. Salvador Duran managed to get the Mexican car back to the pits and the team made some quick repairs in time to get the car back out on track. Duran went on to record the fastest lap of 1m 27.534s, which remains the A1GP lap record around the circuit.

The bumpy surface makes handling difficult for the drivers and the relatively high altitude - the track lies at 2,285 metres (7,500 feet) above sea level - makes for challenging racing conditions. The infamous Peraltada corner, which is lined by a concrete wall on the outside and has no run-off area, has been modified slightly by adding an extra chicane on the entry to the extremely fast final corner, providing a breaking zone and potential overtaking opportunity.

Home nation confirms Garza and Martínez for Mexico City: Ahead of its home event next weekend, A1 Team Mexico has announced that David Martínez, who represented his nation in A1GP in season one and knows the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit well, will join David Garza in the Mexican squad. Garza, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, is excited to be representing his country on home soil and is targeting a podium finish:
'Racing for A1 Team Mexico in my country will be a dream come true. I am really looking forward to racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez since half of my family lives in that city. I am extremely proud to have been elected to drive in Mexico and I am really committed to getting as much as possible out of this opportunity. I promise to give it my absolute best as I have done in the past, but with the support of the Mexican crowd I am sure we can achieve a great result. Since my first race in A1GP (in China in December 2007) I have always been dreaming of that moment, so this would be the best time to get out all that we have been learning since then, put everything together and get a podium for all my countrymen.'
As Garza is now ineligible to take part in the rookie practice sessions, 26-year-old David Martínez will drive the Mexican car on Friday morning. Martínez, who raced for A1 Team Mexico four times in season one, is delighted to be back in A1GP and looking forward to teaming up with Garza:

'I'm really happy to be able to represent Mexico and to help the team achieve a good result in front of all the Mexican fans, and what better way to do it than alongside David Garza. For many years we've wanted to be teammates and finally we are going to get a chance to do it. During the last few months I've kept myself busy and in shape driving Champ Cars, I've learned quite a bit and I believe that I will be able to apply that knowledge to help A1 Team Mexico improve their setup. I love this track, I've had a lot of success here and I'm really looking forward to putting in some quick laps in the Mexican car.

'I've always followed A1GP very closely, I think it is a very special concept and it's usually some of the best racing in international motorsports. I'm really glad to be back with A1 Team Mexico and I hope that together we can achieve a great result.'

GBR reveals driver line-up for final three rounds: A1 Team Great Britain has confirmed its race driver line-up for the final three meetings of the season; Oliver Jarvis will return to the scene of GBR's first victory in Mexico City next weekend while Robbie Kerr will be keen to build on his Sprint race victories at both Shanghai and Brands Hatch at the final two events. It will mean that the team will have split the driving duties this season evenly, with both drivers racing in five meetings each. During the final three rounds, GBR will also give opportunities to new 'up-and-coming' British stars, to demonstrate their talents in the rookie sessions who, should they impress, could play a part in the 2008/09 A1GP season.

Swiss star makes circuit debut in A1GP car: When championship leader Switzerland's lead driver Neel Jani takes to the track next weekend it will be his first experience of the challenging Mexican circuit in an A1GP car. The Swiss racer missed the event last year due to prior commitments so the team had Marcel Fässler behind the wheel. Jani knows he's got a tough weekend ahead of him but is up for the challenge:

'It is very good to go to Mexico as championship leader but as we have seen, it is very easy to lose the leadership in one race. It is more important that the team has a good, solid weekend. I know Mexico City from Champ Car and it is a very technical and challenging track that needs precise driving and concentration. I have never raced here before in A1GP so I am looking forward to getting to know the track in an A1GP car.'

Czech Republic recalls Salaquarda: Filip Salaquarda has been recalled by A1 Team Czech Republic to race at the final three meetings of season three, instead of Josef Kral. Seventeen-year-old Kral had been announced by the team as its lead driver for the rest of the season, but following a best finish of 16th in the Feature race in Durban, he will now be replaced by Salaquarda for the rest of the 2007/08 campaign, beginning with Mexico next weekend. The 24-year-old had his only two previous A1GP race outings at Shanghai, one of the other circuits remaining on this season's A1GP calendar.

Pre-event PR activity: The pre-event PR activity for the Mexico race weekend will take place on Thursday (13 March) morning at the Azteca stadium in Mexico City, the fourth largest stadium in the world and the only stadium ever to host two World Cup final matches. The drivers will take part in a football skills training session with a group of professional Mexican football players, followed by a tour of the museum and facilities.
Drivers from the following nations will be taking part in the event: Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, and USA

The A1GP Mexico City, Mexico event runs from 14-16 March, starting with the rookie driver and developing nations' sessions on Friday morning from 11.00 to 11.25 and again from 11.35 to 12.00. All 22 teams can take part in the later practice session from 14.00 to 15.00. Final practice and qualifying for the Sprint and Feature race will take place on Saturday with the two races scheduled to run on Sunday at 11.00 and 15.00 respectively.
Live video and audio coverage of both qualifying and the Feature race is available for free over the internet at www.A1GP.com/livevideo (video restricted in selected regions).
 

Canada and Switzerland on Pole in Durban
Photos © A1GP.com
DURBAN, South Africa (February 23, 2008) — A1 Team Canada's Robert Wickens put in a stunning effort to qualify in pole position for tomorrow morning's Sprint race at the A1GP Durban, South Africa, becoming the youngest ever pole-sitter in the series, while the Feature race will be led off the grid by Switzerland's Neel Jani.

Sprint race qualifying
Eighteen-year-old rookie Robert Wickens set the fastest lap during the second 15-minute qualifying segment to take pole position for A1 Team Canada for tomorrow morning's Sprint race, claiming the team's first ever pole position and the first of his A1GP career.

Brazil's Bruno Junqueira, who was 12th quickest in practice this morning, leapt up the time sheets to qualify in second position alongside Canada while New Zealand's Jonny Reid and GBR's Oliver Jarvis will start the race from third and fourth place on row two. Switzerland's Neel Jani and Germany's Michael Ammermüller will line up on the third row of the grid in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Ireland's Adam Carroll cruised to a halt early on in the first qualifying segment with a fuel pump problem and only six nations managed to set a time as the session was red-flagged with three minutes remaining, when the New Zealand car spun off the track. The start of the second qualifying segment was delayed slightly while the track was cleared.

South Africa's Adrian Zaugg will start the Sprint race from the back of the grid in 22nd place as he pushed hard and spun out at turn three, failing to set a flying lap time.

Feature race qualifying
Switzerland's Neel Jani, who just pipped GBR to take provisional pole in the third qualifying segment, bettered his time in the final qualifying segment to secure pole position for tomorrow's Feature race. Sprint race pole-sitter Canada's Robert Wickens, who is having a superb weekend, will start the race from second place alongside the Swiss car on the front row.

New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who has never raced on a street circuit before, qualified in third position while Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis, the first driver to break the lap record around the streets of Durban this weekend, will line up in fourth place on the second row.

Brazil's Bruno Junqueira took the fifth spot ahead of the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen who will start from sixth place. Germany's Michael Ammermüller and France's Loic Duval qualified seventh and eighth while Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque and Australia's John Martin will line up on the fifth row in ninth and 10th position respectively.

Home nation A1 Team South Africa's Adrian Zaugg will start the Feature race from a disappointing 15th position, after taking to the track early on in the session and getting stuck in traffic.

Canada's Robert Wickens is having a great weekend in Durban and was pleased to achieve his nation's first pole position and the team's best combined qualifying performance to date:

'We had a really good run in qualifying, the car was really solid underneath me and I was able to put in a pretty good lap. It's Canada's best qualifying ever so I'm excited to get them their first pole and their second front row start.'

Feature race pole-sitter Neel Jani, who has now notched up four pole positions for the Swiss team this season, said: 'It was a tough qualifying session, especially missing the first segment because of the red flags so I really had to push in the second one for the Sprint grid. Adrian spun in front of me and I didn't know where to so I had to break to avoid him which cost me a lot of time but I'm still fifth so I'm happy with that. Then in segments three and fourth I was quickest and we improved the car a little bit but I had to really push a lot and it was still very close at the end.'

Adrian Zaugg endured a difficult qualifying session in the South African car this afternoon and will start the Sprint race from 22nd and the Feature race from 15th:

'We were one of the teams to get caught out at the third turn in the second segment - I don't know what changed but for sure it was more slippery out there than it was in free practice - and then in the third segment I got held up by New Zealand I think. I wanted to push for it in the last segment but we had a problem with the pick up of the engine so we didn't even go for a lap. I think it will be difficult to improve or even get points in the Sprint race but definitely in the Feature I think we should be able to get some points.'

Tomorrow's Sprint race in Durban, South Africa will start at 11.00 local time and the 70-minute Feature race will start at 15.00.
 

Canada Sends Wickens and Morad to Durban
By Stuart Morrison
Photos courtesy Jakob Ebray Photography
MONTRÉAL, Canada (February 19, 2008) - A1 Team Canada welcomes 17-year-old Daniel Morad to its driver line-up this weekend as the team heads to South Africa and the streets of Durban for Round 7 of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th February. Morad will make his debut for Canada in Friday morning's 'Rookie-Only' session before handing over to Toronto's Robert Wickens for the remainder of the weekend.

Wickens remains in the race seat in South Africa having collected three podiums in just eight starts in the open-wheel racing, nation versus nation series.  --->MORE

A1 Grand Prix of Nations
Germany Wins as New Zealand Takes Title Lead
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, New Zealand (January 20, 2008) - A1 Team Germany's Christian Vietoris, who has been on sensational form all weekend, secured his first A1GP race win in this afternoon's action-packed Feature race at Taupo Motorsport Park while New Zealand's points haul put the home team at the top of the championship standings.

Germany was joined on the podium by Canada's Robert Wickens in second, the team's best result of the season, and pole-sitter France's Loic Duval in third. The local favourite, New Zealand's Jonny Reid, was on incredible form, racing to a brilliant fourth place, having fallen back seven places to 12th at the start. The points picked up this weekend put New Zealand two points ahead of Switzerland and France in the championship.

Ireland's Adam Carroll put in a superb performance to finish fifth after starting from 13th on the grid despite an early collision which led to an additional pit stop for the emerald green car. He was closely followed by Brazil's Sergio Jimenez who carried out some impressive overtaking manoeuvres on his way to sixth place, having started 11th.

South Africa's Adrian Zaugg, USA's Jonathan Summerton and the Netherlands's Jeroen Bleekemolen crossed the line in seventh, eighth and ninth place respectively while Mexico's David Garza drove hard from 15th on the grid to finish 10th and pick up his first point for the team on only his second A1GP race outing.

Previous championship leader Switzerland's Neel Jani endured a difficult afternoon, receiving two drive-through penalties for a false start and for overtaking under yellow flags. The Swiss team picked up a bonus point for the fastest lap and finally crossed the line a disappointing 14th behind Portugal. Joao Urbano started sixth and had been on course to score Portugal's best result of the season, running in third for 12 laps of the race, until he was hit with a drive through penalty for crossing the white line on entering the pit lane.

Eight of the 22 teams failed to finish the race, including China's Congfu Cheng, who spun off the track from seventh place, as many were victims of the dusty and slippery track conditions.

A1GP rookie Robert Wickens, who was awarded third place in Malaysia earlier this season after the podium ceremony had been completed, was encouraged by his second place finish and thrilled that he and his Canadian team-mates were able to enjoy the celebrations:

'We're definitely making steps in right direction, from our first race in Zandvoort to where we are now. The car has improved a lot and the team finally got a decent result that we all deserve. We got a podium in Malaysia but I wasn't on it so this time the team got to celebrate and taste the champagne, so it was a great experience. The whole team did a great job today. There is really only one passing opportunity out on track and the team did an outstanding job in the pits.'

Christian Vietoris, who secured second in the Sprint race and a sensational win in the Feature, was delighted with his team's performance this weekend:

'It was a really brilliant weekend for us. The car was a little bit off the pace on Friday but we improved the car all weekend and we were on the pace for qualifying and the Sprint race this morning. The team did two good pit stops in the Feature which put me to the front and held me there. It was really hard to keep Loic Duval behind me, especially on the long back straight, but we managed to hold position and I am very happy.'

France's Loic Duval, who started the race from pole position for the first time this season, was disappointed with his team's third place finish:

'This race was there for us and we lost it. Sometimes it can happen. We were too slow in the pits and we lost first position but there's nothing more to say about that. It's really hard to pass here but I did the maximum I could. I was maybe more trying to push him (Christian Vietoris) to do a mistake because it was really difficult to overtake, but he didn't so he was leading and it was really difficult for me to try anything. That's why we did one lap more than him before the pit stop to try to get in front of him but then we lost a bit of time in the pit stop again, so we lost two positions. There is nothing else for me to say.'

New Zealand now leads the championship on 82 points, two ahead of Switzerland and France who are equal on 80 points.

The championship remains in the Southern Hemisphere and the teams will be back on track in two weeks time for round six in Sydney, Australia on 1-3 February 2008.

All results remain provisional while the stewards of the circuit continue to carry out investigations. Keep checking www.A1GP.com for further updates and the final results.

New Zealand and France on Pole at Taupo
Photos © A1GP.com
TAUPO, New Zealand (January 19, 2008) — Home nation A1 Team New Zealand qualified in pole position for tomorrow morning's Sprint race at Taupo while France took the Feature race pole. It was an unusual qualifying hour as the majority of teams waited as late as possible to take to the windy, dusty track during each of the four 15-minute qualifying segments.

Sprint race qualifying
The crowds roared as New Zealand's Jonny Reid set the fastest lap in the closing minutes of the second 15-minute qualifying segment to snatch pole position for tomorrow morning's Sprint race.

South Africa's Adrian Zaugg will line up alongside the home nation hero on the front row, after an incredible last lap charge during Q2 moved him up to second place. France's Loic Duval, who has been the man to beat all weekend, will start the race from third position on the second row while Germany's Christian Vietoris qualified fourth.

The Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen and USA's Jonathan Summerton will line up on the third row of the grid in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Feature race qualifying
The teams continued to play a waiting game due to the dusty conditions, finally taking to the track with just over two minutes of the final qualifying segment remaining. France's Loic Duval put in a sensational performance to secure pole for the Feature race ahead of Germany's Christian Vietoris who will line up alongside him on the front row.

Current championship leader Switzerland's Neel Jani qualified in third position, closely followed by Canada's Robert Wickens who will start from fourth on the grid. Home nation New Zealand's Jonny Reid took the fifth spot while Portugal's Joao Urbano recorded an incredible lap around the 3.5km circuit to secure sixth position ahead of South Africa.

Sprint race qualifying
New Zealand's Jonny Reid is delighted to be starting tomorrow's Sprint race from pole position and is aiming for a win in front of his home crowd:

'It was a fantastic feeling to see everyone on their feet in the grandstands as I came across the line. I had no radio communication during the session but I could see the crowd were pretty excited and I was hoping it was at least the front row. It was a very clean lap in Q2 and not many mistakes which is pleasing. We slipped up a bit for the Feature race qualifying but we'll be there when it comes to the racing tomorrow. I have the home support and I really want this one.'

Season one champion France's Loic Duval has been on superb form all weekend and has high hopes for tomorrow's Feature race, which he is starting from pole:

'The first part of qualifying was ok because I was first in the first segment, but the set up of the car wasn't really as good as this morning. It was quite difficult to find a good set up which is why I just took pole for the Feature race. The average of today is not too bad though - first and third - and at the end of the weekend the most important thing is the number of points we can score.'

Germany's Christian Vietoris, who will start the Sprint race from fourth and the Feature race from second on the grid, commented on the dirty, dusty track conditions:

'It is a big problem because you don't know what to expect at the next corner. Today it was ok but yesterday it was a lot worse and nearly everybody went off the track at some point.'

Tomorrow's Sprint race at Taupo, New Zealand will start at 11.00 local time and the 70-minute Feature race will start at 15.00.