Swiss and USA teams claim China victories

Neel Jani moved Team Switzerland into a commanding lead in the A1GP Series championship standings with a victory in the first race Sunday on the 4.6 km (2.9 mile) Shanghai International Circuit. He did not fare as well in the Feature race held later in the afternoon.

Winner, 1st, Jonathan Summerton, driver of A1 Team USA. Photo by xpb.cc.

“It is a great start to the day. I hope I can do it again in the second race and if we are lucky we can even get the Championship. I tried to quickly get some distance between me and the other guys behind me so I would have a calm race,” said Jani after taking the Sprint race win.

The second race crowned a first time winner. Jonathan Summerton handed Team USA their first ever victory in the World Cup of Motorsport, allowing the red, white and blue flag to fly high in China. It was a great comeback for Summerton after a crash in the morning race ended with a bruised and swollen right hand.

Summerton expressed his delight with today’s win: “I’m really happy to win for A1 TEAM USA! It’s been a long time coming. We’ve steadily made the ‘We the People’ car more competitive this season and to finally stand on the top of the podium with our national anthem playing was the greatest feeling of my career.”

The penultimate round in the third season of the open-wheel Winter series saw both disappointment for some of the nations while others celebrated the remarkable drives of their chosen drivers for this weekend’s event.

The sprint race consisting of 10 laps was a close contest at the start between double pole winner Jani and Team Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque. The experience of Team Swiss’ racer paid off and he was cleanly away by the first turn, dominating the sprint race.

Albuquerque, in only his fifth start, might have had a bit of nerves when he tried to keep in touch with Jani and made a costly error for second position. The rookie lost out to Robert Wickens. The Canadian ran his final two races this season, having commitments in his World Series by Renault ride for 2008.

“Well the Sprint race went really well as I knew we were capable of securing a podium finish,” stated Wickens. “I got the start I was hoping for and I just wanted to score as many points as I could.”

Start, Neel Jani, driver of A1 Team Switzerland leads Robert Wickens, driver of A1 Team Canada. Photo by xpb.cc.

Once Wickens had the Team Canada car ahead of the Portuguese rookie, he fended off all of the attacks that Albuquerque tossed his way after climbing his way back to third.

“I made a mistake at the start that cost me a lot. I fell back into fifth place and then had to fight with Karthikeyan (India). I was able to be third at least and then I was trying to push Robert (Canada) to get second but it’s very hard to overtake here,” said Albuquerque. “He was getting the team instructions when I was using the push to pass, so I was not able to catch him on the straight. Third place is still good though and I’m pleased to be on the podium but just not as I wanted.”

The duo ended up second and third in what was a close battle. Team Portugal’s rookie notched his second podium, missing the second step by seven-tenths of a second to the Canadian. Jani was the clear winner by nearly five seconds.

The feature race of 38 laps saw a new star come to the front to take the win. Summerton and Team USA have been battling a few woes during the season but kept pushing. This morning, no one would have expected the victory when the American came into contact with Team New Zealand’s Jonny Reid in the sprint race.

The two were side-by-side on the third row for the rolling start, the Kiwi spun out of the race and Summerton limped a damaged car to pit lane. What was amazing is that not one driver behind them was caught up in the incident.

Summerton was treated and clear, obviously, to drive in the feature. Luck for the afternoon race held up for the American. When Jani made a rare mistake on the start line, Summerton took the advantage and the lead. It was later learned that the Swiss car had a gearbox issue which caused Jani’s struggle, not only at the start but during the race.

Jonathan Summerton, driver of A1 Team USA and Neel Jani, driver of A1 Team Switzerland lead the start of the race . Photo by xpb.cc.

Team USA had two flawless pit stops which kept Summerton in command of the race. Sixteen nations have earned race wins in the Nations’ Cup series; ten of them this season. Team France may have dominated the inaugural season followed by a great performance from Germany last season but this season, it is obvious that the other countries have stepped-up their program. The third season has shown the battles that have ensued.

Summerton ran his final race as a teenager, he turns 20 on April 21, and it was a moment he will never forget. Rick Weidinger, Team USA’s seat holder, commented: “We’re very proud that A1 Team USA has taken its first win in A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. It’s an awesome achievement for our team and we’re thrilled to have done it representing the USA in an international racing series. This win is the first of many to come.”

Team Portugal has found their star driver, the rookie sensation again landed on the podium, this time in second. Albuquerque has moved the Portuguese team up to 10th in the standings with three podiums in six races.

“This is definitely very good as three podiums just from six races is a very good average. The starts were really bad, and this was not my best weekend for them as normally I do good starts, but I will work on that for Brands Hatch and that will make the difference,” said Albuquerque.

Like many of the top runners, he was able to overtake Jani whose Swiss car’s gearbox had lost second gear and later would lose fifth gear also. “When I got close to Neel I noticed he had a problem with second gear and I noticed that at the hairpin on the second last corner,” explained Albuquerque. “He was pretty fast but I knew I would pass him with an early pit stop and then I pushed very hard on my out lap and after that I was just getting away from Ireland.”

Filipe Albuquerque, driver of A1 Team Portugal. Photo by xpb.cc.

Third was Adam Carroll for Team Ireland. His first move was to rocket back past the Team India car. Narain Karthikeyan had taken the fourth spot at the start behind Team Portugal. Once Carroll had gained the place, he held it until the move past the Swiss car.

“I got bumped into turn one and had nowhere really to go. I lost out to India and Malaysia. I was able to fight off Malaysia and hold on to fifth place. Then Portugal and India were having a good battle and I was able to pass Narain as well as he kind of had a bad lap as he had just been overtaken so I knew it was my time to jump on him and make a move,” Carroll said. “After that I pushed as hard as I could but I really could not go any faster as the guys in front were just a bit quicker. It was hard today and the times were just extremely close.”

Jani tried his best to not slip behind the Kiwi team. But the second pit stop with lost of gears cost him and the team, they returned to the action behind Team New Zealand in fifth. Reid ended fourth, keeping Jani at bay.

“The gearbox blew my hopes”, admitted Jani. “Without second gear, that we normally use six times per lap at this circuit, there was no way of making up for the time we have lost in the pits.”

Alex Yoong (Team Malaysia) was sixth followed by Team India, having gotten around Karthikeyan. Eighth was Team France (Franck Montagny) followed by Robbie Kerr for Team Great Britain. Team Germany’s Michael Ammermuller rounded out the top ten in today’s final race.

Only one race remains before the championship wraps-up. Brands Hatch in England will host the finale on May 4, 2008. The Swiss team is in a comfortable position to take home the gold for the 2007/08 season. However, the New Zealand team still has a chance to unseat Switzerland. Both teams have taken the runner-up spot; France beat Switzerland in 2005/06 and last year Germany took the honors over the Kiwi team.

“Today, we have seen once more that there are always many unexpected things in racing”, said Team Switzerland principal, Max Welti. “Now, we will have to be patient until Brands Hatch.”

The series looks to have an increase in nations next season. Already announced this weekend in China was the entry of Team Korea. Seat holder Joshua Kim of Omnibus Investment and supported by entertainment company Good EMG, a Korean KOSDAQ listed company, made the official entry signing at Shanghai, China.

“Korea has the fifth biggest automobile industry in the world but as a nation, we are not familiar with motorsport so this is my main reason for joining A1GP,” said Kim. “Korean people love sport but they do not know about motorsport. Through A1GP, motorsport will become more popular and people will know about the sport, learning through A1GP.”

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Orlando Motors Sport üzerinde şu anda okumakta olduğunuz 'Swiss and USA teams claim China victories' isimli yazı 16 Apr 2008 tarihinde, saat: 23:29 'de admin tarafından gönderilmiş.

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