Sport

Luck not with Team SA at Zandvoort

6 October 2008

The A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport, with its new Ferrari-powered cars, kicked off at Zandvoort in The Netherlands at the weekend - a circuit where South Africa had previously enjoyed great success with Adrian Zaugg at the wheel of "Vulindela". Wet and treacherous conditions undermined his challenge this time around.

France and Malaysia emerged from the opening round in the joint lead after two incident-packed races that were dominated by heavy rains.

Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy won the Sprint race from New Zealand (Earl Bamber), France (Loic Duval), the Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen), Switzerland (Neel Jani) and South Africa (Adrian Zaugg).

Early finish

The race started behind the safety car after persistent rain fell over the circuit at the Dutch seaside resort and ended after 10 of the scheduled 14 laps when the red flag came out after yet another incident.

The longer Feature race also started behind the safety car with driving rain making conditions even worse than the earlier race.

France emerged the victors after 36 of the scheduled 40 laps (the race ended after another safety car period), scoring their 15th A1GP win and the second for Duval. Malaysia finished second, followed by New Zealand, Australia (John Martin), the Netherlands and A1GP newcomers Monaco (Clivio Piccione).

Unlucky casualty

South Africa became one of the many casualties of the conditions when Vulindlela was unceremoniously knocked off the Zandvoort circuit on lap six by the car of Italy, driven by A1GP rookie Onidi Fabio.

It was a big disappointment for 21-year-old Zaugg, who was lying fifth at the time. "I was being very careful in the conditions, which were really bad. It was difficult to see anything in the spray from the car ahead and the track surface was extremely slippery with a lot of water around," he said.

"Adrian was very unlucky," said Mike Carroll, general manager of A1 Team South Africa. "He did well to survive the difficult conditions in the Sprint race and finish in the points without making any mistakes or being involved in any incidents.

'A bit of a lottery'

"To go out so early in the Feature race through no fault of his own was most unfortunate, but that's what happens in wet races. It's a bit of a lottery and this time we didn't win the jackpot. However, we achieved a respectable result in race one under the circumstances and we live to fight another day.

"Our sister team France's (SA and France share the same mechanics) performance was unbelievable," added Carroll.

"Loic only drove the car for the first time in Saturday's qualifying session and qualified 11th on his 12th and last lap. His third place in the Sprint race and then his victory in the Feature race was quite outstanding. He gave a master class in driving in the wet."

Sprint race results