SA in the A1GP points in China
12 November 2008
Team South Africa was among the points as Portugal became the 17th nation to win an A1GP race when Filipe Albuquerque took the honours in the feature race in round two of the fourth season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Chengdu International Circuit in China on Sunday.
It was a popular first ever A1GP victory for Portugal and followed Albuquerque's sixth place in the shorter sprint race earlier in the day.
A1 Team Ireland's Adam Carroll was second after the Irish driver dominated the sprint race from pole position. Great Britain's Danny Watts, in his first A1GP and the team's first appearance of the new season, finished third in both races after starting the feature race from pole position.
Team South Africa results
South Africa, with Adrian Zaugg at the wheel of Vulindlela, was fifth in the sprint race after starting from seventh on the grid and ninth in the feature race after starting fifth.
With Zaugg finishing in the points in both races, South Africa is now tenth in the championship standings after the first two rounds.
Malaysia retains its lead from the opening round at Zandvoort in the Netherlands in October with 28 points from France and Ireland on 23.
Zaugg made up two places in the dash to the first corner in the rolling start sprint race, but was unable to improve his position further during the 18-lap dice. He came under pressure from Albuquerque from half distance, but was able to control the gap to the Portuguese car to the chequered flag.
Bad start
The South African lost three places in the standing start to the feature race and was eighth at the end of the first of the scheduled 50 laps.
South Africa was one of the last to make the first of the two mandatory pit stops and lost another three places in the process when the team had to remove a piece of plastic advertising material that had wrapped itself around the front wing. A better second pit stop at around the halfway mark saw South Africa make up a place to lie eleventh with 23 laps remaining.
With 12 laps remaining Zaugg was 10th and in the points after France's Nicolas Prost went wide in turn one while attempting top pass Australia's John Martin and beached his car in a gravel trap.
Second half of race
Zaugg, putting in a strong performance in the second half of the race, passed India's Narain Karthikeyan at the end of the main straight to take ninth place with five laps to go.
"My race was compromised from the start when I was forced wide and lost two places before turn one," said Zaugg.
"I thought I had a good chance to get past John Martin in the Australian car during the first stint, but then we picked up a piece of plastic debris on the track that attached itself to the front wing, reducing the downforce and causing understeer.
'I hung on as best I could'
"I hung on as best I could and managed to hold off Chris van der Drift in the New Zealand car until the first pit stop. Unfortunately, with the team having to remove the debris from the wing, we were delayed in the pits and lost another three places.
"The second stint was better, but we were too far back to make much of an impression. I was happy to get back into a points scoring position at least."
SPRINT RACE RESULTS
- Ireland, Adam Carroll
- Netherlands, Robert Doornbos
- Great Britain, Danny Watts
- Switzerland, Neel Jani
- South Africa, Adrian Zaugg
- Portugal, Filipe Albuquerque
- New Zealand, Chris Van Der Drift
- France, Nicolas Prost
- Monaco, Clivio Piccione
- India, Narain Karthikeyan
- Australia, John Martin
- Lebanon, Daniel Morad
- Malaysia, Fairuz Fauzy
- Italy, Edoardo Piscopo
- USA, Marco Andretti
- Mexico, David Garza
- China, Ho Pin Tung
- Indonesia, Satrio Hermanto
- Korea, Jin Woo Hwang
- Brazil, Felipe Guimaraes
FEATURE RACE RESULTS
- Portugal, Filipe Albuquerque
- Ireland, Adam Carroll
- Great Britain, Danny Watts
- Switzerland, Neel Jani
- Malaysia, Fairuz Fauzy
- Australia, John Martin
- Monaco, Clivio Piccione
- USA, Marco Andretti
- South Africa, Adrian Zaugg
- India, Narain Karthikeyan
- New Zealand, Chris Van der Drift
- China, Ho Pin Tung
- Lebanon, Daniel Morad
- Indonesia, Satrio Hermanto
- Mexico, David Garza
- Netherlands, Robert Doornbos
- Korea, Jin Woo Hwang
- France, Nicolas Prost
- Italy, Edoardo Piscopo
- Brazil, Felipe Guimaraes
(After two rounds of 10)
- 1 Malaysia 28
- 2 Ireland and France 23
- 4 New Zealand and Netherlands 20
- 6 Portugal 18
- 7 Switzerland 17
- 8 Great Britain 16
- 9 Australia 13
- 10 South Africa and Monaco 9
- 12 USA 6
- 13 Korea 4
- 14 Lebanon 3
- 15 Italy and China 2
- 17 India 1
Next race: A1GP Sepang, Malaysia 21-23 November.
Source: A1 GP: The World Cup of Motorsport
