Asian Motor Sports

Team France once again dominated at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit for A1 Grand Prix’s fifth round. Alexandre Prémat, who alternates with Nicolas Lapierre each round, started the sprint race outside Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani in pole position. Jani’s time of 1.54.411 was over a second quicker than Prémat’s and earned the Team its first pole of the year.

Team France started the year with a second and a zero point effort in the inaugural A1GP event at Silverstone GB, but has since dominated both the Sprint and Feature Races in Germany, Portugal, Australia.

It was more of the same Sunday although both wins were hard fought. Jani led from the Sprint race pole with Britain’s Robbie Kerr slotted into third and France third. The order remained that way until lap four when Prémat took advantage of Kerr’s error under braking for the hairpin.

The Frenchman set sail for the leader but it took several attempts and side by side racing before finally making the pass good in turn four, one lap from the finish.

Team USA, with Byran Herta at the wheel, finally has shown some form finishing in 10th after an exciting dice with Team Portugal’s Alvaro Parente who finished 9th.

Starting from the pole by virtue of the team’s Sprint win Prémat led from start to finish. Behind the first 12 laps had Kerr and Jani again providing the action as they diced for 2nd and 3rd positions. Eight laps later, and after Jani had taken over second position, Kerr was sent to the pits with a driveline problem.

The best drive of the day featured former F1 Jordan and ALMS Prodrive Ferrari driver Tomas Enge. He took Team Czech Republic’s first podium finish charging through the field from 16th on the grid to 3rd place.

The best Asian result was turned in by Malaysia’s own Alex Yoong. The former Minardi F1 pilot took over for co-driver Fairuz Fauzi, who finished the Sprint in 8th place. Yoong equaled the team’s best finish of the year as he overtook New Zealand’s Matt Halliday on the last lap for fifth place.

Indonesia’s Ananda Mikola, fresh off winning the Asian F3 Championship at Batangas Raceway, Philippines, completed only 5 laps of the sprint and finished 14th in the 30 lap final.

Courage of the day award goes to Japan’s Hayanari Shimoda. His 14th and 13th place finishes are remarkable after his Eastern Creek accident. The Australian accident two weeks ago saw Shimoda-san barrel rolling several times before slamming into a hard concrete retaining wall. The impact sheared the car in half at the bulkhead just behind the driver’s head. After spending overnight in the crash house for observation he was none the worse for wear. And obviously not afraid to strap on a five-point harness again.

The next stop in Sheikh Maktoum’s circus is in Dubai U.A.E at Dubai Autodromo the 11th of December. The competition is getting tighter. It will be interesting to see if France is still Creme de la Creme after round six.

Sprint Race Results:
1 France (Alexandre Permat) - 29min21.541
2 Switzerland (Neel Jani) - 29min22.772
3 Britain (Robbie Kerr) - 29min26.606
4 Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.) - 29min28.334
5 Netherlands (Jos Verstappen) - 29min29.514
6 New Zealand (Matt Halliday) - 29min34.703
7 Ireland (Ralph Firman) - 29min35.423
8 Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzi) - 29min37.323
9 Portugal (Alvaro Parente) - 29min41.932
10 United States (Bryan Herta) - 29min42.386
11 India (Armaan Ebrahim) - 29min42.935
12 Germany (Timo Scheider) - 29min44.648
13 Pakistan (Adam Khan) - 29min46.755
14 Japan (Hayanari Shimoda) - 29min47.788
15 Canada (Sean McIntosh) - 29min48.949
16 Czech Republic (Tomas Enge) - 29min51.551
17 Italy (Enrico Toccacelo) - 29min52.712
18 Austria (Mathias Lauda) - 29min53.179
19 Mexico (Luis Diaz) - 29min55.912
20 China (Tengyi Jiang) - 29min58.62

Did not finish
21 South Africa (Stephen Simpson) - 9 laps
22 Lebanon (Khalil Beschir) - 9 laps
23 Indonesia (Ananda Mikola) - 5 laps
24 Australia (Will Davison) - 4 laps

30 Lap Feature Results:
1 France (Alexandre Permat) - 1hr00:6.495
2 Switzerland (Neel Jani) - 1hr00:11.051
3 Czech Republic (Tomas Enge) - 1hr00:22.184
4 Italy (Enrico Toccacelo) - 1hr00:30.233
5 Malaysia (Alex Yoong) - 1hr00:38.136
6 New Zealand (Matt Halliday) - 1hr00:39.192
7 United States (Bryan Herta) - 1hr00:39.832
8 Germany (Timo Scheider) - 1hr00:41.876
9 Ireland (Ralph Firman) - 1hr00:42.240
10 Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.) - 1hr00:45.883
11 Australia (Will Davison) - 1hr00:56.978
12 South Africa (Stephen Simpson) - 1hr00:58.334
13 Japan (Hayanari Shimoda) - 1hr01:04.243
14 Indonesia (Ananda Mikola) - 1hr01:11.734
15 Mexico (Luis Diaz) - 1hr01:28.935
16 Netherlands (Jos Verstappen) - 1hr01:53.803

Did Not Finish
17 Lebanon (Khalil Beschir) - 29 laps
18 Portugal (Alvaro Parente) - 29 laps
19 Canada (Sean McIntosh) - 21 laps
20 Britain (Robbie Kerr) - 20 laps
21 Austria (Mathias Lauda) - 17 laps
22 Pakistan (Adam Khan) - 4 laps
23 China (Tengyi Jiang) - 1 lap

Excluded
24. India (Armaan Ebrahim) – 11 laps

Championship Points Leaders
1 France - 92
2 Switzerland - 65.
3 Brazil - 60.
4 New Zealand - 42.
5 Britain - 38.
6 Malaysia 32.
7 Netherlands - 32.
8 Ireland - 29.
9 Portugal - 29.
10 Australia - 26