Asian Motor Sports

After spending the winter racing in A1 Grand Prix, five A1 drivers are now well into their summer programmes, racing in the World Series by Renault championship. It was a mixed weekend for Kerr, McIntosh, Shimoda, Parente and Tocaccelo, with Parente taking his first World Series win on the Istanbul circuit.

Alvaro Parente, who drove for A1 Team Portugal in A1’s first season, finished third in race one and sealed an excellent weekend with a win in the second race.
‘This completes a fantastic weekend for me. I’m not sure that we had the best strategy. But I just went on the attack after the safety car peeled off to put myself clear.’

It was a weekend of mixed fortunes for KTR team mates Robbie Kerr and Sean McIntosh, with the A1 Team Great Britain driver a victim of other people’s crashes in both of the weekend’s races. McIntosh in contrast, had a solid weekend, finishing fourth in the first race after a great drive from 14th on the grid and a sixth place in the second race.

McIntosh commented, ‘I’m really pleased to come away from Turkey with a good points haul. This is such a competitive championship, as we’ve seen again this weekend, hundredths of a second make a real difference in qualifying and while we struggled a little in that department we showed we had front-running pace in the race.’

A1 Team Japan driver, Hayanari Shimoda managed a seventh in the first race, but could only manage 17th in race two. Enrico Toccacelo, who drove for A1 Team Italy, left Turkey empty handed, after a disappointing weekend.