A1 Grand Prix: Great Britain takes superb feature race win !

A1 Team Germany, closely followed by
Switzerland, France, Mexico and New Zealand were hot on the heels of the
leading duo. Meanwhile, Portuguese rookie Joao Urbano spun off the track
and slammed into the tyre barriers, blocking the pit lane entrance
briefly and bringing out the yellow flags until the end of lap five.

It didn’t take long for Jarvis to reel
in Zaugg, who had romped into the distance at the start of the 45-lap
race, and by lap six the South African was firmly in his sights. As the
first pit stop window opened at the end of lap eight, Great Britain and
Germany were the first teams to head in for their mandatory stops, both
pitting on lap nine from second and third place respectively, rejoining
the action in the same order.

Race leader South Africa pitted on lap
12 and rejoined in second position behind Great Britain, who had gained
track position after a series of flying laps from Jarvis and fast work
in the pits. On lap 15, after all 22 cars had completed their first
stop, the race order settled briefly to Great Britain, South Africa,
Switzerland, followed by New Zealand, Mexico and Germany.

Great Britain’s Jarvis continued to ease
away from Zaugg and by lap 22 he had pulled out a three-second lead on
today’s Sprint race winner. The leaders pitted together as soon as the
second mandatory pit stop window opened at the end of lap 30, Jarvis
gaining a four-second advantage during the stop for new tyres. He
rejoined nine seconds ahead of the South African car.

The British star visibly slowed on the
last lap and coasted home to take Great Britain’s fourth, and his
second, A1GP win. A1 Team Great Britain now lies second in the
championship on 19 points, just one point ahead of France.

An emotional Jarvis said: ‘The whole
team has done a fantastic job all weekend and I’m really pleased with
today’s result – a great way to kick off the season for the team. I was
actually starting to slow down about five or six laps from the end. My
pit crew were a little bit worried about fuel consumption so I started
to back off – there was no rush because I had a big gap. I just wanted
to enjoy the moment. You’re representing your country, but not just
that, my family are here so it was quite a proud moment for me after a
difficult start to the weekend.’

Great Britain’s Jarvis was joined on the
podium by South Africa’s Zaugg and Switzerland’s Neel Jani.

South Africa is now comfortably leading
the 2007/08 championship on 28 points as the A1GP World Cup of
Motorsport heads to Brno, Czech Republic in a fortnight.

Zaugg struggled to get the best from the
South African charger: ‘I tried to push as hard as I could. With the
second set of tyres I was able to close up on him (Jarvis) during the
first couple of laps. It was a tough race but the conditions were
changing all the time so it was quite difficult to get the maximum from
the car.’

On the team’s nine-point advantage in
the championship after today’s win and second place, Zaugg commented:
‘It sounds good but it’s early days and it’s just the first race
weekend. We have to keep delivering good results and we should be up
there.’

Third-placed Neel Jani driving for
Switzerland said: ‘The start was really good; I was nearly in the wall
because of Germany so Olly got past me at turn one and then I was just
trying to keep up with the guys in front of me. I was catching Adrian at
some stage and he kept falling back again, it was just a bit like a
cat-and-mouse game in the end. It was an exciting race but unfortunately
I couldn’t do better than third – I’m happy with that though and it’s a
great start to the season for A1 Team Switzerland.’

The fourth and fifth spot were taken by
Mexico’s Salvador Duran and France’s Loic Duval.

A1 Team Ireland’s Ralph Firman was on
fine form today, charging through the field and picking off
seventh-placed Netherlands after the second round of pit stops, going on
to steal sixth from New Zealand on lap 33. Firman continued to push hard
and crossed the line in sixth behind France’s Duval.

Local hero Jeroen Bleekemolen, who was
squeezed onto the gravel at the start and pushed back to 14th, brought
the Netherlands car home in a commendable eighth, having started 11th on
the grid. The Dutchman pulled off a series of stunning manoeuvres
throughout the 70-minute race, thrilling his home fans who had turned
out in force to support the 25-year-old.

The final three point scoring positions
were taken by the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Feature race results

2007/08 A1GP World Cup of
Motor-sport points standings

Fastest lap: A1 Team
Mexico set the fastest lap in the Feature race, lapping Circuit Park
Zandvoort in 1m29.181s with a speed of 186.8 kph on lap 37 of the 45 lap
race.

Next race: A1GP Brno,
Czech Republic, 12-14 October 2007

Tickets for next year’s A1GP Zandvoort,
The Netherlands (3-5 October 2008) will go on sale on www.A1GP.com
from Monday 1 October 2007.

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