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Team
Malaysia has won the first race of the 2008/09 A1GP
World Cup of Motorsport season at Circuit Park Zandvoort
in The Netherlands as the new era of
Ferrari-powered single-seaters cars went into race
action for the first time. And not only do the new
generation machines signify the Maranello factory's
official involvement in supplying control engines to a
major international single-seater formulae for the first
time, the cars have also been designed with Ferrari
input, and are styled around the F1 winning F2004.
In a rain-soaked Sprint race, Fairuz
Fauzy came from fourth on the grid to take the team’s
first victory since Season Two, which was 27 races ago.
After initially taking the lead from The Netherlands,
Earl Bamber put in a great drive on his race debut for
A1 Team New Zealand to take second place with Loic Duval
storming through from 11th on the grid to take the final
podium position for A1 Team France. Pole-sitter Jeroen
Bleekemolen struggled in the extremely tricky conditions
finishing fourth as the red flag came out to end the
race.
In a thrilling
start to the new season, the drama began before the cars
even crossed the start line after doing two laps behind the
Safety Car due to the atrocious conditions. On an extremely
wet track, Ireland spun in the final corner with Monaco’s
Clivio Piccione running into him, so putting the pair out
the race before it had even started. As the new Powered by
Ferrari cars came down the pit straight for the rolling
start, the action behind gave the front row duo of the
Netherlands and New Zealand a comfortable gap as they came
across the start line for the first time.
Lebanon’s Daniel
Morad ran wide in the first corner, narrowly avoiding USA’s
Charlie Kimball, as both drivers made their race debut for
their respective nations. A lap later, Korea’s Jin Woo Hwang
collided with John Martin at the first corner while making
an ambitious move down the inside of the Australia car which
left both in the gravel and Korea out the race and with a
fine and a drop to the back of the grid for race two for
causing an avoidable accident and trying to overtake under a
yellow flag.
Malaysia and
Switzerland battled it out for third with Neel Jani getting
ahead of Fauzy on lap four. From 16th on the grid, and
having only done a few laps this weekend, China’s Ho Pin
Tung was putting in a stunning drive to challenge Italy for
seventh by lap five. China claimed the position taking the
inside line through turn 11 and began chasing down South
Africa.
Out at the front
the race was really on with new-comer Bamber pushing the
Netherlands for the lead. On lap seven the 18-year-old made
a great move trying to go around the outside of Bleekemolen
through the chicane. The Netherlands ran off the circuit
while trying to defend the position but with a better run
out the corner Bamber grabbed the lead. As the rain
continued to fall, Malaysia were flying, re-taking third
from Switzerland before passing local hero Bleekemolen for
second. Fauzy then set about closing the gap to New Zealand
who was still in the lead. France moved up to fourth as Loic
Duval took advantage of a mistake from Switzerland.
At the start of
lap nine the order at the front was now New Zealand,
Malaysia, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, China, South
Africa and Italy. Fauzy, whose car was working really well
in the wet conditions, was right on the gearbox of Bamber
and on lap nine made his move, snatching the lead through
turn eleven. Meanwhile, France stole the final podium
position from Netherlands.
China’s
tremendous charge came to an end on lap ten when the back
end got away from Ho Pin Tung and he spun coming out of the
final corner, crashing out of fifth. With Brazil also
crashing the red flag was brought out taking the final race
classification back to the end of lap 10.
Race winner, A1
Team Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy said: “I am so happy to take
this win. It was very difficult on the track today and made
even more challenging with the lack of experience we have
with this new car, but we have worked really hard as a team
and now we have a fantastic win. We start from pole position
for the next race as well, so I hope we can have more
success, but if the weather stays like this it will be
another huge challenge for everyone. I’m looking forward to
it!”
A1 Team New
Zealand’s Earl Bamber said: “Its pretty atrocious conditions
this morning. We got a good start and then managed to get
past the Netherlands. He (Bleekemolen) got on some oil which
made him have a slow exit so I got down the outside into the
chicane and then as he out-braked himself he ran wide and I
managed to get in front. It was a good pass, but pretty
close. We held the lead for quite a while but then Fairuz
was just a little bit quicker and got past me on the
infield. I think second is good and hopefully we can make
some changes for this afternoon and see what happens with
the weather.”
Third placed
Loic Duval driving for A1 Team France said: “It’s very
difficult to see anything but I’m really happy. We received
the car yesterday, but just ran in the qualifying session so
to finish on the podium today its great for us. Everything
is possible for this afternoon so I am confident now. We
lost a lot of laps yesterday morning, so this morning we had
the chance for an extra test. We managed to work on the car
and I think it’s been quite fair with the amount of laps
everybody has had.”
Jeroen
Bleekmolen was disappointed not to be on the podium in front
of his home crowd: “When you start from pole you want to win
the race, so it didn’t go to plan. The first few laps were
alright but then I lost a lot of grip and people passed me
on the outside, inside and everywhere so we need to find
more grip and hopefully we can do better the second race.
It’s really great to see the fans and even with this weather
they are still here enjoying it so I hope I can give them a
good result this afternoon.”
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