A1GP: Canadian Wins A1GP in Indonesia

[McB]

Come-from-behind win
By AP AND CP


JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Sean McIntosh of Coquitlam, B.C., worked his way from last on the grid yesterday to win the Indonesian A1 Grand Prix feature race.

Alex Yoong of Malaysia, one of the few drivers with experience on Jakarta's Sentul race track, finished second, followed by Australia's Marcus Marshall.

The result was an upset for France's Nicolas Lapierre and Robbie Kerr of Great Britain, who started the race at pole and second position, respectively, after the morning's sprint race.

[LongShanx]

...and now McIntosh hands it off to that wanker, Patreek Carpenter.

[Brake Check]

When is this race televised? Why do I smell "pit strategy" all over this one???

[Patski]

This Saturday on OLN.

[McB]

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=209828

McIntosh goes from last to victory in Sentul
Racing series A1GP
Date 2006-02-12

By Tom Haapanen - Motorsport.com

Sean McIntosh took the Team Canada from the back of the grid to the top of the podium in today's A1 Grand Prix feature race in Sentul, Indonesia, after Team France's Nicolas Lapierre took the sprint race victory.

"This is unbelievable," McIntosh exclaimed after draping himself in the Canadian flag on the podium. "It was an honour to be on the top step of the podium singing 'O Canada.' The team did a great job and I want to thank them and Wade Cherwayko for the opportunity to race for A1 Team Canada."

It all started, amazingly, with an opening-lap collision between McIntosh and Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong in the sprint race. The Canadian's car was damaged badly enough that he had to retire in the pits, dooming him to the back of the field for the feature race starting grid.

At the front, first-time polesitter Robbie Kerr (Team Great Britain) couldn't hold off Lapierre for long, as the Frenchman made his move in the first turn, sneaking past on the inside.

Lapierre, once freed up and with an empty road in front of him, took advantage to run fast lap after fast lap, bringing the gap to Kerr quickly up to five seconds by the halfway point and seven at the finish line.

"It was quite difficult with the tires, and I pushed hard to pass Robbie," Lapierre recounted. "Fortunately I had a really good balance on the car until the end. At the beginning of the race it was difficult to open up a gap to Robbie but as he began to defend against Salvador it got easier and by the end I was able to build up quite a big gap."

While the win consolidated Team France's lead in the championship standings, the second place moved Team Great Britain past Brazil into third place in the points.

"We were close in this race, but not close enough," Kerr summed up his feelings. "The car was good and qualifying was good but, unfortunately, it didn't last."

Salvador Duran (Mexico) started third in the sprint race, but Switzerland's Neel Jani tried to take that away on the first lap -- until Duran pressed the PowerBoost button to keep his car ahead for good. Duran then focused on pushing Kerr, but he did not have Lapierre's magic touch, and was destined to follow Kerr to the finish, ending up a second behind.

"I'm very happy, even though we could even have finished second," said Duran. "The car was good although, at the end, there was a bit of oversteer."

Jani ran fourth for the first half of the race, but Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong, one of the few drivers with prior experience at Sentul, was determined to gain a good finish, and dove past Jani at the first turn on the ninth lap.

"I'm a bit disappointed we couldn't have done better," Jani said. "Just like in Malaysia I experienced a lot of oversteer and could not get rid of it."

With the grid for the feature race set based on the sprint race finishing order, Lapierre took the start from the pole position, followed by Kerr, Duran, Yoong, Jani and Ireland's Ralph Firman.

But unlike his start in the sprint race, Lapierre had trouble this time at the start, allowing Kerr to play tit-for-tat and take the lead into the first corner. With Duran stalling the Team Mexico car on the grid, the start turned into a melee as drivers attempted to avoid the stricken car on the gird.

Anand Mikola (Indonesia) and Hayanari Shimoda (Japan) took the same path to avoid Duran, though, but as there wasn't room enough for two cars, the collision sent the Team Japan car into the barriers -- and brought out the safety car, the first of four for the race.

While on-track incidents mounted and the safety car count went up, the pits were busy, too, with drive-through penalties for Team Canada (crossing the pit line) and Team India (jumped start).

McIntosh was driving a cool, calm and collected race, though, and that would eventually earn him the victory. The team made the mandatory pit stop during the first safety car period, while McIntosh was running in tenth. By the the twelfth lap, one-third of the way through the race, when he passed Team USA, he had made up enough ground to put the Canadian car into twelfth place -- halfway to the front.

McIntosh continued to push, and only half a dozen laps later he was able to take third from Team Czech Republic's Tomas Enge at a saety car restart.

However, Team Great Britain (Kerr) and Team South Africa (Stephen Simpson) were still at the front, and certainly not ready to concede to Canada. But what tipped the scales was the pit stop strategy Team Canada had chosen: while Great Britain and South Africa were still ahead on the track, they still had to stop.

The British and South African teams were banking their hopes on the dark clouds on the horizon, as the arrival of rain would force everyone to make a stop for wet-weather tires. However, the rain didn't arrive in time to save their day, and both teams had to pit in the dying laps of the race, leaving the door open for McIntosh and Team Canada to take their maiden victory in the series.

"It certainly wasn't an easy victory but it sure feels good!" McIntosh exclaimed. "We made some changes to the car between races as we felt we had nothing to lose, starting from the back. With Patrick Carpentier taking over for Canada in the next two rounds I wanted to leave with a strong performance. I've set the standard pretty high and hopefully the team can take this momentum forward to Mexico."

Great Britain pitted from second place on lap 30, and with a lengthy 44-second pit stop as a result of a stuck wheel, they rejoined well back in 15th place. With the team's first victory having slipped out of their grasp again, the best Kerr could do was finish 10th -- just ahead of South Africa.

Behind McIntosh, it was to be a battle for second between two former F1 drivers -- Alex Yoong (Malaysia) pushing Jos Verstappen (Netherlands) hard in the closing laps. The two made contact on lap 30, with Verstappen spinning and almost being collected by Team Portugal's Alvaro Parente.

Yoong was free to pursue McIntosh, and closed the gap to less than a second at one point, but at the checkered flag it was McIntosh by a margin of two seconds.

"The car was better in the feature race, although it was hit three times," Yoong explained. "It was strong though, and the crew did a great job, so it was great to bring them and Malaysia a podium finish."

With Verstappen having been punted out of podium contention, third place went to Team Australia and Marcus Marshall. Christian Fittipaldi took a more-than-creditable fourth place for Team Brazil on his first A1GP weekend, followed by Jani (Switzerland) and Verstappen (Netherlands) in the other top-six positions.

Even though Lapierre finished the feature race back in eighth, Team France continues to dominate the A1GP championship standings with 132 points to Switzerland's 104, with Brazil (70) and Great Britain (68) in a close fight for third.


0.262

[polendo]

That's Indonesia.. not Malaysia.

regards

[McB]

That's Indonesia.. not Malaysia.

regards


Oops...It was late. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.:D

[Peter76]

Lots of beer is in order....... :toast: Go Sean!

[LongShanx]

I watched this race (both of them) on OLN Sunday. It wasn't half bad. Sure beats Napcar. In the feature race cars were flying off the track left and right. These guys were looking downright racy. Robbie Kerr, SHOULD, have ran away with it. I don't know what his pit crew was thinking about. They rolled the dice and came up snakeyes. The track looks Champ Car worthy.

McIntosh won a WILD one.

[opinionated OW]

great track. great racing. a1gp has killed all the doubt i think. if you look you will also see lots of sponsorship. tecate telmex on mex, fosters on aus, fisher and paykell on nz etc. cant wait for the two monterreys. was seriously awesome, if you get a chance watch it.

[Goobers]

something very disturbing about the series is the lack of preparation it seems to me...from pit crews that don't seem to be sure of the rules, can't take tires off, keep losing wheel nuts....to track workers that venture onto the track in a very unsafe manner, to debris left on track while the race continues, to drivers that can't seem to control their cars at all.....I'm surprised none has been hurt yet.