Sprint – Switzerland wins the 1st round ahead of France
The A1 Team Switzerland won the first race of the day in Sepang, Malaysia. During this third meeting of the 2007/08 season, Neel Jani beat France and Loïc Duval by 4 seconds and Germany with Michael Ammermüller, who secured a podium finish in his first race in the discipline. In 10 laps of the circuit, […]
The A1 Team Switzerland won the first race of the day in Sepang, Malaysia.
During this third meeting of the 2007/08 season, Neel Jani beat France and Loïc Duval by 4 seconds and Germany with Michael Ammermüller, who secured a podium finish in his first race in the discipline.
In 10 laps of the circuit, the action was present and right from turn 1 with a France/Canada collision, fortunately without damage for both drivers.
Néel Jani commented: « We had a good car in this first race, so I thanked the team as best as I could by securing this victory. I hope to do it again for the second race as well. »
« At the first corner, it was very intense with Loic [Duval] and Canada. I was lucky to brake very late and not get hit by Duval, and then we had a good pace. »
I really like this circuit. It’s fast and at the same time has slow corners. It’s one of my favorites along with Spa.
On his side, the Frenchman Loic Duval was a bit more ‘shocked’: « We had a hectic start. Under braking I think Canada touched me, which made me lose rear grip and I almost touched the Swiss and we would have dropped out. But once that was over, we were able to follow Neel Jani. I think this bodes well for race 2. »
Started 3rd on the grid, the British Jarvis was involved in a slight collision and dropped to 7th position, threatened by the Netherlands during the last two laps.
Ammermuller, 4th with two laps to go, continued to attack Robert Wickens for Canada. Indeed, after a very good start, the Canadian moved to the podium virtually by the third lap (for his first race in A1) before giving way to the German in the 10th and final lap of this Sprint race.
Brazil, starting 9th on the grid, managed to recover points for the 5th place and particularly impressed with Alex Yoong. For Malaysia, he was only 19th on the starting grid and finished 10 laps later fighting with Italy for the 10th place. He was ahead of Adrian Zaugg for South Africa, who lost big in the championship.
Race Result No. 1 – Sprint – Top 10
| Country | Gaps | |
| 1 | Switzerland | 18’20.910 |
| 2 | France | + 3.792 |
| 3 | Germany | + 11.935 |
| 4 | Canada | + 13.127 |
| 5 | Brazil | + 13.737 |
| 6 | New Zealand | + 14.476 |
| 7 | Great Britain | + 14.937 |
| 8 | Netherlands | + 15.327 |
| 9 | Ireland | + 19.679 |
| 10 | Italy | + 23.221 |
