09/10/2005
NEWS STORY
A strong start to the second round of the A1GP series saw A1 Team Ireland and driver Ralph Firman finishing sixth in the Feature Race in the A1 Grand Prix of Nations at EuroSpeedway, Germany, and ninth in the Sprint Race, scoring seven championship points in the team's quest for the World Cup of Motorsport. After an aborted start resulted in the Feature race being reduced by one lap to 35 laps, A1 Team Ireland made its pit stop at the end of the second lap dropping Ralph to 19th position, but the strategy worked perfectly and as other countries made their pit stops much later the A1 Ireland car ran as high as 5th place.
Ralph Firman: "I had good start in the Sprint race and was up to 4th before Scott Speed and Robbie Kerr collided and forced me onto the grass. We were fortunate to finish 9th. In the Feature race I made a bad start but pitted early as planned. I had a clear run afterwards allowing us to get up to fifth place. Unfortunately Nelson Piquet's accident at Turn 1 caused a yellow flag which I understood to mean no overtaking and didn't defend when Jani came up behind, so dropped to sixth. I am very unhappy with that outcome. Overall we learnt a lot this weekend and its great to be racing for A1 Team Ireland. I'll give it socks in Estoril."
Mark Gallagher Team Principle: "We are delighted with the top six finish today and have made enormous progress over the weekend. This was Ralph's first single seater race since the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, so he performed extremely well. He made an outstanding stand into 4th place in the Sprint Race, and the Feature Race went pretty well according to plan other than when the Swiss didn't see the yellow flags. We can go to Portugal aiming to put some of these teams in our wake."
Andy Miller, Tech: "Not the easiest of weekends for us given the problems in qualifying, but we learned a lot and Ralph did what was asked of him. It was good to score points in both races and we recovered well in the Sprint race after being pushed out after that terrific start. We need to carry forward the momentum of this weekend and ensure Estoril goes rather more smoothly."
Meanwhile A1 Team Ireland reserve driver Michael Devaney consolidated second place overall in the German Formula 3 Championship at Oschersleben this weekend, finishing third in today's final round, thereby securing his 10th podium of the year, including five outright wins.
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