26/11/2006
NEWS STORY
Brazil
A1 Team Brasil suffered a disappointing Malaysian round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Sepang circuit today, finishing the sprint and feature races in 19th and 18th positions respectively. Nominated driver Raphael Matos was always going to struggle in this afternoon's feature race after an incident in the sprint race put him at the back of the field for the main event. He then struggled further in the feature after experiencing an engine misfire problem for the duration of the 70-minutes.
Raphael tangled with the midfield pack on the second corner of the first lap of this morning's 20-minute sprint race after beginning 15th at the rolling start. He was forced into the pits for repair work, and raced hard from a lap down, managing to regain the lost lap to rejoin the rest of the field, but he was unable to get close enough to challenge for position. He crossed the finish line in 19th, establishing his starting position for the feature race.
The enthralling feature race got underway after a ten minute delay due to the deluge of heavy rain that fell at the circuit for the hour preceding the start. The safety car led the field past the start and for the first four laps, before the racing began, albeit in treacherous conditions with severely reduced visibility and a great deal of standing water. Unfortunately for Team Brasil the race was not to be overly rewarding, with Raphael suffering with an engine misfire problem for the whole race, eventually crossing the finish line in 18th, just one position higher than his 19th place starting slot. The race did see plenty off on-track action and innumerable overtakes, and miraculously just one retirement.
The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport will remain in Asia for the fifth round of the series, which will take place in a fortnight in Indonesia. It will be the second visit for the series to the Sentul circuit, and A1 Team Brasil will be hoping its fortunes can change in the races, before the series takes a month-long winter break.
Raphael Matos: "We had a problem with the car the whole time in the feature race and were in a bad position from having to start at the back after this morning. The first five laps with the rain were really bad, and after that it started to dry a little bit which meant that at least we could see more. I don't think the car was balanced in the race and, with the engine problem, I don't think there was anything I could have done about our position."
Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "I am disappointed about the whole weekend. We were looking good on Friday and then not so good in qualifying and today everything has gone wrong. We had a bad start to the day with the crash this morning, which put us at the back, and then this afternoon we had the race in the wet. Not only did we have a technical problem with the engine misfiring for the whole race but Raphael has not had a chance to test in these kinds of conditions, so it was a difficult day."
Canada
Vancouver's Sean McIntosh enjoyed a competitive return to racing with A1 Team Canada Sunday as he scored a fifth place points-paying finish in the Feature race at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia in Round 4 of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The 21-year-old's Feature result, which followed an eighth place Sprint race finish in the morning, helped solidify Canada's sixth place hold in the A1GP Nations Standings with a third of the sophomore season completed.
Back in A1GP action for the first time since leading Canada to victory in Indonesia last season, McIntosh was quickly into the swing of the weekend having assumed driving duties in Malaysia from the team's rookie standout, Toronto's James Hinchcliffe. Armed with track experience from last year's A1GP round at Sepang, Sean qualified the Canadian entry ninth on the 22-car grid for Sunday's Sprint race, later to be promoted to eighth following the exclusion of South Africa's fastest lap.
Boxed in at the start of the 10-lap Sprint race, McIntosh lost position but his pace was sufficient enough to gain it back, passing USA, China and Mexico as the pack funneled through the sweeping 5.54km, 15-turn Sepang International Circuit on the opening laps. With finishing positions in the Sprint race forming the grid for the Feature, the action at the front proved limited as the pack opted to preserve their entries. McIntosh, having diced wheel-to-wheel with the Dutch entry for seventh, took the checkered in eighth, just two places short of a points finish. Pole-winner Neel Jani, driving for A1 Team Switzerland, celebrated the Sprint victory, the team's first of the season, with Germany's Nico Hülkenberg second and New Zealand's Jonny Reid third.
Malaysia's monsoon rains made an unwelcome appearance in the hour leading up the 70-minute Feature race, forcing a delayed start and the eventual appearance of the safety car to lead the field round the treacherously wet circuit. With his visibility severely restricted thanks to the volume of spray being thrown at him from the car's ahead, Sean's progress in the early stages of the race was somewhat restricted but as conditions improved the Canadian began his top-five charge.
In quick succession McIntosh reeled off a series of passing moves with the Dutch, Malaysian and New Zealand entries all falling victims to his prowess before he darted to the pits to make his mandatory pit stop. Slick work from the Canadian team fired Sean back on track and up into fourth ahead of French racer Nicolas Lapierre. A shift in the car's balance, probably brought on by the drying track, brought a halt to Canada's rise and ultimately allowed Lapierre to pass for position.
Despite the handling issues Sean held on to take fifth on his return and six more championship points, McIntosh adding to the 16 scored for Canada by Hinchcliffe from the previous rounds in the Czech Republic and China. Nico Hülkenberg scored Germany's second Feature win of the year with Great Britain's Robbie Kerr and France's Lapierre completing the Malaysian podium celebrations.
"I'm pretty pleased to come back into the team and score a top-five finish,' stated McIntosh. "I didn't want to risk too much in the Sprint then at the start of the Feature I literally couldn't see anything for the first six laps. I got going though, made some moves then the guys delivered for me once again with a great pit-stop. The balance changed after that I had really just had to concentrate on brining it home!"
China
Sprint Race
A1 Team China driver CongFu Cheng did not have a good start in the Sprint Race, he was forced to move from inner track to the middle of A1 cars. In the first turn, he lost his 5th position because hard brake and standed on the 8th place. In the following few laps, A1 Team Cananda and A1 Team USA took over Cheng, and Cheng dropped to 10th till the end.
Cheng said: "After I brake too hard in the first corver, there was something wrong with the rear suspension, rear tyres lost grip rapidly, so I could not get full speed. But luckily I managed to hold 10th place, as all the other drivers losing their tyre grips, no more threats from A1 cars behind me. I think after some amendments, I can get back my positions in the Feature Reace."
Feature Race
The storm started 45 minutes before the Feature race, even though the temperature went down, it was very difficult for inexperience drivers under such condition. It was first time for Cheng to drive A1 car in such wet condition, he lost his 10th position from the Sprint Race, and finished in 16th.
Cheng said: "It was very difficult to follow other A1 cars in the afternoon. I did experience some wet conditions in the Formula Renault UK Championship, but never like this weather. The team did good job today, and I have lot to learn in A1GP for sure. And the data we got this time will be very useful in the future when the local weather is like this."
ZhenHuan Chen, A1 Team China Leader: "It was a disappointing weekend, A1 Team China did well in the Qualifying, but could not keep up in the following Sprint race and the Feature race. I think Cheng does not have experience in such condition, and he could have done better in this race."
France
Nicolas Lapierre finished the sprint race with in sixth place, scoring one point and continued his fight up the order in the feature race, finishing third. It was a long and tough day for A1 Team France with extreme weather conditions. While the sprint race was dry, there was a torrential downpour before the start of the feature race which delayed the start by ten minutes. Things got underway eventually behind the safety car, but it remained very wet throughout.
Nicolas Lapierre comments," I am very happy today: fantastic to have scored a point in the morning sprint race and then maintain the momentum for a podium in the feature race. Since the start of the season we've been a bit unlucky, but it was not the teams fault. We've had various problems with the engine or the gearbox. We had a difficult day yesterday with a tenth place in qualifying but everything went better today even if we lost some time behind the safety car at the start of the feature race. To finish on the podium is a good result and shows the speed we have."
Jean-Paul Driot, team principal, A1 Team France added: "The team worked hard and consistently and we used our allocation of wet weather tyres very well. Im sure we could have finished even higher up the podium if we'd had a few more laps in the wet as Nicolas was driving very well. I'm very happy for him. This is a good result after the various mechanical problems we have suffered in the first couple of races of the season".
Germany
The Willi Weber managed A1 Team Germany scored a convincing victory in adverse weather conditions: Nico Hülkenberg dominated the feature race, held on a soaking track, at the fourth round of the season in Malaysia, winning by 42 seconds and celebrated his second win this season following victory in the opening race in the Netherlands. The German team re-established itself at the top of the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport rankings.
The weekend ran perfectly for A1 Team Germany: Nico Hülkenberg topped all free practice sessions, and in qualifying clinched a second row start. Starting from third position in the sprint race he took advantage of a duel between fellow front row starters Jonny Reid, New Zealand, and Neel Jani, Switzerland, to attack at the first corner. Following brief contact between both cars Hülkenberg fought off the New Zealand car and defended second position to the finish. A1 Team Germany scored five points as a result and retook the championship lead by three points from Mexico.
The feature-race was dominated by heavy monsoon rain and began by trailing the Safety Car for four laps. Immediately after the cars were released, A1 Team Germany took the lead in the fourth corner from the Swiss, New Zealand and Malaysian teams. On lap 18 Hülkenberg, who had increased his lead to 29.5 seconds, made his mandatory pit stop. The David Sears Motorsport squad did a perfect job in changing all four wheels. The teams from Switzerland, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore also stopped at the same time. As Hülkenberg rejoined the track in the 520 hp A1 Grand Prix Car only Robbie Kerr, Great Britain was ahead. The British car made its pit stop on lap 20. Hülkenberg extended his lead to 42.8 seconds by the finish. A1 Team Germany now holds a six point advantage over Great Britain in the championship standings.
Nicolas Hülkenberg: "I'm ecstatic about the second victory. In the sprint race I touched Jonny Reid, which was a normal racing incident. After that I was second. More rain fell before the feature race than I have ever seen in my life. On my warm-up lap I had serious aquaplaning on the straights in second gear at only 50 kph, some of the opposition were already in the gravel traps. I easily passed Neel Jani once the race was started. Out team did a super pit stop, but the engine stalled as I was pulling away. I pushed really hard immediately afterwards so I didn't lose concentration. With a 40 second lead there wasn't a single car in sight. It's fantastic that everything went so well and that Germany leads the points standings again."
Willi Weber: "Nico was simply the best this weekend! My heartfelt thanks go to him and the team for an excellent performance. Nico drove a well disciplined race in the rain as he did in Zandvoort. To win in such dominating fashion with such a heavy car under these conditions shows his class. Thanks to this performance we have converted our points deficit into a small advantage in the championship standings."
Great Britain
Robbie Kerr celebrated A1 Team Great Britain's second straight Feature race podium as he finished second behind Germany's Nico Hülkenberg today in Round 4 of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.
Kerr, who earlier scored points for a fifth place finish in the Sprint race, enjoyed a successful return to the team having watched rookie racer, Oliver Jarvis, take Britain's first podium of the season at the previous A1GP round in China. More significantly, the team's points scoring consistency and recent podium flurry has elevated Great Britain to a clear second overall in the A1GP Nations Standings, trailing Germany, winner's of a wet Malaysian Feature race, by just six points after four rounds (37-31) while leading the Malaysian entry in third place by seven.
Sunday morning's 10-lap Sprint round the 3.44-mile Sepang track saw Robbie take the rolling-start from fourth but the former British F3 Champion found himself boxed in as the 22-strong field of nations sprinted towards the first turn. Home favourite and ex-Minardi F1 driver Alex Yoong capitalized on Kerr's misfortune and slipped past to take the Malaysian entry up into fourth.
While the Brit looked to regain the spot he had neither the opportunity nor the pace to make anything stick. Taking a couple of points for fifth place at the chequered, more important to Kerr was the top-five start he secured for the Feature race. Neel Jani scored A1 Team Switzerland's first win of the season in the Sprint followed home by Hülkenberg for Germany and New Zealand's Jonny Reid.
The start to the afternoon's 70-minute Feature race was delayed thanks to one of Malaysia's famed monsoon's, the torrential downpour arriving in the hour before on-track proceedings were due to take place. When the race finally started it did so under the safety car in an attempt to clear some of the standing water. Robbie Kerr proved himself to be a master of the treacherous conditions and when racing began in earnest he wasted little time on building his podium charge picking off his Sprint race nemesis, Alex Yoong, for fourth.
A wheel-to-wheel battle for third followed with New Zealand's Jonny Reid, the duo defying the slippery conditions to put on a show with Kerr eventually emerging victorious. With his confidence high Kerr then pushed for second and on lap 20 the opportunity presented itself as Neel Jani spun the Swiss entry at the second to last turn. Kerr, who had been making his mandatory pit-stop, successfully exited the pits and charged to the first turn ahead of the recovering Swiss car. With Hülkenberg too far ahead to catch for a shot of the win Robbie's sterling efforts, in tricky conditions, were rewarded with a fine second place finish, Nicolas Lapierre completing the podium for A1 Team France.
"I'm pleased for the team as second place in light of what we faced today is a good result," commented Kerr. "The guys did a great job in the pit stop to get me out ahead of Switzerland, we knew we had a shot at the second podium spot and they kept telling me to push. It's great to return to A1GP action with a podium and from the championship perspective I'm pleased we're up into second place heading to Indonesia. We led much of that race last season and I'm confident we'll be stronger on our return!"
India
A1 Team India faced difficult conditions in today's Feature race at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia after a strong performance from the team in the earlier Sprint race. Armaan Ebrahim took 16th in the Sprint race and 18th in the Feature race.
Ebrahim drove a mature Sprint race, constantly challenging for position over the 12 laps. Starting the race from 19th, the young Indian driver launched off the grid to put himself in the middle of the field. Racing against drivers with much more experience, Ebrahim was up to 14th by the end of lap one.
In what was the most entertaining battle of the Sprint race, Ebrahim was involved in an intense fight with A1 Team Singapore. The Singapore car finally managed to make it past Ebrahim, but not before the Chennai born racer put up a counter fight to try and regain his place. However, with the car still suffering from some understeer, A1 Team India crossed the line in 16th.
With just an hour to go before the afternoon's Feature race, the skies opened over the Sepang International Circuit. Taking advantage of the delayed start, A1 Team India made set up changes to the car to better suit the wet weather tyres and slippery conditions. Taking his 16th place from the Sprint race to line up on the Feature race grid, Ebrahim lacked some pace in the early stages and finished the race 18th after A1 Team Brazil were excluded for a pit stop infringement.
Ebrahim summed up his day saying, "I had a good start in the Sprint race, we had good pace and I was enjoying some close racing. I'm a bit annoyed that Singapore managed to get past me on the last lap though. Unfortunately I think I was too conservative in the early stages of the Feature race, and although I picked up a lot of pace in the later stages, we lost too much time in the first half to gain any further positions."
Yohann J Setna, Seat holder for A1 Team India commented, "Armaan put up a great fight in the Sprint race, and although he lost a place at the end of the race, it did mean we started the Feature race on the clean side of the grid. Armaan was struggling a bit at the beginning of the Feature race. After his pit stop he picked up his pace considerably and was setting really fast laps. Towards the end I think he set the ninth fastest lap of the race, which shows his and the team's true potential."
Ireland
Michael Devaney scored A1 Team Ireland's first championship point in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Malaysia when he battled through atrocious conditions to finish in 10th place in a hard fought race. The young Irish star finished 14th in this morning's short Sprint Race event to decide the grid line-up for the Feature Race.
A rain storm half an hour before the start of the main event caused the race to be delayed 15 minutes and then started behind the Safety Car, Devaney carefully negotiating his way around the heavily waterlogged track. He overtook China, South Africa and Singapore en route to scoring a solid 10th placed finish.
Michael Devaney: "For the first 10 laps of the Feature Race I just couldn't see anything in the conditions and had to back off half way down the straights. I really had to concentrate hard not to lose the car anywhere. I managed to get Singapore just before the end so I am happy to have got our first point after a hard race."
Andy Miller, Technical Director: "Under the circumstances I think we did as much as we could today to get that point and stay out of trouble. The conditions were pretty bad but Michael held it together well and it was good to finish both races and have a trouble free run. We still don't have the speed of the front runners so there's a lot yet to come."
Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "The conditions were awful today and Michael did well to avoid trouble, overtake some tough competitors and bring the team its first championship point. We never thought it would take four race weekends to bring our first point of the season, but hopefully it marks the start of a return to more competitive form."
Lebanon
A1 Team Lebanon completed the Sprint and Feature races at Sepang circuit, Kuala Lumpur in the fourth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today. Khalil Beschir, driving for the team in Malaysia to capitalise on his experience of racing at the track in the inaugural season of A1GP last year, finished 17th in the Sprint and 19th in the Feature race.
The weather for the Sprint race was hot, humid and sunny, resulting in challenging conditions for the field of A1GP drivers. Beschir made a strong start and by the end of the first lap he had improved four places to 17th. As the 10 lap race progressed Beschir was able to hold his position, lapping consistently and improving his times throughout the race. Finishing 17th, Beschir lined up on the ninth row for the start of the 35 lap Feature race.
The period between the two races gave the team an opportunity to review the car setup and prepare for the Feature race. Beschir took part in the traditional A1GP drivers ceremony, and shortly after this, rain arrived with thunder and lightning adding to the spectacle of the A1GP event, but also resulting in the Lebanese team needing to revise their race strategy.
The storm delayed the start of the race and when the rain had abated, the field lapped under the pace car at the green flag until three laps of the circuit had been completed and conditions were safe enough for the A1GP cars to race at full speed.
Beschir, with limited visibility from spray created by cars ahead, drove wisely in the initial laps and at half distance came into the pits for the mandatory stop. The A1 Team Lebanon crew gave Beschir his four new tyres in a quick pitstop and the young driver returned to the track for the second segment of the race. Beschir drove steadily to the chequered flag, finishing in 19th place.
Beschir said after the Feature race, "I had two extremely different races today. The first one challenged me with the heat and humidity, while the Feature race was very tough with the track being waterlogged in places, and slippery for most of the lap. I could hardly see ahead of me at the start so I was very cautious at the beginning of the Feature race. I was pleased to have improved on my start position by the end of the Sprint race."
Tony Snook, Team Principal, A1 Team Lebanon added, "We're pleased that Khalil completed the two race distances today in very difficult conditions, especially the Feature race which was run in atrocious weather and particularly as it has been a year since his last racing outing in the A1GP car."
Malaysia
A1 Team Malaysia gave their home crowd one of the most exciting races of the A1GP season so far, with a storming drive by Alex Yoong which saw him finish seventh in an action-filled Feature race. Yoong had finished fourth in the earlier Sprint race and the points from the two events resulted in A1 Team Malaysia improving to joint third in the overall A1GP World Cup of Motorsport standings.
In the Sprint race, held in dry, humid conditions, Yoong used his extensive circuit knowledge to dice with the field as they headed down to the first corner and was able to gain three spots by the end of the first lap. He withstood pressure from the British car and eventually finishing the 10 lap race over a second ahead of the fifth placed car. This fourth place finish gave A1 Team Malaysia its second row grid slot for the Feature race.
Prior to the Feature race, the unpredictable weather featured in the teams' preparations with a spectacular thunderstorm arriving as the cars lined up for the grid. Quickly switching to wet tyres and adjusting the cars suspension and wings settings for the conditions, A1 Team Malaysia were ready for 70 minutes of hard racing.
The appalling weather conditions resulted in the green flag being taken under safety car conditions and after three laps the cars were released to race at full speed. Yoong held position for the first few laps, but was then lacking in grip and unable to hold off the challengers behind. The team opted to pit earlier than intended and by changing the tyre pressures were able to improve the car's performance.
The team's pitstop was delayed by a recalcitrant wheelnut which pushed Yoong back to 14th on his return to the track. Over the remainder of the race, Yoong drove superbly, overtaking five cars in the space of seven laps. Recovering to seventh place by the chequered flag, Yoong notched up second fastest lap of the race – and the fastest one on wet tyres.
Yoong reflected on his races saying, "It was really a tale of two halves. In the first half we were really struggling with grip and I think the tyre pressures were higher than we expected. Teams were just going by me and I wasn't able to hold them back. We decided to pit earlier than planned; we lowered the tyre pressures and suddenly the grip was there. I was able to overtake and drive hard. If we'd had the same grip in the first half as the second I think we could have won it.
"In the Sprint race the first three drivers were just in a different league and after making up places to fourth I wasn't able to improve in the remaining laps."
Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, praised the team saying, "We recovered well by the end of the two races today. It was not easy to collect the points today, but moving up to third in the overall championship standings shows that we have the consistency and strength within this team to be title challengers."
Netherlands
After a difficult weekend A1 Team Netherlands has scored two points in Malaysia. In the Sprint race the team just finished outside the points with seventh and in a spectacular Feature race A1 Team Netherlands finished in ninth.
From a sixth grid position Jeroen Bleekemolen started this morning's 10 lap Sprint race. Like te previous days conditions were warm and sunny. At the start Jeroen got pushed to the outside at the start and had to succeed a number of positions. For a short while the A1 Team Netherlands driver was able to cling on to France, but was not able to attack. After that the gap with the points just proved to be too big.
An hour before the start of the Feature race the rain, which falls here almost every day, arrived. A downpoor caused the track to get extremely wet in no time at all. The race direction decided to delay the start by 10 minutes and start the race behind the safety car.
The first three laps the field drove behind the safety car, after which a 28 lap race was run. Jeroen Bleekemolen started from seventh but could not hold on to that position as the race commenced. The reason for this was an engine problem that got worse during the race, towards the end of the race the V8 was only running on seven cylinders. There was also an incident with Canada, that pushed A1 Team Netherlands into a spin, costing them a position. In the end Jeroen had to give everything in order to finish inside the points.
Jeroen Bleekemolen; "In the Sprint race I actually had quite a good start, along the outside and moved up a few places. But Great Britain unfortunately pushed me to the outside a bit too much, so I lost a number of places again. Then I was in seventh and stayed there. Nothing really happened in that race. In the Feature race we had an engine problem, that was not running on all cylinders. I think this already started quite early in the race. After that I just had to fight for what I was worth. We also had not enough grip, not enough traction, but with an engine problem it is impossible to drive up front. That was a shame. In the end we can only be pleased to take two points. Out on track it was outrageous in the beginning, you could not see anything. You had to take a gamble were to lift of on the straights. I had no idea where I was driving, I never experienced it this worse".
Jan Lammers; "When you see how we were struggling on Friday, the damage could easily could have been worse. As it started to rain we thought we would be able to score, but this time the engine failed on us. We don't know yet how serious the problem in the beginning of the race was, but towards the end we had a major problem. We are lucky to still take two points. The guys again had a fantastic pitstop, second fastest behind Great Britain. That is now just going very well. As far as set up is concerned we must move forward. We are happy with a number of things, not with the end result. These were difficult conditions to really judge where the problem with set up is and how bad it is. In qualifying there were signals that we were making progress, only in the race there was never any situation where we could judge where we really were".
New Zealand
New Zealand driver Jonny Reid has put his team on the podium in the 4 th Round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Malaysia.
Reid survived a knock with Germany to score 3rd place in the opening 20-minute Sprint Race at the Sepang International Circuit, setting the fastest lap time of the day in the process.
He backed up with an 8th placing in the Feature Race held in trying, wet conditions. A torrential downpour soaked the circuit for the main race and the New Zealand team gambled that the track would dry and stayed with their original car set-up rather than tweaking it for running in the wet.
Reid felt like he was driving on ice as he struggled for grip.
"I had no traction coming out of the corners and had a few hairy moments when I thought we were going to spin out," Reid said. "But I told myself to just keep doing the laps, keep it on the island and do the best possible job.
"We had the pace and moved upward on the championship table, it was just a shame we didn't build on the Sprint Race result because the weather didn't behave like we expected and wanted it to."
Reid scored four points for his 3rd placing, three points for his 8 th in the Feature Race and a bonus point for the day's fastest lap – a first for the Kiwi team. The eight points more than doubled the team's tally from the first three rounds of the season, moving them from 14 th to 12th equal on the points ladder.
Mexico, the Series leader heading into this event, had a disastrous weekend, securing no points. Germany has rocketed into first place with a 2nd and a 1st today. The Germans now have 37 points, six ahead of Great Britain (31 points) and 13 more than three nations, France, Malaysia and Mexico, sharing third position on 24 points.
Reid's Sprint Race success was the first time New Zealand had been on the podium in 27 races since Matt Halliday's 3rd in the first-ever A1GP race at Brand's Hatch last year.
Starting from second on the grid, Reid pulled level with Switzerland's Neel Jani going into the first corner, but the Swiss driver held his line to stay in front.
Germany's Nico Hülkenberg, however, used the battle in front to his advantage, driving round the outside of Reid into second position. There was contact between the New Zealand and German cars and Reid's machine sustained suspension damage, which affected the car's handling in the later stages of the race. Reid was distinctly unimpressed by Hülkenberg's actions - a repeat of their clash into the first corner at Brno, which led to both their retirements. With the German and New Zealand teams run by the same outfit, Super Nova Racing, the atmosphere in the post-race conference was frosty.
"I am not smiling as I was run into in the first corner by my team-mate," said Reid, "I am not happy about that. We will have to sit down and talk about it again as it is the second time it has happened. We are lucky that we both didn't go off. He was right onto my rear tyre and I think for the remainder of the race the rear suspension was a bit damaged. I am a bit annoyed about it but third place is still third place and it is still good points."
Reid later said he had stern words with Hülkenberg, who Reid claims was apologetic.
Pakistan
Nur Ali completed his fourth event with A1 Team Pakistan today, as the Karachi born driver raced alongside the other nations competing in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. In gruelling weather conditions, Ali finished 18th and 21st in the Sprint and Feature races respectively.
From his starting position of 22nd on the Sprint race grid, Ali suffered from a number of incidents on the first lap, which saw other teams retire. Despite being delayed behind two recovering cars, Ali kept the A1 Team Pakistan car on track to make up four places by the end of race to cross the line in 18th.
The storm that had threatened the A1GP event all weekend, finally arrived over the Sepang International Circuit, just one hour before the 70 minute Feature race was due to start. Taking his finishing place from the Sprint race as his grid slot for the Feature race, Nur Ali lined up 18th for A1GP's main race. Due to concerns over poor visibility and track conditions, the Feature race was delayed by 20 minutes and was started behind the safety car.
The progress of the A1 Team Pakistan car, which was barely visible in the streams of spray rising from the circuit, had its progress hampered by an incident in the mandatory tyre change pit stop.
Ali said at the end of the races, "There was a bit of a pile up at the beginning of the Sprint race, which we got a bit caught up in. I got stuck behind a couple of slowing cars which were still on the racing line. Unable to get past them, that put a distance between us and the rest of the field.
"In the Feature race we had quite a serious problem with the pit stop, when the car slid off the jack. This then caused one of the wheel nuts to lock, which cost us even more time. I'm not used to driving in the wet, and the main thing was to get some experience of running in these conditions and to finish the race. But the team is new and I'm still learning the car. A lot of the teams and drivers here have a year's experience in A1GP and we are all still learning. It's not just about me, it's not just about the race team, it's a true team effort and we're looking forward to improving further in Indonesia."
Arif Husain, Chairman, A1 Team Pakistan, added, "This was an extremely demanding race for the team. Nur was driving at the track for the first time, and the wet weather conditions this afternoon added to the challenge. Nur did an excellent job to keep the car on track but unfortunately a incident in the pitstop cost us badly. I know the team will be eager to get to Indonesia and improve further."
South Africa
Sprint Race
Adrian Zaugg, at the wheel of A1 Team South Africa's Vulindlela, finished 13th, 24,68s behind Jani. The 20-year-old South African had qualified in eighth place on Saturday, only to be relegated to 11th as a result of a ruling that he had obstructed A1 Team USA's Philip Giebler during qualifying.
"Sepang is a high speed circuit and several teams had problems with the cars' mirrors remaining in position," said Zaugg. "We had problems with ours and I didn't see Philip coming up behind me until it was too late to get out of his way. As a result, they disallowed my qualifying 2 time.
"The sprint race is too short to expect to be able to make up too many places during the race and your grid position determines the level of competition you are going to have from the cars around you. You tend to compete at the pace of this group.
"I struggled for traction during the race and lost a couple of places early on. We were good in the first two sectors of the circuit, but had problems in sector three, where there were the most overtaking opportunities.
The wide, flowing 5,4-km Sepang circuit provided many overtaking opportunities for the closely matched competition, with South Africa and Australia enjoying a race-long battle for 12th position. After three laps Australian Ryan Briscoe squeezed ahead, but Zaugg pushed him hard throughout the remaining laps.
Feature Race
In a rain-affected race that started behind the safety car after a torrential downpour, A1 Team South Africa's Adrian Zaugg brought Vulindlela home in 12th place, 1m 46s behind the winner. The 20-year-old South African made up a few places in the opening laps after starting in 13th position and was lying ninth ahead of A1 Team Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen when he made his mandatory pit stop to change tyres.
"The problem with the rain in Malaysia is you never know how long it will last," said Zaugg. "We went with a semi-wet and semi-dry set-up and it clearly didn't work as well as Germany's full wet set-up. The first set of tyres worked quite well, although lack of grip was always a problem in the conditions.
"The second set of tyres had hardly any grip at all and it was really difficult to make any progress."
Zaugg was unable to take as much advantage of the drying conditions as some of the other cars in the second half of the race and slipped down to 12th place at the finish.
Like South Africa, home nation A1 Team Malaysia had a race of two halves, as Alex Yoong dropped down the field from fourth at the start before the pit stop. With a new set of tyres, a rejuvenated Yoong then scythed through to close to the tail of a five-way battle for seventh with South Africa, Ireland, Singapore, Netherlands and USA by lap 19.
Zaugg, struggling with his new tyres while Yoong seemed to be revelling in his, fought off the Malaysian's challenge for a few corners before being forced to give way. Yoong went on to finish seventh while Zaugg was helpless to prevent other teams who he had led before the pit stop from passing him.
Switzerland
The Malaysian sprint race was a great success for Neel Jani who won after starting from pole. A torrential downpour of rain hit the feature race and the drastically different conditions caused Jani's car some handling problems, possibly caused by a defect in the shock absorbers. Nevertheless, the Swiss team scored 13 points over the day, a leap up the overall standings with the team now ninth on 17 points.
After dominating the sprint race, the rain began to fall and the start of the feature race was delayed by ten minutes as conditions were so treacherous. Eventually the 35-lap feature race started behind the safety car.
Neel Jani explains his two races: "The morning sprint race was fantastic and I kept the lead from start to finish. I was so happy to be on the podium. It's a great win for our new team. It was a clean and proper race as opposed to the extraordinary circumstances in Beijing. To be back and win in a first real weekend is a great feeling. In the afternoon the conditions changed drastically. We started behind the safety car. After two laps I was convinced that something was not right on the car, but I did not know what. The team is investigating if it is possibly a problem with the shock absorbers. Of course, I am a bit disappointed to miss out on the podium in the second race, but I'm really pleased to have scored 13 points today for the team."
Max Welti, Team Principal added: "A very positive weekend for our new team. To score 13 points in one weekend and to know that the team can have the driver on the highest step of the podium is really essential to assess our level. We have proved that we have a winning team."
USA
In Sunday's A1GP Feature Race at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, A1 Team USA driver Phil Giebler started from 9th position but took advantage of the circuit's wide racing surface and wet conditions, moving up the field to finish 6th and earn 5 championship points.
After torrential rains delayed the start of the race by 15 minutes, A1GP drivers took to the wet track, remaining in sequence for several laps behind a safety car. Once free, Giebler was able to overtake the New Zealand car on the 11th lap of the competition and the Malaysia car on lap 14. He was never passed by an opponent during the race, and set the fastest lap of any car on wet tires with a 2:16:748.
"Overall, it was a good result for Team USA." said Giebler. "It was more than a handful in the first couple of laps: impossible to see anything. Once I started to get some clear running, and some vision, I put in some really good laps. It was a race that could easily have ended in tears, but we took home some valuable points. It's good to have a clean finish, and no mechanical glitches."
Earlier this year, Team USA capitalized on less-than-stellar track conditions to earn second place in the season-opening Feature Race in Zandvoort.
A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger said, "Any time you move up the grid in this highly competitive series you have done a good job. We moved up 3 positions, as the Team USA car seems to do well in the rain. Although we had a poor pit stop, Phil showed true grit, pushing the car the whole race. He would have moved up a few more positions had there been more laps to the race--he was rocking towards the end as we gained 7 seconds on Canada in the last three laps." A1 Team USA owner Rick Weidinger continued, "The "We The People" car will now go on to Indonesia where Phil finished in the top ten last year. We expect to do even better this year, as we move to a racing circuit that our driver knows."
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