A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Circuito Estoril, Portugal
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Race Track: Circuito Estoril
Location: Portugal
Race Day: Sunday, 23 October 2005
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Located on the northern coast of the estuary of the River Tagus. It can be found in the hills behind the once-glamorous resort town of Estoril - which has grand hotels reminiscent of the French Riviera and a huge casino - and the small fishing port of Cascais.
An ever-present on the F1 calendar between 1984 and 1996, Estoril was removed from the 1997 schedule after the FIA were unhappy with the status of redevelopment work on the circuit.With a track lay-out very similar to its Iberian counterpart at Barcelona, the track is hard on the tyres and with long sweeping turns the circuit can be tiring for the drivers.
In February 2000 the revised circuit was finally re-granted a testing license for Formula 1 cars.
Built on a rocky plateau, the track was opened in June 1972 but its early development was handicapped by the oil crisis of 1973 and by the Portuguese Revolution of 1974. The result of this was that the circuit did not host a major international event until the Formula 2 Championship arrived in 1975. It was won by a rising star called Jacques Laffite who dominated the event in his Martini-BMW MK16. The series returned to Estoril in 1976 and 1977 with Rene Arnoux winning the first and Didier Pironi the second. In 1977 the track also hosted a poorly-attended World Sportscar Championship event, which had the rather grand title of the Grande Premio Costa del Sol. It was dominated by the factory Alfa Romeo T33s of Arturo Merzario and Vittorio Brambilla which finished three laps ahead of their rivals.
After the races in 1977 the track faded away and it was not until 1980 that it began to re-emerge from obscurity after Cesar Torres became the head of the Automovel Club de Portugal. He saw the circuit as a way of boosting the local tourist industry and began campaigning for a Grand Prix. The track hosted a special spectator stage during the Portuguese Rally. With South Africa having fallen into political problems, Estoril had the chance to become a major venue for testing and, after a major renovation problem was completed, the F1 teams quickly adopted the circuit. In 1984 the track was given the final round of the Formula 1 World Championship. This was perfect as McLaren team mates Alain Prost and Niki Lauda arrived in Estoril to settle the title between them and while Prost drove and won a marvelous race the canny Lauda was happy to finish second and by doing so took the Drivers' crown by just half a point - the smallest margin of victory in World Championship history.
The 1985 calendar listed Portugal as the second race and so a few months later the F1 teams were back again and, in pouring conditions, Ayrton Senna took his JPS Lotus Renault to victory. It was the Brazilian's first F1 victory and a remarkable drive. Nigel Mansell won in dominant fashion in 1986 but the 1987 race produced a big surprise with Ferrari's Gerhard Berger dominant until the closing laps when Prost closed in. With two laps to go Berger cracked under pressure and spun off. Prost won the race and by doing so scored his 28th Grand Prix victory, to beat Jackie Stewart's record of World Championship victories.
The 1989 event produced another exciting race with Nigel Mansell ignoring a black flag and then colliding with World Championship rival Ayrton Senna. The move led to Berger picking up the pieces to win the race for Ferrari while Mansell was banned from the following Grand Prix in Jerez. Mansell won in 1990 but was disqualified from the 1991 race and so victory went to his Williams team mate Riccardo Patrese. The following year Mansell won again but Patrese was the luckiest man at the track, walking away unhurt after flipping at high speed on the main straight after his car ran over the back of Berger's slowing McLaren.
In 1993 Michael Schumacher beat Alain Prost to the line by less than a second but in 1994 he did not appear as he was serving a three-race ban and so Damon Hill took a dominant victory. Williams then proceeded to win the 1995 and 1996 races with David Coulthard and Jacques Villeneuve respectively.
The race was a favourite for the F1 circus. It was usually held at the end of the season and gave everyone the chance of a few days holiday. The track tended to promote close racing and the weather was usually good although as Estoril is only a few miles from the westernmost point of Europe it tended to be affected by stiff breezes and rain storms coming off the Atlantic Ocean. A bigger problem, however, was the local attitude towards the circuit. The FIA asked time and again for the track's facilities to be improved but nothing was done. In 1997 the governing body called Portugal's bluff. Promised renovation work was not done and so the race was cancelled.
In an effort to speed up the work the Portuguese government bought a controlling interest in the company that owned the track. The Portuguese GP was listed on the 1998 calendar but was cancelled when the upgrading work could not be completed in time. The rebuilding work dragged on through 1999 and it was not until February 2000 that the revised circuit was finally granted a testing license for Formula 1 cars.
The Portuguese government wanted to bid for a Grand Prix but the increasing pressure on races in Europe meant that no bid was successful and Estoril is used only occasionally by F1 teams for testing. -
Qualifying grid for today's race:
A1 Team Driver Aggregate Time
1 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 3.01.316
2 Switzerland Neel Jani 3.01.830
3 France Alexandre Premat 3.02.550
4 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 3.02.948
5 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 3.03.210
6 Portugal Alvaro Parente 3.03.301
7 Canada Sean McIntosh 3.03.367
8 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 3.03.467
9 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 3.04.001
10 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 3.04.164
11 Germany Adrian Sutil 3.04.181
12 Mexico Salvador Duran 3.04.447
13 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 3.04.716
14 New Zealand Matt Halliday 3.04.909
15 USA Scott Speed 3.05.024
16 South Africa Tomas Scheckter 3.05.518
17 Russia Mikhail Aleshin 3.06.287
18 Ireland Ralph Firman 3.07.289
19 Australia Will Davison 3.07.327
20 China Tengyi Jiang 3.07.543
21 Austria Mathias Lauda 3.07.918
22 Pakistan Adam Khan 3.08.976
23 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 3.10.318
24 India Armaan Ebrahim 3.10.949 -
Sprint race results:
Circuito Estoril, Portugal – From the moment the cars crossed the start line it was a three way rush to the first corner with France on the inside, Brazil in the middle and Switzerland on the outside. France won this race and the one that saw Alexandre Premat’s car take the chequered flag 18 laps later.
A1 Team France’s Alexandre Premat said: ‘It was a very good race, I used the PowerBoost quite a lot. In the first corner I passed Nelson, I went up the inside and braked very late, and the car was great. I hope to do just as well in the second race. The PowerBoost button is really good. If you are close to the car in front, it helps you overtake. It’s a great idea. I hope to win both races today, as Nelson did at Brands Hatch and Nicolas did at EuroSpeedway.’
It was a very short-lived race for Australia, Mexico and Pakistan as in the second turn an accident saw all three cars retire after going off into the gravel trap. While France was never challenged, there were some fine battles going on further down the field. Germany was the target for Great Britain with the two battling for twelth position. This battle came to an end when the Irish car clipped the rear of Great Britain and forced Robbie Kerr to pull off with a right-rear puncture. A1 Team Ireland was then forced to pit for over a minute for a new front wing so was out of
contention for series points. However, A1 Team Germany’s Adrian Sutil, in his first race of the Series was not allowed any breathing space as ‘We the People’ representing the USA was soon on his tail and making every effort to overtake. Despite them swapping places at one point, it was the German car that crossed the line to claim twelfth spot.
Another driver having his first A1 Grand Prix race, Basil Shaaban for A1 Team Lebanon had a great tussle with A1 Team Austria in the closing laps but lost out and finished eighteenth.
A1 Team Netherlands had their best finish to date as Jos Verstappen managed to take two positions going into the first corner and this gave the usual large contingent of Dutch fans something to shout about.
Commenting on his race, A1 Team Brazil’s Nelson Piquet Jr said: ‘The start was quite messy to be honest, the pace car stayed in front for quite a long time, I didn’t know what was happening. It moved at the last moment and Alex just came out from nowhere. I had to give him space as he braked really late into the corner, I have to say he had a very strong race. We have to go and improve now and make a few changes for the next race.’
Neel Jani of A1 Team Switzerland said: ‘That start wasn’t too bad, I was alongside Nelson, and I passed him half way through the corner, but I had to stay on the outside as he was very close. We are in a good position for the second race, and I’m looking forward to it.’
A1 Team Driver Time
1 France Alexandre Premat 27.46.488
2 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 27.48.543
3 Switzerland Neel Jani 27.49.777
4 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 27.59.973
5 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 28.00.416
6 Portugal Alvaro Parente 28.05.149
7 Canada Sean McIntosh 28.07.785
8 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 28.18.641
9 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 28.23.855
10 South Africa Tomas Scheckter 28.26.210
11 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 28.26.581
12 Germany Adrian Sutil 28.28.314
13 USA Scott Speed 28.28.403
14 New Zealand Matt Halliday 28.29.666
15 Russia Mikhail Aleshin 28.38.156
16 Austria Mathias Lauda 28.53.215
17 India Armaan Ebrahim 28.55.302
18 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 29.02.610
19 Ireland Ralph Firman 17 laps
20 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 5 laps
21 China Tengyi Jiang 1 lap
22 Australia Will Davison 0 laps
23 Mexico Salvador Duran 0 laps
24 Pakistan Adam Khan 0 laps -
France were again ready for the start, this time from a standing position and made no mistake by being on the inside for corner one and coming out ahead of Portugal and the Czech Republic. However, behind them sitting on the grid, they had left the Netherlands, Brazil and Russia. This brought out the first safety car period while the cars were pushed off the grid and into the pit lane. The safety car stayed out for just the one lap and as it peeled off at the end of lap two was instantly followed by 10 of the competitors who chose to do their mandatory pit stop for tyres at this point. Again it was France leading the way, followed by Portugal and the Czech Republic.
Italy had made a storming start from eleventh on the grid but unfortunately it was too good to last as they were subsequently given a drive through penalty which lost them their fourth place. Indonesia was having a great race and on lap 13 managed to overtake both Great Britain and South Africa, unfortunately it was a short-lived advantage as the car immediately spun off and retired.
For A1 Team Mexico, the race came to an end on lap 10 when Canada ran into the back of their car which was seen by the millions of viewers worldwide via the on-board cameras. The safety car was deployed again to remove the stricken Mexican car, which was in turn one, and during this time the Portuguese car stalled during a pit stop and lost second place. The safety car lasted until the end of lap 16 and during this period, the South African car pulled off the track with a broken rear suspension, which had happened after contact with another car on the very first corner of the race.
France made another great start when the safety car pulled off to keep the lead, however the safety car was soon out again as in a move that was described by A1 Team Netherlands’ driver as ‘over ambitious’ the car speared into that of A1 Team Germany and they both retired on the spot.
The safety car was brought in at the end of lap 20 and again it was the car carrying the French Tricolore that led into the first corner, followed by Switzerland and Ireland who went on to take their first podium of the season. A1 Team Czech Republic moved up but fourth place was not destined to be theirs as a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane dropped them down to an eventual ninth place.
It was obvious that Alvaro Parente wanted to do well in front of his home crowd and after an exciting battle with first A1 Team Italy and then A1 Team Australia, he moved up to fifth place. Due to the amount of time spent under the safety car, the race ran for its full hour and at that point, France was seven seconds in the lead and scored its fourth win out of the six A1 Grand Prix races to date and bought its points tally at the head of the series to 50 with Brazil second on 42 and Switzerland third on 34.
A1 Team Driver Time
1 France Alexandre Premat 1.01.05.054
2 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.01.12.971
3 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.01.21.387
4 USA Scott Speed 1.01.24.477
5 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1.01.32.774
6 Australia Will Davison 1.01.40.228
7 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1.01.41.083
8 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 1.01.41.719
9 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1.01.43.184
10 Austria Mathias Lauda 1.01.56.834
11 Lebanon Basil Shabaan 1.02.04.187
12 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1.02.07.401
13 India Armaan Ebrahim 1.02.10.998
14 China Tengyi Jiang 1.02.16.035
15 Pakistan Adam Khan 1.02.21.971
16 New Zealand Matt Halliday 35 laps
17 Russia Mikhail Aleshin 35 laps
18 Canada Sean McIntosh 20 laps
19 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 18 laps
20 Germany Adrian Sutil 17 laps
21 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 15 laps
22 South Africa Tomas Schekter 14 laps
23 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 3 laps
24 Mexico Salvador Duran 2 laps -
The fastest lap of the Feature race was recorded by A1 Team France on the twenty-third lap with a time of 1.31.106. Commenting on his performance, driver Alexandre Premat said: ‘The race was great, I had another good start – although the re-starts varied, some were good and some were bad, it was hard to keep Scott Speed and Nelson Piquet behind me. The car was great to drive again, I did the fastest laps and we are leading the series. I wish Nicolas Lapierre good luck for the next race.’
Second place finisher, A1 Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani said: ‘I had a good start, but nearly got pushed into the wall and had to be careful not to crash. I suffered from oversteer in the beginning of the race but after the pit stop the car got better. I nearly took first place during a re-start – but again nearly got pushed into the wall and was lucky not to crash. I’m looking forward to winning a race, we seem to be getting better and better every race, we are definitely progressing.’ Recording Ireland’s best race position, Ralph Firman said: ‘It has been a good weekend, despite having problems with the gearbox in Qualifying and I lost my front wing in the Sprint race. I went off the track trying to get past Canada, and thought my race was over, but I managed to get back on track and had a great pit stop which really helped a lot. I overtook Scott Speed during one of the re-starts, which was fantastic. The luck of the Irish seems to be working. I won’t be driving in Australia, but I’m really looking forward to getting in the car in Malaysia.’
A1 Grand Prix series points
A1 Team Series Points
1 France 50
2 Brazil 42
3 Switzerland 34
4 New Zealand 29
5 Australia 21
6 Canada 18
7 Ireland 16
8 Mexico 16
9 Great Britain 15
10 Netherlands 15
11 Malaysia 14
12 Portugal 14
13 Czech Republic 8
14 Germany 8
15 USA 7
16 Japan 6
17 South Africa 6
18 Indonesia 4
19 Pakistan 4
20 Italy 4
21 Austria 1
