A1 GP of Nations: Dubai, United Arab Emirates: 11 December
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Race Track: Dubai Autodrome
Location: United Arab Emirates
Race Day: Sunday, 11 December 2005
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The Dubai Autodrome & Business park is the first fully integrated automotive and motor sports facility in the Middle East region, incorporating a world class FIA sanctioned 5.39 km motor racing track, international standard pit lane complex with a "state-of-the-art" grandstand accommodating over 7,000 spectators as well as providing modern hospitality suites for corporate customers.
Providing a "real home" for the automotive industry in the Gulf with a comprehensive business park being developed around the racetrack. Modern units have been designed to provide offices, workshops, showrooms, warehouses and conference facilities for all types of activities in the automotive and associated industries creating a cohesive working environment from which a motor racing culture will develop and prosper. An international and local racing calendar will be established on the Autodrome to include Single Seater Racing, Touring Cars, Motor Bikes, Sports Cars and Karting.
The design philosophy for the track on the project led by Edara and HOK, when given the luxury of a clean sheet approach by the client, has been to coordinate the thoughts of Union Properties, racing car drivers, motorcycle racing riders, motor sport teams and the governing bodies of motor sport, the FIA and FIM, into a sequence of corners and straights over undulating ground that should satisfy all levels of motor sport whilst also providing a memorable spectator environment. -
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QUALFYING RESULTS AND SPRINT RACE GRID
10/12/2005 - Dubai – A1 Team Switzerland has taken pole position for tomorrow’s Sprint race at the Dubai Autodrome which threatens to end France’s eight race dominance on the top of the podium. After securing pole for the Sprint race at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia but just missing out on a win after a 15-lap battle with France, driver Neel Jani is keen to turn things around this weekend. ‘We finally got the car as we wanted today and I didn’t make any mistakes. We got it all together for qualifying. However, I was on pole in Malaysia but it didn’t work out so I’ll have to wait and see how it works out in the race tomorrow.’ Asked if he thought he could win the sprint race tomorrow, Jani said ‘I hope I’m able to give myself a birthday present but for sure it will be very difficult,’ he said.
The result came as Switzerland put in the fastest lap time of the session in the fourth segment (1.45.926) after an exciting start to the afternoonÂ’s track action. The Mexican car left the track and crashed heavily just minutes into the first segment causing a red flag which meant only A1 Teams USA, India, Australia and Lebanon finished their flying lap. The bad luck continued into segment two for France who failed to record a flying lap time after brake problems saw them go wide and leave the track. However with the skill and determination shown over the season to date, France fought back securing second place on the grid.
A1 Team France driver, Nicolas Lapierre said: ‘It was very difficult today. The first session was red flagged and we had problems with the brakes in the second after the drive shaft broke this morning. Then we had to put in two safe laps in qualifying segments three and four. It wasn’t a great time, but at least we are starting on the first row. I’m quite happy, but I have to make no mistakes tomorrow and there will be a lot of pressure. I’m a little disappointed really, as we could have been faster.’
The close times seen in the morning’s official practice sessions continued into the afternoon with A1 Team Ireland taking third place on the grid with a lead of just one hundredth of a second on A1 Team Brazil. A1 Team Ireland driver, Ralph Firman said: ‘We’ve had a good couple of days and have progressed well. I was very disappointed with the first session, as we weren’t able to go out. We are near the front for the sprint race at least. The first session was very slippery, but by the end it was fine. Hopefully we will be quick in the race tomorrow.’
A1 Grand Prix reached another milestone today when its 3.4 litre V8 power unit notched up 100,000 kilometre without a single engine failure. It was A1 Team South AfricaÂ’s Stephen Simpson who broke through the 100,000 barrier in this morningÂ’s third official practice session.
A1 Team Driver Aggregate Time
1 Switzerland Neel Jani 3.31.918
2 France Nicolas Lapierre 3.32.551
3 Ireland Ralph Firman 3.32.626
4 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 3.32.627
5 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 3.32.634
6 Germany Adrian Sutil 3.33.105
7 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 3.33.307
8 Malaysia Alex Yoong 3.33.320
9 Canada Sean McIntosh 3.33.841
10 Portugal Alvaro Parente 3.34.118
11 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 3.34.141
12 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 3.34.233
13 South Africa Stephen Simpson 3.34.252
14 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 3.34.502
15 USA Philip Giebler 3.34.692
16 China Tengyi Jiang 3.34.925
17 New Zealand Matt Halliday 3.34.976
18 India Armaan Ebrahim 3.35.007
19 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 3.35.074
20 Pakistan Adam Khan 3.35.183
21 Austria Mathias Lauda 3.35.981
22 Australia Christian Jones 3.36.276
23 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 3.38.069
24 Mexico Salvador Duran
The Sprint race will be contested over 50 miles lasting up to 30 minutes in duration. With a rolling start at 13.30 local time, tomorrowÂ’s race will be run over 15 laps of the 5.39km Dubai Autodrome. The outcome of the race determines the grid position for the Feature race which will start at 15.00 local time with a standing start. The Feature race will be run over 100 miles (30 laps) lasting up to 60 minutes in duration. -
SPRINT RACE RESULTS
11/12/2005 - Dubai – A1 Team Switzerland took their first win of the season, ending France’s eight race run and putting them on pole for this afternoon’s Feature race. Driver Neel Jani was joined on the podium by Italy and the Czech Republic who benefited from an unusual mistake by the French team which saw Nicolas Lapierre slip down to finish in seventh.
Winning his first A1 Grand Prix race Neel Jani said: ‘It was a great result, but the big race is to come, it’s not over yet. I managed to get a really good start.’ Asked if he thought he could continue the tradition of winning the Feature as well as the Sprint race, Jani commented: ‘Of course I hope we can win, I’ll try my best and see what the outcome is’.
It was another action-packed start for an A1 Grand Prix race with pole-sitter A1 Team Switzerland leading into the first corner. Following was A1 Team Ireland, A1 Team Brazil and A1 Team Great Britain with France in a very unfamiliar fifth having gone wide and lost ground. Not everyone made the first corner cleanly with the first casualty being A1 Team Germany who had to pit at the end of lap one for a new nose cone.
The battle of the opening lap was between Brazil and Great Britain and by the end of the lap it was BritainÂ’s Robbie Kerr who was in third. On lap two the challenge from Brazil finished when Nelson Piquet Jr parked his car on the side of the track so implementing A1 Recovery for the very first time. This ground-breaking helicopter recovery service was given the green light by the FIA for A1GP to use it for the first time in Dubai.
A1 Teams Malaysia and Netherlands started a race long battle with HollandÂ’s Jos Verstappen moving from nineteenth on the starting grid to twelfth at the end of lap one. Despite the Dutch driverÂ’s best efforts there was no way he could overtake Malaysia but was less than a second behind at the end of the 15 lap race.
There were the usual wheel to wheel battles all the way down the field with New Zealand trying everything to get by South Africa on lap two. However, A1 Team France had a much easier time on lap four and was able to cruise by the Great Britain car relatively easily and take third place.
India and China may not have been in the points but this did not stop them battling on the track with the Chinese coming out on top on lap five after the Indian car slid off the track. All this time A1 Team Switzerland was holding a lead of about three seconds and never looked likely to be troubled by A1 Team Ireland who had more than enough to deal with as A1 Team France was up to within half a second of his rear wing by half distance.
Unfortunately for A1 Team Great Britain their third place was lost when Robbie Kerr spun on lap six and dropped down to ninth. A1 Team USA was being pursued by South Africa and the wheel to wheel battle was resolved in the favour of the South African car on lap eight when he moved into twelfth. A1 Team Mexico, despite being eighteenth was not going to make life easy for Austria but finally on lap nine the Austrian car was able to finally slip by and hold the Mexicans at bay until the chequered flag.
With just over a lap to go all looked set for Switzerland to be joined on the podium by Ireland and France but on the penultimate lap France spun off and dropped down to seventh and then the dramas continued with just a couple of corners to go on the final lap when A1 Team Ireland slowed dramatically due to an electronic fault with their gearbox. This allowed A1 Team Italy to claim their first podium and the Czech Team their second.
Italy’s Enrico Toccacelo commented: ‘I’m confident for the second race, we had a problem in qualifying but the team worked on the car and did a good job. I had a good start, despite the first corner which was really close, but I was lucky and got through ok.’
Also optimistic for the next race, and the rest of the season, the Czech Republic’s Tomas Enge said: ‘It was an unbelievable race, the car was perfectly prepared and I had a clear race. There were problems in the first corner but I managed to get through and was fast enough to keep up with Toccacelo. Hopefully we are making progress now, we were unlucky at the start of the season, but it is starting to get better now.’
A1 Team Driver Time
1 Switzerland Neel Jani 26.56.613
2 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 27.04.860
3 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 27.05.637
4 Ireland Ralph Firman 27.06.574
5 Canada Sean McIntosh 27.07.805
6 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 27.10.009
7 France Nicolas Lapierre 27.10.539
8 Portugal Alvaro Parente 27.11.497
9 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 27.12.050
10 Malaysia Alex Yoong 27.13.234
11 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 27.14.223
12 South Africa Stephen Simpson 27.14.919
13 USA Philip Giebler 27.18.655
14 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 27.19.980
15 New Zealand Matt Halliday 2725.478
16 Pakistan Adam Khan 27.26.010
17 Austria Mathias Lauda 27.27.301
18 Mexico Salvador Duran 27.28.282
19 China Tengyi Jiang 27.31.732
20 India Armaan Ebrahim 27.41.498
21 Australia Will Davison 14 laps
22 Germany Adrian Sutil 2 laps
23 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 1 lap
24 Lebanon Basil Shaaban DNS
A1 Team Lebanon did not start the Sprint race after spinning off on the formation lap and will therefore start the Feature race at the back of the grid. -
FEATURE RACE RESULTS
11/12/2005 - Dubai – Resuming their usual podium position, A1 Team France won today’s Feature race after starting from seventh on the grid. Battling up from ninth, A1 Team Great Britain took second place followed by Stephen Simpson who drove his way to South Africa’s first podium finish.
Race winner Nicolas Lappierre said: ‘I was really disappointed with the first race, but the team was behind me, and told me we could still win. The second race was crazy, it was just fantastic. I had a great start and a good strategy. When we saw the safety car come out the team made the perfect call for a pit stop. I had a good fight with Robbie and Stephen, and Robbie stayed with me and I had to push really hard. The track is really slippery when you went offline, and you had to pick where to overtake really carefully. This was a difficult race, I started seventh and there was a lot of overtaking to do. The track is really nice, there is a long back straight and the chance of overtaking.’
As the cars left the grid it was Switzerland and Italy side by side into the first corner and in the scrum that ensued behind them, Great Britain and the Czech Republic collided. One of the best starts was made by A1 Team Indonesia with the car slotting into third place from sixth on the grid.
As the cars started lap two, it was USA and South Africa side by side and A1 Team GBR recovering from the earlier mishap to hunt down Indonesia for third spot. Sadly A1 Team Ireland had not been able to rectify the gearbox problem that robbed them of a Sprint race podium and rapidly dropped from fourth on the grid to twenty-third at the end of lap one and eventually into retirement at the end of lap seven.
The pit stops started early with the first teams in at the end of lap one. A1 Team Brazil who was trying to recover from starting at the back of the grid was among them but it was not to be as their slow stop lasted for 51.8 seconds.
On lap three Indonesia came under attack from France and as they went into turn one on lap four the red, white and blue car was ahead and into fourth. The A1 Team MalaysiaÂ’s car was an early retirement from eight place and again A1 Recovery was called into lift the car away from the track.
On lap six IndonesiaÂ’s good run came to an end when the car spun as it came round a right-hand corner and hit the wall head on, bringing out the first safety car of the weekend. A1 Teams Great Britain and France who were at that point lying third and fourth took the opportunity to pit but Switzerland and Italy stayed out and this eventually compromised their races as when they did pit a lap later they ended up at the back of the field. In scenes reminiscent of Eastern Creek, it was A1 Team Lebanon, despite starting the race from the pit lane who ended up leading. However this was short lived as when the pace car pulled in at the end of lap eight, A1 Team Great Britain was in the lead by turn one. The Lebanese car made life a little more difficult for France who was not able to pass until lap nine and very soon afterwards Lebanon spun and let the rest of the drivers by with no problem.
Jos Verstappen who had battled hard in the Sprint race was again wheel to wheel racing in the Feature race, this time with A1 Team USA who he managed to get by on lap 12 to move up into fourth spot. At this point in the Feature race, A1 Team Great Britain was leading by a healthy 3.6 seconds from France but it was clear by the lap times being set by Nicolas Lapierre that it wouldnÂ’t be long before Robbie Kerr would have his wing mirrors full of another red, white and blue car.
India was in the thick of the action and was trailing Mexico and Australia who were battling hard, in fact the battle was so intense that on lap 15 the youngest driver in the race was able to overtake both the Mexican and Australian cars although by lap 17 they were by again. The progress of France saw the gap down to 0.4 seconds by the end of lap 19 and it was obvious by the amount of times that the British car was locking up that its lead was far from secure and eventually on lap 24, there was the familiar sight of the French car leading an A1GP race.
The revelation of the race was A1 Team China with the car not only in a points scoring position but in the top six by lap 19. Despite coming under increasing pressure from A1 Team Canada, one of the less experienced drivers on the field was able to not only hold onto his position but finish the race in fifth.
Pakistan and Austria were heavily involved in their own battle for seventh place and this was finally decided when they touched on lap 27 and Pakistan spun into retirement. On the same lap, A1 Team USA retired from ninth with what was an electronic fault when newcomer to the Series Philip Giebler pulled his car off the track. The action went on right to the flag as when A1 Team Netherlands crossed the start/finish line in ninth, the front wing of the car was clearly broken.
It was another exciting race for the A1 Grand Prix series and it wasn’t just the fans that enjoyed the action. A1 Team Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr spoke of his excitement. ‘Unfortunately the tyres gave a bit in the feature race, and so France was able to get past. It was very exciting though. The car is getting better all the time and the results show it. The team made a great call to pit, but the second set of tyres weren’t as good as the first and couldn’t really last the race.’ Commenting on the possibility of the first race win for A1 Team Great Britain, Robbie said ‘We are getting faster and I’m confident that we can keep up, we just have to make the tyres last longer. We are working for a win, and we’ll keep pushing, we’ve showed we have the pace. Give us another chance and we’ll take it.’
Speaking about his first time on the podium at A1 Grand Prix, Stephen Simpson said ‘Words can’t describe how I’m feeling to come from twelfth to third. The team did a great job. It’s great to be able to keep up with the front of the field. When Nicolas came up behind me, I knew I was going to be able to him a run for his money. The last few races have been quite difficult, and A1GP is so close and it’s getting closer all the time. This is just great for everyone at home, and in the build up for our home race in Durban on the 29 January.
‘There is a bit of pressure now to do well, the last few races didn’t really go according to plan. My goal here was to score points, so this is a brilliant result for the team, and the hard work paid off. Our pace in the first race was good, and we only made a few changes before the feature race, it really was a team effort,’ he continued.
A number of teams were given drive through penalties and these seriously compromised their races. For Italy and Germany it was due to false starts, for Switzerland a pit crew infringement during the tyre stop and the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Lebanon for speeding in the pit lane.
A1 Team Driver Time
1 France Nicolas Lapierre 56.17.068
2 Great Britain Great Britain 56.20.782
3 South Africa Stephen Simpson 56.23.758
4 Portugal Alvaro Parente 56.25.067
5 China Tengyi Jiang 56.47.856
6 Canada Sean McIntosh 56.48.411
7 Austria Mathias Lauda 56.51.510
8 Mexico Salvador Duran 56.52.570
9 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 56.53.213
10 Australia Will Davison 56.53.414
11 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 56.54.000
12 Germany Adrian Sutil 56.54.916
13 New Zealand Matt Halliday 57.06.192
14 India Armaan Ebrahim 57.06.516
15 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 29 laps
16 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 29 laps
17 Switzerland Neel Jani 27 laps
18 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 27 laps
19 Pakistan Adam Khan 26 laps
20 USA Philip Giebler 26 laps
21 Ireland Ralph Firman 7 laps
22 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 5 laps
23 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 4 laps
24 Malaysia Alex Yoong 2 laps
Series Points to date – A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Dubai, UAE (11 December 2005)
1 France 106
2 Switzerland 75
3 Brazil 60
4 Great Britain 49
5 New Zealand 42
6 Portugal 39
7 Ireland 37
8 Netherlands 34
9 Malaysia 33
10 Canada 31
11 Australia 27
12 Czech Republic 24
13 Italy 21
14 Mexico 19
15 South Africa 14
16 USA 13
17 Germany 11
18 Indonesia 10
19 China 6
20 Japan 6
21 Austria 5
22 Pakistan 4
