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A1 Team France has taken the title lead in the thrilling 2007/08 A1GP World Cup
of Motorsport season, having dominated this morning's wet Sprint race at
Sydney's Eastern Creek from start to finish to take its first win in 37
races.
Loic Duval pulled out a comfortable lead at the start of the 14-lap race and
was never threatened by the remaining 21-car pack, continuing to pull away from
Switzerland and New Zealand as the rain got heavier. Duval finally crossed the
line in first place, nine seconds ahead of Jonny Reid in Black Beauty, who
masterfully snatched second position from Neel Jani on lap nine. The Swiss
driver spun off later in the race and lost valuable championship points.
The win is 25-year-old Frenchman Duval's first victory in A1GP and ends
season one champion France's race win drought. The team has not occupied the top
step of the podium since Alexandre Premat won the Mexico Feature race in
2006.
France and New Zealand were joined on the podium by 18-year-old Canadian
rookie Robert Wickens, who put in an incredible performance in the wet to race
from 15th on the grid to a finish in a superb third place and pick up ten
valuable championship points for his nation.
Germany's Michael Ammermüller crossed the line fourth having started from
seventh on the grid, closely followed by USA's Jonathan Summerton in fifth, the
team's best finish so far this season.
Host nation A1 Team Australia's John Martin gave his home fans something to
cheer about, pushing hard throughout the race and improving three places from
the start to cross the line in sixth position, ahead of South Africa's Adrian
Zaugg and Brazil's Sergio Jimenez in seventh and eighth places respectively.
The Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen finished the incident-packed race ninth
while Switzerland's Neel Jani, who was running in second for much of the race,
fell back to tenth after he ran wide with two laps to go.
Great Britain's Robbie Kerr, whose race engineer had struggled from his
hospital bed to stand on the pit wall with his broken leg in a plaster cast, got
a great start from eighth on the grid but lost time when the team decided to pit
for wet tyres on lap eight, ultimately crossing the line a disappointing
16th.
The 22 nations are now preparing for the main event of the weekend at Eastern
Creek, a thrilling 70-minute Feature race with two compulsory pit stops, which
starts at 15:00 this afternoon.
France's Loic Duval, who took his first ever A1GP win in what he says will be
his last event for the team this year, reflected on what the result means to him
and the team:
'It feels great. We've been running behind for a long time so it's really
good for us to win this race and the team did a great job. It was perfect and we
needed it. It was important for us to win a race and this may be my last race in
A1GP so I'm really happy to leave the series with a victory. It was really hard
in the rain but because of our pace in the dry conditions I had a really good
gap so we were not really worried about the other guys. We were just trying to
stay on the track and not take any risks.'
New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who raced to a solid second place from fourth on
the grid, and is starting this afternoon's Feature race from pole, said:
'We had to fight for it a little bit. It was a good battle with Neel and once
I got in front I gradually pulled away and started concentrating on Loic, but he
was doing a good job in tricky conditions and I didn't want to take any risks
and compromise the championship. Pole for the Feature race is a good position to
start from but as we've seen before a million times it's tricky. We've got a lot
of competition out there and everyone's in the hunt. We can really do a good job
but it's going to be interesting to see what the weather does.'
Eighteen-year-old Canada's Robert Wickens, who put in an amazing performance
to race from 15th to third, commented on the wet conditions:
'It was a great drive. We were struggling a little bit with the pace in the
dry and we were just running in 13th or 14th. I think I had more trust in the
car early on in the race and I actually made the majority of my passes when it
was at the intermediate stage. A lot of drivers were staying on the dry line and
I was one of the first ones to go on the wet line. If it rains in the Feature
race we can just hope for the best and try to score some more points.'
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