2005–06 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain

2005-06 A1GP of Great Britain
Race Details
Race 1 of 11 in the 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix season.
Date 25 September 2005
Location Brands Hatch
Kent, England
Weather Fine
Qualifying
Pole Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.)
Time 2'30.789 (1'15.824, 1'14.965)
Sprint Race
1st Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.)
2nd France (Alexandre Premat)
3rd New Zealand (Matt Halliday)
Main Race
1st Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.)
2nd Australia (Will Power)
3rd Mexico (Salvador Durán)
Fast Lap
FL Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.)
Time 1'16.547, (Lap 30 of Main Race)
Official Classifications
Prac1 ·Prac2 ·Prac3 ·Qual ·SRace ·MRace

The 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain was an A1 Grand Prix race, held on 25 September 2005 at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, England. This was the first in the 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix season, and the first race in the history of the A1 Grand Prix series.

Report

Practice

The 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain at Brands Hatch had a rough start, even before it began. During the first two practice sessions, held on Friday 23 September, there were no less than eight red flags due to on track incidents. In the first session, A1 Team India's Karun Chandhok crashed into Jos Verstappen at a hairpin, sending him airborne damaging his car to such an extent that he was unable to set a time in the second session. Rain marred the second session, causing slower speeds and spins, but nothing as spectacular as in the first. Free practice 3, held on Saturday saw A1 Team France top the timesheets with a 1:15.421 courtesy of Alexandre Premat. Matt Halliday surprised for A1 Team New Zealand, setting the second quickest time, which was good enough to see him nominated for qualifying.

Qualifying

Nelson Piquet Jr. took A1GP's first ever pole position for A1 Team Brazil. Piquet set the fastest time over the entire session, with a 1:14.965 on his third run. Combined with the best first-lap time, he produced an aggregate time of 2:30.769, leading the results by over 0.3 of a second ahead of New Zealand's Matt Halliday. Brazil did not attempt a time in the final run, which was topped by French driver Alexandre Premat, placing them third on the grid for the sprint race. Fourth position went to A1 Team Australia, followed by the home team, A1 Team Great Britain. The A1 Grand Prix rules allow teams to use one driver for qualifying and another for the race, provided the race driver's best practice time is within 102% of the team's best qualifying lap. All teams elected to use the same qualifying driver in the race, apart from A1 Team Malaysia, who used Fairuz Fauzy in the sprint race and return to former Formula One driver Alex Yoong for the main event.

Sprint race

A1 Team Great Britain's Robbie Kerr negotiates Pilgrim's Drop - Great Britain finished 5th in the Sprint race.

Scheduled for 18 laps or 30 minutes (whichever came first), the first ever A1GP sprint race began with a rolling start, with A1 Team Brazil driver Nelson Piquet Jr. on pole position, followed by A1 Team New Zealand's Matt Halliday. Halliday had some experience in oval races which use sprint starts, and was expected to challenge Piquet into Paddock Hill bend. But it was France's Alexandre Premat who got the best start of the front-runners, slipping inside Halliday to move into second place. Australia's Will Power retained his fourth position, slightly ahead of Robbie Kerr for A1 Team Great Britain. Piquet made it through the first turn with no trouble, and quickly began building a sizeable lead. Meanwhile, ex-F1 driver Jos Verstappen, in the Dutch car suffered damage to his car after a collision with the A1 Team South Africa car driven by Stephen Simpson, forcing him to limp back to the pits and retire from the race. This was a double blow to the Dutch team, as they would then have to start the feature race from the back of the field. Simpson was also required to pit at the end of the first lap to repair damage from the collision. The field remained in almost the same order for the remainder of the race, as Piquet, Premat and Halliday produced a gap back to Power, who had eventually escaped the close attention of Kerr to secure fourth place. A1 Team USA's Scott Speed benefited from a fantastic opening lap, where he moved from 17th to 11th, holding that position until the end of the race. A1 Team Mexico held onto 6th, ahead of the Pakistani car in 7th, which spent most of the race holding up Portugal, Switzerland and Ireland behind him.

Main race

Piquet took the first position on the grid for the feature race, thanks to his comprehensive victory in the sprint race. A1 Team France's Alexandre Premat suffered a battery problem between the two races which required some frantic work by the pit crew, resulting in Premat leaving the pit lane with 45 seconds to spare. This time the race started with a standing start, but as the drivers set off for a warm-up lap, A1 Team New Zealand's Matt Halliday stalled from third spot, forcing him to enter the pitlane and start from the very back of the pack. This left an empty grid slot in front of A1 Team Great Britain's Robbie Kerr, which would perhaps be an advantage as the drivers struggled for position into the heavily cambered first corner. At the actual race start, A1 Team France's Alexandre Premat also stalled, putting him out of the race immediately, and the drivers behind were able to narrowly avoid him. Brazil again got a good start, leaving Piquet to lead from A1 Team Australia's Will Power on the opening lap. Further back in the field, A1 Team Ireland collided with A1 Team Switzerland, putting both cars out of the race. A1 Team Lebanon driver Khalil Beschir spun off the track, hitting a wall on the outside and then coming back across the track narrowly in front of four cars. Luckily he was able to continue the race, which was not the case for A1 Team India's Karun Chandhok and A1 Team Indonesia's Ananda Mikola, who both did not complete lap 1. A1 Team Portugal soon joined the ever-growing list of retirees, when Álvaro Parente retired with a battery problem on only the second race lap when he was fighting for third place. By the end of lap 2, Brazil led from Australia, followed closely by Great Britain and Pakistan, with Enrico Toccacelo for A1 Team Italy a surprising 5th after taking an early compulsory pitstop, having started in 16th. Further back, A1 Team Germany's Timo Scheider used one of his eight power boosts to breeze past A1 Team Japan's Ryo Fukuda and into 8th place.

Piquet continued to lead and open and impressive gap back to Power, who was being hounded by Kerr for second, but not allowing the British driver any room to get past. Several battles were emerging throughout the field, involving Pakistan and Italy for 4th place, Germany and Malaysia for 6th, and Canada in 9th, struggling to keep South Africa behind. A1 Team USA's Scott Speed rejoined the race after having to pit for a new nose cone earlier in the race, now lying several laps behind the leaders. With Germany taking its compulsory pitstop, Jos Verstappen in the Netherlands car moved into 7th, capping an excellent comeback from last at the start of the race. A few teams had difficulties in their stops, including A1 Team Malaysia, whose faulty wheel caused Alex Yoong to lose a large amount of time during his lap 9 stop. Pakistan, who had been held up by A1 Team Austria while trying to lap them, also lost out to the Netherlands when both teams pitted.

On lap 13, with Toccacelo attempting a move up the inside of Lebanon driver Beschir, the pair's wheels touched, sending Beschir into a frightening barrel-roll across the gravel trap, and causing the introduction of the safety car, to slow the cars around the track whilst the debris was cleared. This gave the top three a good opportunity to pit, but Brazil had big troubles with a wheel, allowing Great Britain to jump into the lead, ahead of Australia, and leaving Piquet in third. Under the safety car, however, the British car suffered another battery failure, and forcing Kerr to retire and hand the lead to Will Power. Power made the most of the restart, opening up a good lead over Brazil, with A1 Team Mexico in third place. Only a few laps later though, A1 Team Russia driver Alexey Vasilyev spun off the track and forced the safety car to come out again. This time when the race restarted, Piquet was much closer to the back of Power, and took the lead on lap 29. With 32 laps completed, Brazil had opened up a good lead, setting the all-important fastest race lap in the process. Australia sat in 2nd position, in front of Salvador Durán for Mexico, who was being pressured by Halliday. Malaysia held an impressive 5th place, followed by South Africa and the Netherlands.

The positions remained constant for the remaining laps of the race, despite a desperate attempt by New Zealand to make it past the apparently slower Mexico car. Piquet displayed his true speed in eventually winning by 11 seconds over Power, followed by Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Africa, the Netherlands and Japan, with Canada and Germany closing out the top 10. Piquet's win finished an impressive weekend for Brazil, giving the team the maximum 21 points. However, the gaps in the pointscoring system for A1GP are not large, so Australia lies close behind on 16, followed by New Zealand on 15 and Mexico on 13.

Results

Qualification

Qualification took place on Saturday, 24 September 2005

Pos Team Driver Q1 Time Q2 Time Q3 Time Q4 Time Aggregate Gap
1 Brazil Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 1'15.824 1'16.070 1'14.965 -- 2'30.789 --
2 New Zealand New Zealand Matt Halliday 1'16.359 1'16.032 1'15.389 1'15.728 2'31.117 0.328
3 France France Alexandre Premat 1'17.278 1'16.185 1'16.043 1'15.163 2'31.206 0.417
4 Australia Australia Will Power 1'16.056 1'16.360 1'15.774 1'15.614 2'31.388 0.599
5 United Kingdom Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1'16.612 1'15.878 1'16.097 1'15.836 2'31.714 0.925
6 Switzerland Switzerland Neel Jani 1'17.907 1'16.435 1'16.142 1'15.587 2'31.729 0.940
7 Mexico Mexico Salvador Durán 1'17.639 1'16.283 1'16.251 1'16.056 2'32.307 1.518
8 Pakistan Pakistan Adam Khan 1'17.020 1'16.457 1'16.481 1'16.139 2'32.596 1.807
9 Malaysia Malaysia Alex Yoong 1'18.507 1'16.362 1'16.448 1'16.270 2'32.632 1.843
10 Japan Japan Ryo Fukuda 1'17.017 1'16.544 1'16.694 1'16.145 2'32.689 1.900
11 Portugal Portugal Alvaro Parente 1'17.199 1'16.528 -- 1'16.177 2'32.705 1.916
12 Republic of Ireland Ireland Michael Devaney 1'16.803 1'16.576 1'16.863 1'16.235 2'32.811 2.022
13 Germany Germany Timo Scheider 1'16.965 1'16.624 1'16.639 1'16.357 2'32.981 2.192
14 Netherlands Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1'16.882 1'17.510 1'16.472 1'16.603 2'33.075 2.286
15 South Africa South Africa Stephen Simpson 1'17.432 1'16.612 1'16.647 1'16.474 2'33.086 2.297
16 Italy Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1'16.888 1'16.402 1'16.832 1'17.616 2'33.234 2.445
17 United States USA Scott Speed 1'17.625 1'17.638 1'16.950 1'16.367 2'33.317 2.528
18 Indonesia Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1'20.253 1'17.267 1'16.864 1'16.560 2'33.424 2.635
19 India India Karun Chandhok 1'18.272 1'18.286 1'17.341 1'16.785 2'34.126 3.337
20 Czech Republic Czech Republic Jan Charouz 1'18.318 1'17.813 1'18.743 1'16.973 2'34.786 3.997
21 Canada Canada Sean McIntosh 1'19.902 1'18.485 1'18.189 1'18.467 2'36.656 5.867
22 Austria Austria Mathias Lauda 1'18.977 1'19.148 1'18.186 1'18.692 2'36.878 6.089
23 Lebanon Lebanon Basil Shaaban 1'18.671 1'18.433 -- 1'19.282 2'37.104 6.315
24 China China Qinghua Ma 1'20.465 1'19.071 1'19.820 1'19.679 2'38.750 7.961
25 Russia Russia Alexey Vasilyev 1'21.615 1'21.298 1'20.597 1'20.706 2'41.303 10.514

Sprint Race Results

The Sprint Race took place on Sunday, 25 September 2005

Mexico leads New Zealand
Pos Team Driver Laps Time Points
1 Brazil Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 18 23'15.682 10
2 France France Alexandre Premat 18 +2.440 9
3 New Zealand New Zealand Matt Halliday 18 +2.899 8
4 Australia Australia Will Power 18 +11.457 7
5 United Kingdom Great Britain Robbie Kerr 18 +12.797 6
6 Mexico Mexico Salvador Durán 18 +17.273 5
7 Pakistan Pakistan Adam Khan 18 +18.032 4
8 Portugal Portugal Alvaro Parente 18 +18.189 3
9 Switzerland Switzerland Neel Jani 18 +20.851 2
10 Republic of Ireland Ireland Michael Devaney 18 +21.056 1
11 United States USA Scott Speed 18 +23.866
12 Japan Japan Ryo Fukuda 18 +25.192
13 Malaysia Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 18 +25.351
14 Germany Germany Timo Scheider 18 +25.905
15 India India Karun Chandhok 18 +27.793
16 Italy Italy Enrico Toccacelo 18 +35.521
17 Indonesia Indonesia Ananda Mikola 18 +40.333
18 Czech Republic Czech Republic Jan Charouz 18 +40.346
19 Canada Canada Sean McIntosh 18 +42.621
20 Austria Austria Mathias Lauda 18 +55.293
21 China China Tengyi Jiang 18 +58.194
22 Lebanon Lebanon Khalil Beschir 18 +59.092
23 Russia Russia Alexey Vasilyev 17 +1 Lap
24 South Africa South Africa Stephen Simpson 17 +1 Lap
Not classified
25 Netherlands Netherlands Jos Verstappen 0 +18 Laps

Main Race Results

The Main Race also took place on Sunday, 25 September 2005.

Pos Team Driver Laps Time Points
1 Brazil Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 38 55:01.910 10
2 Australia Australia Will Power 38 +11.330 9
3 Mexico Mexico Salvador Durán 38 +23.125 8
4 New Zealand New Zealand Matt Halliday 38 +23.705 7
5 Malaysia Malaysia Alex Yoong 38 +24.352 6
6 South Africa South Africa Stephen Simpson 38 +24.852 5
7 Netherlands Netherlands Jos Verstappen 38 +25.630 4
8 Japan Japan Ryo Fukuda 38 +26.219 3
9 Canada Canada Sean McIntosh 38 +27.179 2
10 Germany Germany Timo Scheider 37 +1 Lap 1
11 Austria Austria Mathias Lauda 37 +1 Lap
12 China China Tengyi Jiang 37 +1 Lap
13 Pakistan Pakistan Adam Khan 35 +3 Lap
14 Czech Republic Czech Republic Jan Charouz 24 +14 Lap
15 Russia Russia Alexey Vasilyev 18 +20 Laps
16 United Kingdom Great Britain Robbie Kerr 17 +21 Laps
17 United States USA Scott Speed 14 +24 Laps
18 Lebanon Lebanon Khalil Beschir 13 +25 Laps
19 Italy Italy Enrico Toccacelo 13 +25 Laps
20 Portugal Portugal Alvaro Parente 1 +37 Laps
21 Switzerland Switzerland Neel Jani 1 +37 Laps
22 Republic of Ireland Ireland Michael Devaney 0 +38 Laps
23 Indonesia Indonesia Ananda Mikola 0 +38 Laps
Not Started
24 France France Alexandre Premat DNS 0
25 India India Karun Chandhok DNS 0

Total Points

Total points awarded:

Team Points SR MR FL
Brazil Brazil 21 10 10 1
Australia Australia 16 7 9 --
New Zealand New Zealand 15 8 7 --
Mexico Mexico 13 5 8 --
France France 9 9 -- --
United Kingdom Great Britain 6 6 -- --
Malaysia Malaysia 6 -- 6 --
South Africa South Africa 5 -- 5 --
Pakistan Pakistan 4 4 -- --
Netherlands Netherlands 4 -- 4 --
Portugal Portugal 3 3 -- --
Japan Japan 3 -- 3 --
Switzerland Switzerland 2 2 -- --
Canada Canada 2 -- 2 --
Republic of Ireland Ireland 1 1 -- --
Germany Germany 1 -- 1 --

References

Previous race
None
A1 Grand Prix
2005-06 season
Next race
2005-06 A1GP, Germany
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