A1GP: Brazil Wins Brands Hatch Opener

Fairuz atop formidable Paddock Hill bend (click image to enlarge)

with Malaysia's Fairuz 13th in Sprint Race

Brazil driver Nelson Piquet Jr completed a pole to flag victory in the opening sprint race with hardly a sweat breaking from his forehead.

He was followed home by France, New Zealand, Australia, and Great Britain in second to fifth respectively.

Other points scorers are Mexico sixth, Pakistan seventh, Portugal eighth, Switzerland ninth and Ireland tenth.

Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy had a poor start from ninth on the grid but drove sensibly to defend his position to finish 13th eventually.

The race was extremely exciting only for the first two corners where the cars in rolling start formation were nose to tail and running four wide.

Netherland's Jos Verstappen was out almost immediately past the lights when he got nicked by Czech Republic driver Jan Charouz.

After that it became almost a proccession although we witnessed some moments with Malaysia's Fairuz going wide at Graham Hill bend and defending Malaysia's 13th position from Germany for most part of the 20 lap race.

Perhaps the drivers in preserving their cars for the Feature race, to a very large extend, made the Sprint race boring to TV viewers and no doubt the circuit race goers too.

We hope the Feature race, with a standing start, a pit stop and a much longer distance will play to a different script and we will see much more action than offerred in the Sprint race.

And perhaps, the idea of awarding the same points for the top 10 finishers for both the races now seemed unfair to drivers in the Feature race who might offer the fans much more value for their money.

BRANDS HATCH - SPRINT RACE RESULTS & POINTS

Pos/A1 Team/Driver
1 - Brazil - Nelson Piquet Jr - 10
2 - France - Alexandre Premat - 9
3 - New Zealand - Matt Halliday - 8
4 - Australia - Will Power - 7
5 - Great Britain - Robbie Kerr - 6
6 - Mexico - Salvador Duran - 5
7 - Pakistan - Adam Khan - 4
8 - Portugal - Alvaro Parente - 3
9 - Switzerland - Neel Jani - 2
10 - Ireland - Michael Devaney - 1
11 - USA - Scott Speed
12 - Japan - Ryo Fukuda
13 - Malaysia - Fairuz Fauzy
14 - Germany - Timo Scheider
15 - India - Karun Chandhok
16 - Italy - Enrico Toccacelo
17 - Indonesia - Ananda Mikola
18 - Czech Republic - Jan Charouz
19 - Canada - Sean McIntosh
20 - Austria - Mathias Lauda
21 - China - Tengyi Jiang
22 - Lebanon - Khalil Beschir
23 - Russia - Alexey Vasiliev
24 - South Africa - Stephen Simpson
25 - Netherlands - Jos Verstappen - DNF