A1GP: Malaysia 5th!

Alex has every reason to be satisfied (click image to enlarge)

A hugely ballsy drive from Alex - well done Alex!!

The 38 lap Feature Race which was to last just under an hour with tyre change and grid positions determined from the Sprint Race held just over an hour and a half ago promised much prospects of a hugely entertaining race as compared to the earlier mundane parade - as this site has predicted before the race. And it was more than entertaining...it was full of spills and thrills...there were crashes and rolls, challenges and aggressive resistances...and what a ballsy drive from Malaysia's Alex Yoong who drove to a superb 5th from 13th on the grid!

The race was deservedly won by Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr despite a bad pitstop which saw him relegated to third on lap 20 and desrvedly so too for Australia which finished second with Will Power as well as for Mexico with Salvador Duran.

But for Alex no one can deny him this now and he fully deserved his fifth for Malaysia and paid the faith of the many silent supporters like his engineer and close friend, Greg Wheeler, Alex's wife Arianna and definitely no doubt his son, Alister too. Also there for Alex is a huge throng of relatives and friends who were glued to their TV sets at home in Malaysia cheering and urging him on. It was a deserving top 5 for him especially after a year long lay=off from racing.

Team Malaysia made an electrifying start from 13th to move up to 9th in lap 1 and gained another 3 spots to sixth by lap 3. The chase was relentless but the dangers of a clip or a nudge was also starkingly there.

This proved true when Lebanon's rookie driver, Khalil Beschir closed the door on Italy at the entry to the Paddock Hill downhill corner and sufferred a huge airborn triple roll which brought the safety car out on lap 14. Before that 6 cars were out in seperate multiple accidents as drivers in their frenetic pace to gain positions took excessive risks as there is no other race to preserve their cars for.

But Alex kept his cool and stayed in a safe fifth position as Mexico and New Zealand battled it out in the closing laps for the final podium position in 3rd and 4th - knowing that with 6 laps to go it's stupid to get tangled up with that battle and hoping that Malaysia may yet steal a podium third from the immediate front two to him. It was not to be and Malaysia has to be contend with a most rewarding 5th which earned the team a precious 6 points with 11 races to be run.

So, it's off to Germany in two weeks for round 2 - can't wait, can we all?

-JourneyMan-

BRANDS HATCH - FEATURE RACE RESULTS & POINTS
Pos/A1 Team/Driver
1 - Brazil - Nelson Piquet Jr - 22 (11 + 11
2 - Australia - Will Power - 16 (7 + 9)
3 - Mexico - Salvador Duran - 13 (5 + 8)
4 - New Zealand - Matt Halliday - 13 (8 + 7)
5 - Malaysia - Alex Yoong - 6 (0 + 6)
6 - South Africa - Stephen Simpson - 5 (0 + 5)
7 - Netherlands - Jos Verstappen - 4 (0 + 4)
8 - Japan - Ryo Fukuda - 3 (0 + 3)
9 - Canada - Sean McIntosh - 2 (0 + 2)
10 - Germany - Timo Scheider - 1 (0 + 1)
11 - Austria - Mathias Lauda
12 - China - Tengyi Jiang
13 - Pakistan - Adam Khan - 4 (4 + 0)
DNF - Czech Republic - Jan Charouz
DNF - Russia - Alexey Vasiliev
DNF - Great Britain - Robbie Kerr - 6 (6 + 0)
DNF - USA - Scott Speed
DNF - Lebanon - Khalil Beschir
DNF - Italy - Enrico Toccacelo
DNF - Portugal - Alvaro Parente - 3 (3 + 0)
DNF - Switzerland - Neel Jani - 2 (2 + 0)
DNF - France - Alexandre Premat - 9 (9 + 0)
DNF - India - Karun Chandhok
DNF - Indonesia - Ananda Mikola
DNF - Ireland - Michael Devaney - 1 (1 + 0)