A1GP: Malaysia 8th in Sprint race but "lightning" struck again in Feature
Fairuz Fauzy in Portugal...Bad pitstop again dropped team to last followed by an off causing severe car body damage in Feature race
However, fortunes were reversed in the main Feature race when a crash on lap 17 of the 36 lap race resulted in "severe body damage" to the Malaysian car and forced Fairuz out of the race. The crash was apparently due to a slow puncture according to the Malaysian team's official release.
At that moment of the crash Malaysia was lying in 21st position after another bungle during the pitstop sent the team to the rear end of the field from the eighth position before the stop. This second consecutive foul up by the team crew in a Feature race pitstop - after a similar wheel nut incident in the last race in Germany - should perhaps be investigated thoroughly and remedial actions be implemented to prevent another repeat in Australia.
Surely the pressure of having to claw up the ranks again after being in eighth position at the start have a lot of bearing to possible over-driving resulting in the crash by Fairuz? Experienced race drivers can usually feel the loss of tyre pressure as it would result in erratic handling of the car and one simply doesn't drive all out when the car's behaviour changes suddenly.
A1 Team Malaysia is run by a crew comprising approximately 75% Europeans and 25% Malaysians as anybody up and down the pitlane can see. Is it the fault of the European crew who are supposed to be the guiding lights for the Malaysians or is it the Malaysian crew themselves who have screwed up? Surely having the same problem in consecutive races should not be acceptable to the team management. Was it human error or a technical problem? Why wasn't the problem rectified after Germany? All these questions should be addressed and hopefully we will not encounter the same problem again in Australia. Lightning has struck twice but three times will be unbearable for the Malaysian fans.
Meanwhile Fairuz had this to say, “We had a good first race, managing to stay out of trouble and bring the car home in the points. Unfortunately the second race was a different story. Our strategy was to pit early, but when we changed the tyres there was a problem, so our stop was over a minute long. The car was very good in the race and I thought I would be able to finish in the top ten, but after the second safety car I had a slow puncture, which put me off in the last corner when I tried to push. It’s racing, it happens, we’ll be trying our best again in Australia – we’ll never give up.”
Team-mate Alex Yoong, who sat out round 3 and will drive round 4 in Australia, supported Fairuz by saying, "It was an unlucky day for us but it wasn't Fairuz's fault. He did great in the Sprint race earlier."
Jack Cunningham, Team Principal adds, “It is a slightly disappointing end to an otherwise good weekend. We’d been running so well and Fairuz had got to grips with the track both in the wet and the dry. The competition is so fierce in this series and we’re fighting hard too which is great for those watching the race. Sometimes results aren’t always the ones you want but we are proud of our 8th position in Race 1. We’ll be back out in Australia in two weeks time to try and get back in the points. The Australian race is broadcast live on TV in Malaysia so we hope to deliver a good result to our many fans” Malaysia gained 3 points from the Sprint race but dropped from 9th overall to 11th overall in the championship standing.
Max Revson
Portugal Rd.3 - Feature Race Result
Team/Driver/Time
1 France Alexandre Premat 1h01m05.054s
2 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.01.12.971
3 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.01.21.387
4 USA Scott Speed 1.01.24.477
5 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1.01.32.774
6 Australia Will Davison 1.01.40.228
7 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1.01.41.083
8 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 1.01.41.719
9 Czech Rep Tomas Enge 1.01.43.184
10 Austria Mathias Lauda 1.01.56.834
11 Lebanon Basil Shabaan 1.02.04.187
12 G. Britain Robbie Kerr 1.02.07.401
13 India Armaan Ebrahim 1.02.10.998
14 China Tengyi Jiang 1.02.16.035
15 Pakistan Adam Khan 1.02.21.971
16 N. Zealand Matt Halliday 35 laps
17 Russia Mikhail Aleshin 35 laps
18 Canada Sean McIntosh 20 laps
19 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 18 laps
20 Germany Adrian Sutil 17 laps
21 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 15 laps
22 S. Africa Tomas Schekter 14 laps
23 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 3 laps
24 Mexico Salvador Duran 2 laps
Portugal Rd.3 - Sprint Race Result
Team/Driver/Time
1 France Alexandre Premat 27m46.488s
2 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 27.48.543
3 Switzerland Neel Jani 27.49.777
4 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 27.59.973
5 Czech Rep Tomas Enge 28.00.416
6 Portugal Alvaro Parente 28.05.149
7 Canada Sean McIntosh 28.07.785
8 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 28.18.641
9 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 28.23.855
10 S.Africa Tomas Scheckter 28.26.210
11 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 28.26.581
12 Germany Adrian Sutil 28.28.314
13 USA Scott Speed 28.28.403
14 N. Zealand Matt Halliday 28.29.666
15 Russia Mikhail Aleshin 28.38.156
16 Austria Mathias Lauda 28.53.215
17 India Armaan Ebrahim 28.55.302
18 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 29.02.610
19 Ireland Ralph Firman 17 laps
20 G.Britain Robbie Kerr 5 laps
21 China Tengyi Jiang 1 lap
22 Australia Will Davison 0 laps
23 Mexico Salvador Duran 0 laps
24 Pakistan Adam Khan 0 laps
A1 Grand Prix Championship PointsAfter Rd.3
1 France 50
2 Brazil 42
3 Switzerland 34
4 New Zealand 29
5 Australia 21
6 Canada 18
7 Ireland 16
8 Mexico 16
9 Great Britain 15
10 Netherlands 15
11 Malaysia 14
12 Portugal 14
13 Czech Republic 8
14 Germany 8
15 USA 7
16 Japan 6
17 South Africa 6
18 Indonesia 4
19 Pakistan 4
20 Italy 4
21 Austria 1
posted by Journeyman at 4:27 PM
4 Comments:
The pit stop blunder shouldn't happened again..I guess the practice on the pit stop should be priority later on in Oz as soon as the teams get the car..However, setup and tuning should be tip top too..Another thing, it looks like the team crews were a bit nervous during the pit stop chaotic situation..Maybe it's better not to enter the pit when a lot of other teams choose to come in..Probably, they'll be a bit calmer if no or less 'competition' during tyre changing..Just my two cents!!
well, i think the idea was to get the pit stop over with so that Fairuz can concentrate on driving. that is why i think right after the first lap, so many team pitted.
anyway, Ticket for A1GP in Malaysia is selling next week. I planned to get grand stand, who wanted to join?
I saw the event ad in today's The Star and I must tell you that with that kind of ticket pricing, this event will not get the crowd that are respectable..We saw Portugal grandstand and hardly any crowd can be seen, SIC will be worst as the grandstand is huge..Parallel Media should take note and not rely on SIC advise cause they are hopeless..To price A1 ticket higher than Japan GT is reasonable, but they must remember Malaysia is not like UK (mature motorsports market)..An untested event like A1 will suffer if not many crowd attended the inaugral event..I bet there will be less that 10,000 crowd for this A1..And 10,000 is useless for big stadium like SIC..If you ask me, the price should be lower like MotoGP (RM50 for Grandstand)..Once people find the event interesting a decent hike in next year event won't hurt that much..So to Parallel Media Malaysia good luck!!
From the 1st Anonymous
i will have to agree with the previous anonymous post.
I will pay RM200 for grandstand, but just becos i am a motor racing fan, but for casual fan with the intention of supporting malaysia team, RM200 is a little too much, further if he/she wish to bring the children.
SIC, do something about it, do your part to support and promote motor racing interest in malaysia.
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