Last Chance To Qualify For F1 Driver Search Grand Finals

Round 3 winners with Alex Yoong (front second from left)...
Round 7 action...
in November 13th Round Eight of the PanGlobal Alex Yoong Karting programme

The final round (round 8) of the 2005 PanGlobal Alex Yoong F1 Driver Search which enables participants to qualify for the Grand Finals will be held on the 13th November 2005 at the Sepang International Kart circuit.

This round 8 will pick the final five qualifiers to join the 35 already qualified from round 1 to round 7 in the Grand Finals where the champion will be determined to received the grand prize of a Formula BMW test drive.

Round 1 to round 7, held in various kart circuits around Peninsula Malaysia in the states of Selangor, Terengganu and Penang, were participated by more than 200 karters.

Malaysia's former F1 driver and present A1GP national driver, Alex Yoong said, "The quality of this year's field has been consistently good. We expect the Grand Finals to be closely contested as there are not much to choose amongst the 35 qualifiers so far."

The Grand Finals will be also held at the Sepang International Kart circuit on the 18th December 2005.

The PanGlobal Alex Yoong F1 Driver Search programme is sponsored and promoted by PanGlobal Insurance Bhd., organised by Malaysian Motorsport Organisers and Competitors Association (MMOCA) and supported by Alex Yoong, Proton Edar, KartQuest Circuit and Sunway Lagoon Extreme Park.

Participants keen to submit their entries for this LAST chance to qualify in round 8 can contact PanGlobal Insurance Bhd's Gavin Teoh at tel: 03-7785 7530, fax: 03-7785 9319, hp: 016-298 5653, email: gavinteoh@pgi.com.my or Cik Nor Akmar at tel: 03-7981 6564, fax: 03-7981 9380, email: akmar@alexyoong.com . Special entry fee will be given to all PanGlobal Insurance customers.

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

A1 Team Malaysia had its best race weekend build-up of the A1 Grand Prix series so far in Portugal rewarded with a top-ten finish in the Sprint race in eighth place with Fairuz Fauzy at the wheel for the entire weekend.

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

A1GP: Fairuz Qualifies Malaysia in Eight

Fairuz in Portugal qualifying Malaysian car with black banded nose...(click image to enlarge)

Alex: "Fairuz is driving well this weekend..."

Fairuz Fauzy continued its strong performance for A1 Team Malaysia this weekend by qualifying eight and will start on the fourth row for the Sprint race tomorrow.

With qualifying run in the dry, Fairuz was on the pace from the start and has maintained his competitive performance throughout each session. Eleventh fastest for the first run, Fairuz put new tyres on for the second and bettered his time; he went back out for the third run and then put another new set of tyres on for his final run, which resulted in him using his new tyre runs for the aggregated qualifying time that put him eighth fastest overall.

Fairuz commented, “I’m happy with the car and the team has done a good job. We changed a few things for qualifying and these improved the car. We had four good runs. We know we have a good wet set up and we just need to work on the dry setup a little more, then we will be ready for tomorrow.”

Teammate Alex Yoong watched compatriot Fairuz out on track and added, “Fairuz is driving well for A1 Team Malaysia this weekend and it’s good for us to be starting in the top ten. When you’re a driver you just want to be in the car yourself, but it’s great to see Fairuz flying, and flying the flag for Malaysia.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, summed up the weekend so far saying, “It’s been a weekend in which we have all been saddened by the news of the passing of Datin Seri Endon which has naturally focused our attention back into Malaysia. Against that backdrop Fairuz has continued to perform well for A1 Team Malaysia today - we’re very pleased with his pace in qualifying. He’s got to grips with this circuit in both wet and dry conditions. With a little bit of luck this qualifying performance should deliver us a good result tomorrow.”

A1 Team Brazil took its second Sprint race podium top-spot of the A1 Grand Prix series with Nelson Piquet Jr recording the fastest aggregate time in qualifying despite spinning off in the first of the four sessions. Switzerland turned in it's best ever qualifying to share front row with Brazil and the Germany round's double winner, France, qualified third.

Telecast notes: The races for Portugal will be shown live over StarSports on Sunday evening at 8.30pm MST (Sprint race) and 10.00pm MST (Feature race) while 8TV will carry delayed telecasts a few hours later. For programme schedule go to StarSports and 8TV.
Max Revson

Portugal, Estoril Rd.3 Qualifying Results
Team/Driver/Aggregate/Time

1 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 3.01.316

2 Switzerland Neel Jani 3.01.830;

3 France Alexandre Premat 3.02.550

4 Czech Rep Tomas Enge 3.02.948

5 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 3.03.210

6 Portugal Alvaro Parente 3.03.301

7 Canada Sean McIntosh 3.03.367

8 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 3.03.467

9 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 3.04.001

10 G Britain Robbie Kerr 3.04.164

11 Germany Adrian Sutil 3.04.181

12 Mexico Salvador Duran 3.04.447

13 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 3.04.716

14 New Zealand Matt Halliday 3.04.909

15 USA Scott Speed 3.05.024

16 S Africa Tomas Scheckter 3.05.518

17 Russia Mikhail Aleshin 3.06.287

18 Ireland Ralph Firman 3.07.289

19 Australia Will Davison 3.07.327

20 China Tengyi Jiang 3.07.543

21 Pakistan Adam Khan 3.08.976

22 Austria Mathias Lauda 3.09.743

23 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 3.10.318

24 India Armaan Ebrahim 3.10.949

- Japan did not start

A1GP: Malaysia 10th In Wet, Wet, Wet Portugal

Wet, wet, wet...

that about sums up the 4 sessions of Friday practices.

Lisbon, Portugal - 21 October 05 - Despite atrocious weather conditions affected the first day’s running of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations at the Circuito Estoril near Lisbon, Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy managed a top-ten in the third session of four on a still damp but drying track.

There's not much to say about the other three sessions as the track was either wet or practically drenched and teams were clocking some 20 seconds per lap slower. All drivers clocked their fastest time in the third practice session which was actually the first official practice session. The first two sessions were additional practices inserted for just Portugal.

France who won both races in Germany continued with it's good pace to top the day's time sheets but with Alexandre Premat on this occasion. Germany who for the first time this season, have Adrian Sutil as their race driver finished second with ex-Formula One steerer third.

With teams mostly concentrating on wet set-up work and only teams who went out on new tyres in the driest segment of session three there are more to come from the teams who have lagged behind on day 1.

Expect Ireland's Ralph Firman who finished 11th for the day, Canada's Sean McIntosh (14th), USA's Scott Speed (17th) and New Zealand's Matt Halliday (19th) to want to have a say at the front on Saturday. Malaysia's Fairuz would also like to maintain a top 10 position in Saturday's final practice before qualifying.

The Malaysian team turned up with all members wearing black armbands as a sign of respect for the passing of the country's Prime Minister's wife Endon Mahmood on Thursday morning.
Max Revson

A1 Team/Driver/Time/No. Laps

1 France Alexandre Premat 1.33.024 14

2 Germany Adrian Sutil 1.33.700 17

3 Czech Rep. Tomas Enge 1.33.734 19

4 Australia Will Davison 1.34.065 16

5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 1.34.085 16

6 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1.34.699 16

7 G. Britain Robbie Kerr 1.35.283 17

8 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1.35.302 15

9 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.35.590 15

10 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 1.35.915 15

11 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.35.992 10

12 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1.36.055 16

13 Russia Alexander Turumin 1.36.367 20

14 Canada Sean McIntosh 1.36.374 12

15 Austria Mathias Lauda 1.36.482 21

16 S. Africa Tomas Scheckter 1.36.777 17

17 USA Scott Speed 1.37.534 11

18 Pakistan Adam Khan 1.38.978 7

19 N. Zealand Matt Halliday 1.39.361 17

20 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 1.41.157 16

21 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1.44.914 10

22 India Armaan Ebrahim 1.45.263 23

23 China Tengji Jiang 1.45.388 8

24 Mexico Salvador Duran 1.45.400 12

25 Japan d.n.s.

A1 Team Malaysia Marks Mourning Of The Passing of Datin Seri Endon Mahmood

Datin Seri Endon Mahmood 1940 - 2005

by wearing black armbands and cancelling all non-track and hospitality events.

Lisbon, Portugal - 20th Oct 2005 - A1 Team Malaysia is deeply saddened by the news of the passing away of Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, wife of Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Endon Mahmood, 64, had battled bravely with cancer, but sadly lost her fight on Thursday morning.

The team will participate in this weekend’s A1 Grand Prix of Nations in Estoril, Portugal, paying its respects by wearing black armbands throughout the weekend, and flying the national flag at the circuit at half-mast. The team have also withdrawn from all non-track and hospitality events.

Alex Yoong, Director of A1 Team Malaysia, said today, “I have been asked by everyone in our Team to offer, on their behalf, sincere condolences to Prime Minister Badawi and his family at this very sad time. As we take part in the A1 Grand Prix event this weekend, our thoughts will naturally be back in Malaysia as we share in our country’s mourning. Datin Seri Endon was a much loved and much respected person, who was dedicated to her duties and devoted to her community and charity work. I know first-hand of how she focused on the welfare and well-being of women and children. I, and other members of my family, have met her personally and will remember her all our lives.”

Fairuz Fauzy, team driver this weekend in Portugal said “It is with deep sorrow that, on behalf of myself and my family, I add my expressions of condolence to the Premier and his family on their bereavement. Although we are far away in Portugal, our minds will be in Malaysia at this sad time.”

A1 Team Malaysia Release

A1GP: Malaysia To Field Fairuz Fauzy In Rd.3 Portugal And Alex Yoong In Rd.4

Alex to support Fairuz in Portugal's rd.3...(click image to enlarge)
in a switch from the strategy of shared duties per race weekend.

In annoucing this A1 Team Malaysia's team principal, Jack Cunningham said, "We had a good weekend in Germany with our sixth place finish and I hope that we can continue with this level of performance in Estoril. We don't know the track, so we don't underestimate the challenge ahead, but we have a dedicated team of motorsport professionals and the will to win, so we'll be out to do our best. Fairuz will do all the driving this weekend as Alex, with his knowledge of the circuit in Australia, will carry out all the driving duties there. We will be assessing how this strategy will work over the coming two races."

A1 Team Malaysia moves on to Portugal for the third in the trio of European rounds that have kicked off the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series. Estoril circuit, just over 30 kilometres northwest of Lisbon, is the location for the next round where it promises to be an exciting weekend of race action, with A1 Team Malaysia ready to take on the challenges of this demanding circuit.

Yoong competed for A1 Team Malaysia in the last round of the Series in Germany, bringing his car home sixth in the first of the two races following his 5th place in the feature race in the UK.

Yoong: "We'll be working hard as a team to continue to score World Cup points and keep A1 Team Malaysia performing competitively. Estoril, as a former F1 track, has a special place on the calendar and I hope it will be the venue for a strong showing from the team with Fairuz leading the charge for us."

Fairuz: "I am very happy to be back in the car in Portugal and am very excited to be driving both the sprint and the feature races. Estoril is a circuit that I've always wanted to drive."

The A1 Grand Prix of Nations in Portugal takes place from 21 - 23 October and the teams leave Europe after this event to travel eastwards, with a race weekend in Sydney in early November and the A1 Grand Prix of Nations at Sepang circuit in Malaysia, 18 - 20 November.

Edited from A1 Team Malaysia release

Malaysians Flood A1GP Official Site

More than 1 million Malaysia originated hits over a weekend.

A1GP's official website at www.A1GP.com has tracked more than 1,200,000 hits from excited Malaysian fans over the weekend of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix opening round at Brands Hatch in the UK and a further 960,000 hits during the second event which took place in the Eurospeedway in Lausitz, Germany.

In total, the site received over 30,000,000 hits during the three exciting days of the UK race at 23-25th September 2005.

Malaysians were the 8th highest generator of hits to the official website worldwide.

Jack Cunningham, of A1 Team Malaysia, referring to the million hits from Malaysia said: “That’s extremely impressive and a sign that Malaysians are eager to follow the success of A1 Team Malaysia. It's also an encouragement to those potential sponsors in Malaysia who are assessing the commercial value of partnering with the team, and utilizing the opportunities for brand exposure via the total A1 GP medium.”

Owen Leed, Commercial Director of the Malaysian team, echoed: “The website figures are very encouraging and will be useful to us in our efforts to encourage the corporates of Malaysia to join with us in commercial efforts around the Team. This level of interest will also help us and SIC (Sepang International Circuit) and PMG (Parallel Media Group), the promoters of the A1 race at Sepang on November 20. Some interesting things will be done on and around that race and an active website interest will help us enormously as we seek to spread the word about the efforts and successes of the team and of the event itself. The total of 1,200,000 hits from Malaysia represents 4% of the total hits generated during the first race weekend, with Malaysia being the 9th highest generator of hits to the website worldwide.”

The third round of the A1 Grand Prix of nations will take place at Estoril, Portugal 21-23 October 2005, followed by Eastern Creek in Australia 2 weeks later.

The fifth round of the series will take place at Sepang International Circuit over the weekend of 18-20 November 2005. The ticket prices for the Malaysian round are: Mall Area Grandstand - US$50.00, Grandstand K1 - US$25.00, Hillstands C2 - US$7.00, Hillstands K2 - US$7.00, Paddock Pass - US$37.00 (additional to entry tickets).

To book tickets to the Sepang A1 Grand Prix of Nations please visit "AIGP Malaysia Tickets".

Telecasts notes: The qualifying and races for Portugal will be shown live over StarSports on Saturday and Sunday evenings Malaysian time while 8TV will carry delayed telecasts on the same days. For programme schedule go to StarSports and 8TV.

Max Revson

A1GP: Malaysia Looking Forward to Portugal Round 3 This Weekend

and will continue with questionable strategy of shared driving duties.

With Malaysia currently in the top-ten of the A1GP championship, the team can look forward to Portugal's round 3 to consolidate their position before leaving Europe to make a concerted effort to improve their position in more familiar venues in Australia and Malaysia.

The final European round in Portugal's Estoril circuit will be held over 21-23 October 2005 this weekend.

The team has confirmed that it will continue with its programme of sharing driving duties between its selected drivers, Fairuz Fauzy and Alex Yoong, and that both drivers will be racing at the A1 Grand Prix Malaysian event at Sepang for the benefit of the thousands of Malaysian fans that are expected to attend. This strategy argued by the Malaysian team is central to the team’s goals of developing young Malaysian motor racing talent and building a team with the depth and breadth of experience and abilities required to compete in international motorsport at this level although many would question this strategy.

In order to maintain a true level playing field, A1 Grand Prix does not allow testing programmes outside of race weekends, which requires all teams to use the free practice sessions for driver evaluation and development.

Cunningham clarifies how this impacts on A1 Team Malaysia, saying, “Let’s not forget that all teams are in the same position. Whilst the lack of opportunity for free testing does come at a cost to us, in terms of not being able to give either driver as much time in the car as those one-driver teams, it’s still the right way to go. Just look at Fairuz’s performance. He’s done well. He suffered from a cold at the German event but look at the effort he has put in. As far as Alex is concerned, look at his performance at Brands and at Eurospeedway. Really outstanding stuff. So, as I have said previously, we are lucky we have two individuals of this calibre. Other nations I know are jealous of that resource. We are nurturing that so we can use it wisely.”

However this site cannot see how the other countries which use only one driver per weekend can be jealous of Malaysia's two driver resource since all these nations have much bigger depth of driver pool than Malaysia has. In fact these advance motorsport nations which use one driver per weekend and which have a much bigger driver pool is simply very single minded in trying to win the inaugural championship using the best strategy available.

We are not suggesting that Malaysia only uses one driver for the entire championship but certainly both drivers can be involved in racing in the championship if the team uses one driver per round over each round's entire weekend. This would meet the team's strategic approach of developing driving talents surely.

As it is now, both the Malaysian drivers will suffer non-peak performance levels over a single race weekend merely due to the handicap of lesser track time per weekend compared to the teams that know better.

Telecasts notes: The qualifying and races for Portugal will be shown live over StarSports on Saturday and Sunday evenings Malaysian time while 8TV will carry delayed telecasts on the same days. For programme schedule go to StarSports and 8TV.

Max Revson

A1GP Sepang Night Race on Nov 20th?

A1GP Malaysian round will...
race at night in Sepang International Circuit on 20th Nov?

According to an exclusive scoop by Pitpass, a high level source has confirmed that round 5 of the inaugural A1GP will be held in Malaysia's Sepang International circuit at night with both the Sprint race and the Feature race to be run from 8.00pm Malaysian time.

The source said that "It would be amazing to watch..." And no doubt the Malaysian fans will turn up in force to cheer their team on.

There are the elements of the cars' batteries and circuit lighting to be worked on but Sepang is not new to night racing having run the 12 hour Merdeka Millenium Endurance races a number of years.

Night racing is also not new to top level single seater racing with both the IRL and ChampCars having done that in America.

Definitely too, for the fans, it will be much cooler to watch than in the heat of the often 40 degrees Celsius afternoon Malaysian raceday.

Strangely though till now, the Sepang circuit has made no announcements of ticket prices with only a little over a month to the event.

Racing for Malaysia do hope that with this Pitpass scoop and this follow up more Malaysian fans will be informed and make plans well ahead of the 18-20 Nov weekend for the first ever "World Cup of Motorsports" on Malaysian soil.

With the Malaysian team comprising Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy doing well in the opening two rounds, this is too good to be missed.

- Max Revson

A1GP: Incalcitrant Wheel Nut Robbed Malaysia of Another Top-10 Result

Alex happy with 5 points from Germany...(click image to enlarge)

in Germany's Main race when Malaysia was lying 5th.

An incalcitrant wheel nut during the Malaysian team's pitstop in the Main race cost the team some 30 seconds and dropped the team from 5th to 16th some 45 seconds down from the winner of the race, France.Alex Yoong repeated his lightning start of the Sprint race when he shot off from 6th on the standing start grid of the Main race to round the inside of turn 1 and emerged in second position behind France!His car however could not match the pace of the stunned chasing pack of Brazil, Germany and Switzerland and he soon dropped to 5th after a few of laps of resistance. He eventually finished in 16th overall position in the hour-long 35 lap Main race as a result of the slow pitstop. The incident filled Main race was won by France with Great Britain and Canada following home in second and third.

Alex said after the Main race, "We are happy to come away with 5 points from this round as the car's ideal balance was never fully achieved all weekend. We have come away with more experience and are looking forward to round 3 in Estoril, Portugal in two week's time." Malaysia now lies 9th in the championship with 11 points after round 2. - Max Revson

Germany Rd. 2 - Main Race Results

Pos/Team/Laps/Time/Gap F/Gap P

1 FRANCE 35 58:45.700 - -

2 G. BRITAIN 35 58:49.406 +3.706 +3.706

3 CANADA 35 58:51.158 +5.458 +1.752

4 N. ZEALAND 35 58:51.674 +5.974 +0.516

5 SWITZERLAND 35 58:52.771 +7.071 +1.097

6 IRELAND 35 58:53.781 +8.081 +1.010

7 NETHERLANDS 35 58:55.322 +9.622 +1.541

8 INDONESIA 35 59:02.406 +16.706 +7.084

9 JAPAN 35 59:05.044 +19.344 +2.638

10 GERMANY 35 59:07.560 +21.860 +2.516

11 PORTUGAL 35 59:10.440 +24.740 +2.880

12 PAKISTAN 35 59:10.966 +25.266 +0.526

13 MEXICO 35 59:14.878 +29.178 +3.912

14 AUSTRALIA 35 59:16.590 +30.890 +1.712

15 AUSTRIA 35 59:16.832 +31.132 +0.242

16 MALAYSIA 35 59:31.081 +45.381 +14.249

17 CHINA 35 1:00:03.141 +1'17.441 +32.060

18 LEBANON 33 59:47.818 2 Laps 2 Laps

19 CZECH REP 27 46:37.305 8 Laps 6 Laps

20 BRAZIL 26 44:32.698 9 Laps 1 Lap

21 INDIA 19 31:52.869 16 Laps 7 Laps

22 SOUTH AFRICA 15 59:27.594 20 Laps 4 Laps

23 ITALY 11 27:27.519 24 Laps 4 Laps

24 USA 4 7:41.286 31 Laps 7 Laps2005

A1GP Championship Classification (after Rd.2)

Pos/Team/Points after rd.2

1 BRAZIL 30, 2 FRANCE 29, 3 NEW ZEALAND 29, 4 SWITZERLAND 17, 5 AUSTRALIA 16, 6 MEXICO 16, 7 GREAT BRITAIN 15, 8 CANADA 14, 9 MALAYSIA 11, 10 GERMANY 8, 11 IRELAND 8, 12 NETHERLANDS 8, 13 JAPAN 6, 14 SOUTH AFRICA 5, 15 PAKISTAN 4, 16 INDONESIA 3, 17 PORTUGAL 3.

A1GP: Malaysia 6th In German Sprint Race!

Alex had a cracking rolling start from 18th to 6th...(click image to enlarge)

A cracking rolling start from 18th position and dogged defending throughout the 18 lap Sprint race of round 2 in Lausitz, Germany enabled Malaysia to snatch 6th with Alex Yoong at the wheel.

Alex: "It was very satisfying. I knew there was going to be trouble at turn 1 and I drove around them from the outside. There were a few hairy moments for me as the car was over steering. We are going to tweak it further for the Feature race. Great stuff for the whole team!"

A1 Team Malaysia thus adds another 5 points to the 6 from round 1.

France won the race from Switzerland with Brazil third.
- Max Revson

Germany Rd.2 - Sprint Race Results
Pos/Team/Laps/Time/Gap to F/Gap to P
1 FRANCE 18 30:10.429 - -
2 SWITZERLAND 18 30:12.442 +2.013 +2.013
3 BRAZIL 18 30:12.887 +2.458 +0.445
4 N. ZEALAND 18 30:18.475 +8.046 +5.588
5 GERMANY 18 30:19.280 +8.851 +0.805
6 MALAYSIA 18 30:33.848 +23.419 +14.568
7 CANADA 18 30:34.438 +24.009 +0.590
8 ITALY 18 30:34.954 +24.525 +0.516
9 MEXICO 18 30:35.838 +25.409 +0.884
10 IRELAND 18 30:37.010 +26.581 +1.172
11 JAPAN 18 30:38.271 +27.842 +1.261
12 CZECH REP 18 30:38.671 +28.242 +0.400
13 S. AFRICA 18 30:50.690 +40.261 +12.019
14 AUSTRIA 18 30:51.436 +41.007 +0.746
15 INDONESIA 18 30:53.064 +42.635 +1.628
16 AUSTRALIA 18 30:53.885 +43.456 +0.821
17 INDIA 18 30:54.308 +43.879 +0.423
18 CHINA 16 30:26.611 2 Laps 2 Laps
19 LEBANON 7 13:24.382 11 Laps 9 Laps
20 PORTUGAL 3 7:30.261 15 Laps 4 Laps
21 PAKISTAN 2 3:24.087 16 Laps 1 Lap
22 NETHERLANDS 1 4:27.020 17 Laps 1 Lap

A1GP: Malaysia Continues To Give Handicap To Other Nations

Alex rues set up problems in Germany...(click image to enlarge)

With qualifying driver doing two one-hour free practice sessions instead of three.

Malaysia continues with the policy of exposing both their drivers in the three free practice sessions with Alex Yoong driving two sessions and Fairuz Fauzy driving one session in Germany's round 2. As a result of this handicap given to other teams who use the same drivers for all the three sessions, it had meant less time on the track for the Malaysian team's qualifying driver to dial in the optimum settings for the car on an unfamiliar circuit. Malaysia had thus qualified 18th for the race.

Many Malaysian fans in forum boards across the world have debated against this policy which was originally adopted by the Malaysian team in the opening round two weeks ago in Brands Hatch and felt that it might well be better for using one driver for the whole weekend of each round. Fairuz could have driven the entire weekend at Lausitz's EuroSpeedway for example and Alex then take over the wheel for Malaysia for the entire weekend in round 3 at Portugal, for example, if the team's intention is to give both the drivers the chance to race.

Another method of rotating drivers is to use the driver who is more experience in any particular circuits and if both drivers have no experience on any circuit, Fairuz should be nominated for the weekend as Alex may have been to more circuits than Fairuz had.

The rotation for the rest of the 10 rounds can then look something like this: Rd. 3 Estoril, Portugal - Fairuz; Rd. 4 Eastern Creek, Australia - Alex; Rd. 5 Sepang, Malaysia - Alex; Rd. 6 Dubai, UAE - Fairuz; Rd. 7 Sentul, Indonesia - Alex; Rd. 8 South Africa - Fairuz; Rd. 9 Curitiba, Brazil - Fairuz; Rd. 10 Monterrey, Mexico - Alex; Rd. 11 Laguna Seca, USA - Alex; and Rd. 12 Shanghai, China - Alex. This way, Malaysia will have experience as well as fulltime on all the rounds and Fairuz will have a chance to do at least three to four complete events.

As it is, the system of having the two Malaysian drivers share free practice sessions, makes no sense, if it is the intention of the team to give both drivers a chance on the track in the A1GP car.

Another factor that has affected Malaysia's poor qualifying position according to the team's qualifying release was that Alex had only managed to do one competitive timed lap of the four runs as the other 3 runs comprised of the first run with old tyres, second run baulked by traffic and third run spoilt by the Italian driver who made an agreessive exit from the pitlane and "pushed" Alex to the grass. Alex's fastest timed lap was made in his fourth run which would was 1.5s off the fastest time set by France.

In the same release, Alex has been quoted to say that the Malaysian team is confident of running in the pace of the top 10 running teams for the races.

Malaysia is unlikely to improve or even match their opening round's 5th and whether the Malaysian team can finish in the top 10 amongst all the traffic we'll just have to wait and see by tuning into Astro's Star Sports at 7pm Malaysian time this evening or turn to 8TV which will show the races delayed at 11pm tonight.
- Max Revson

A1GP - Rd. 2, Germany - 08 Oct 05 Qualifying Results
Pos/Team/Fastest/2nd Fast/Aggregate/Gap to Fastest/Gap to Prev
1 FRANCE 1'32.661 1'32.671 3'05.332 - -
2 USA 1'32.622 1'32.766 3'05.388 +0.056 +0.056
3 BRAZIL 1'32.760 1'32.826 3'05.586 +0.254 +0.198
4 GREAT BRITAIN 1'33.061 1'33.140 3'06.201 +0.869 +0.615
5 GERMANY 1'33.004 1'33.205 3'06.209 +0.877 +0.008
6 SWITZERLAND 1'32.901 1'33.554 3'06.455 +1.123 +0.246
7 ITALY 1'33.380 1'33.629 3'07.009 +1.677 +0.554
8 IRELAND 1'33.409 1'33.626 3'07.035 +1.703 +0.026
9 PORTUGAL 1'33.659 1'33.714 3'07.373 +2.041 +0.338
10 NETHERLANDS 1'33.537 1'33.854 3'07.391 +2.059 +0.018
11 MEXICO 1'33.522 1'33.903 3'07.425 +2.093 +0.034
12 CZECH REPUBLIC 1'33.546 1'33.903 3'07.449 +2.117 +0.024
13 CANADA 1'33.657 1'33.927 3'07.584 +2.252 +0.135
14 NEW ZEALAND 1'33.781 1'33.898 3'07.679 +2.347 +0.095
15 INDONESIA 1'33.638 1'34.091 3'07.729 +2.397 +0.050
16 PAKISTAN 1'34.132 1'34.427 3'08.559 +3.227 +0.830
17 INDIA 1'34.365 1'34.890 3'09.255 +3.923 +0.696
18 MALAYSIA 1'34.165 1'35.334 3'09.499 +4.167 +0.244
19 AUSTRIA 1'34.558 1'35.162 3'09.720 +4.388 +0.221
20 CHINA 1'35.062 1'35.099 3'10.161 +4.829 +0.441
21 JAPAN 1'35.166 1'35.179 3'10.345 +5.013 +0.184
22 AUSTRALIA 1'34.929 1'35.442 3'10.371 +5.039 +0.026
23 SOUTH AFRICA 1'34.987 1'35.537 3'10.524 +5.192 +0.153
24 LEBANON 1'35.706 1'36.549 3'12.255 +6.923 +1.731

A1GP: Malaysia Struggles in Friday Practices in Germany

A1 Team Malaysia struggles in practices (click image to enlarge)

With both Alex and Fairuz having never driven in the Lausitz road course before they have a mountain to climb in qualifying.

A1 Team Malaysia returned to the track for the first two practice sessions of the A1Grand Prix of Nations EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Germany, the second round of this new international motor racing series today (Friday). However the team were visibly struggling with both Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy showing 17th at the end of the two sessions.

Alex summed up the opening session, saying, “It’s our first time here and it’s quite a tricky track, so we had to work hard developing the optimum set up of the car. It’s good to be back in the A1 race car, and it’s been interesting to come to a new track for me. We’ll continue to work hard to improve on our times and be competitive for the race.”

Fairuz commented on his practice session saying, “After Alex’s time in the car this morning we reviewed the data and made some setup changes, but they didn’t really improve it. It’s quite a technical track, with a mix of fast and slow corners, so it will take some time to get the car to our liking.”

Yoong added, “We’ll review the data with the engineers and have a better understanding of what we need to do and the direction in which we’re heading. Practice sessions are for exactly what the name suggests – practicing, so we weren’t out on track today simply to try and set the fastest times. However, 17th is not what we had expected. It shows the importance and value of having run on this track before, something neither Fairuz nor I have done. We have some ideas from our running today with respect to changes we will make to the car setup and so, with that and our increasing experience here, we are cautiously optimistic that we will improve quite a bit tomorrow.”

Neither of the two Malaysian drivers have never driven on the EuroSpeedway Lausitz road course before although Alex had driven the Oval track when Champ Car visited Lausitz in 2003.

For full results of the practices click HERE (Practice 1) and HERE (practice 2).
- Max Revson

A1GP: A Record Nine Drivers From Formula 1 For Rd.2

A1 men from F1: top from left Enge, Firman and Noda; bottom from left Scheckter, Verstappen and Yoong (click image to enlarge)

As 24 National Teams Battle In Eurospeedway, Lausitz, Germany this weekend.

EuroSpeedway, 7 October - All A1 Teams have now nominated their drivers for round 2 in the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, EuroSpeedway Lausitz with the exception of Russia which is undergoing reorganisation and will not take part this weekend. Amongst the 24 teams for Germany are nine former F1 drivers and F1 testers.

In addition to former F1 drivers who took part in round 1 in Brands Hatch comprising Malaysia's Alex Yoong and Holland's Jos Verstappen, three more former F1 drivers from Ireland - Ralph Firman, Czech Republic - Tomas Enge, and Japan - Hideki Noda have now been nominated to join the fray. Other drivers with F1 driving experience are testers Nelson Piquet Jr from Brazil, Tomas Scheckter of South Africa, Neel Jani of Switzerland and Scott Speed of USA.

Noda, 37, last drove for Tourtel Larrousse F1 in three races way back in 1994 while Yoong, 29, and Verstappen, 33, drove their last races for Minardi F1 in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Enge, 29, replaced Luciano Burti in Prost F1 in 2001 with Scheckter, 25, briefly with Jaguar F1 before being sacked in 2003 as their test driver. Firman who is 30 in May this year had a season with Jordan F1 in 2003.

With the pride of their nation at stake, each A1 Team will take to the track for the qualifying session this afternoon (Saturday) at 14.15 local time (MST: 20.15h). The races will follow on Sunday with the Sprint race at 13.00 local time (MST: 19.00) and the Feature race at 14.30 local time (MST: 20.30). The qualifying and both the races are telecast live by Astro's Star Sports and 8TV.

Malaysia has once again nominated both their drivers, Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy to be available for both the Sprint and Feature races this weekend.

- Max Revson

Programme of Rd. 2 Germany:
Saturday

11:00-12:00 Practice 3

14:15 - Qualifying

Sunday

13:00 - Sprint Race

14:30 - Feature Race

A1 Team Drivers Nominations:
Australia Christian Jones

Austria - Mathias Lauda

Brazil - Nelson Piquet Jr (F1 Tester), Fabio Carbone

Canada - Sean McIntosh

China - Qinghua Ma, Tengyi Jiang

Czech Republic - Tomas Enge (Ex-F1 Tester)

France - Nicholas Lapierre, Alexandre Premat

Germany - Timo Scheider

Great Britain - Robbie Kerr

India - Karun Chandhok, Armaan Ebrahim

Indonesia - Ananda Mikola

Ireland - Ralph Firman (Ex-F1)

Italy - Enricco Toccacelo, Richard Antinucci

Japan - Hideki Noda (Ex-F1)

Lebanon - Khalil Beschir, Basil Shaaban

Malaysia - Alex Yoong (Ex-F1), Fairuz Fauzy

Mexico - David Martinez

Netherlands - Jos Verstappen (Ex-F1), Jeroen Bleekemolen

New Zealand - Jonny Reid

Pakistan - Adam Khan

Portugal - Alvaro Parente, Joao Urbano

South Africa - Tomas Schekter (Ex-F1), Stephen Simpson

Switzerland - Neel Jani (F1 Tester)

USA - Scott Speed (F1 Tester)

Another Ex-F1 Driver Joins A1GP

Former Czech Formula 1 driver, Tomas Enge will drive for the A1GP Czech team at the Eurospeedway round 2 this weekend.

At the A1 Team Czech Republic's team launch yesterday, Enge said: 'We are all proud that we will representthe Czech Republic and we will do our maximum to score the best possibleresults. Today's events have been very varied and we very appreciate that HisHighness Sheikh Maktoum and the Prime Minister Paroubek took part in it. I hopethat the Czech fans will welcome the idea of competition of nations and thatmany of them will support as at EuroSpeedway this weekend.'

This brings the number of Ex-F1 and present F1 testers who are participating in the A1GP to seven.

A1GP: Takuma Sato to drive for A1 Team Japan?

Sato has a secret up his sleeve? (click image to enlarge)

Pitpass.com has on Monday speculated that BAR's outgoing F1 driver may well drive for A1 Team Japan after the end of the current Formula 1 season.

Exactly which race he will start driving for Japan or whether this is a one-off drive has not been addressed.

Also rumoured is that one of the two Schumacher brothers may also do a favour for Willi Weber, their manager who also owns A1 Team Germany, by making a guest appearance during Friday practices in one of the coming rounds.

If either of these two rumours is to come true it can only be good for A1 Grand Prix.