A1GP China: Alex Yoong Takes Malaysia To 5th In the Championship With A Splendid 2nd In Feature Race

Great day's work Alex!...(click image to enlarge)

Alex Yoong of A1 Team Malaysia staged another splendid performance in the Feature race with a solid second after the historic win in the Sprint race earlier today. Tomas Enge of the Czech Republic won the race by 6.7s from Yoong.

This performance catapulted Malaysia from 9th in the championship after the team's win in the Sprint race to 5th!

Yoong had led off the field with a good start in the 30-lap race. The safety car was called out in lap 3 after a spectacular crash between Ireland and Indonesia which saw the Irish car flipped a few times across the gravel trap. All the cars took advantage of the safety car period to dive into the pits for their compulsory tyre changes.

The Malaysian crew did a fantastic job at the pitstop and sent Yoong out in a very quick change to remain first behind the safety car.

Yoong had to grapple with handling problems after the safety car period and did well to keep Australia in third. He revealed at the top-three press conference after the podium ceremony, "After Tomas pulled a gap I tried to close up again but the car's handling detriorated and I drove to finish for the championship points."

Feature Race: Lap by Lap
lap1: manning has a very good start but so did alex...alex just managed to nip manning into turn 1...
lap2: alex defending from manning...then opens up a 4 tenths gap...
lap3: massive accident between rsa and ina...rsa flipped over ina...safety car...all into the pits...malaysia emerged first with a good pitstop...mal leads from cze and gbr third...
lap4: green flag...alex leads off with enge close behind...manning defending 3rd from duran...top 10: mal, cze, gbr, mex, aus, usa, nzl, pak, sui and can...
lap6: cze takes mal...gbr and usa given drive through penalty for jump start...sui pits with damaged nose...
lap7: cze leads from mal by 1.4s...top 10: cze, mal, aus, nzl, pak, can, ita, lib, rsa and ned...
lap8: mal closed up to 1.1s from cze who leads...
lap10: cze opens to 2.2s from mal in 2nd...mex takes aut for 13th...then gbr takes chn for 17th...ned up to 10th then locks up big time and lose a spot back to 11th...
lap13: mal keeping aus behind by 4s...and holding 2nd pretty ok...but cze is quick and now leads by 3s from mal...
lap14: mal in second now lies 5th in the championship if the race finishes in this position...fra, lib and mex.
lap15: gbr using power boost passed aut in the front straight in turn 1 to move up to 14th...alex (mal) in 2nd closed up a little to enge (cze) who leads and opens up further from aus in third...
lap17: alex closes up to enge again...it looks like alex eased off to rest the tyres or something...ned also takes a drive through penalty for jump start and drops further back from 11th...
lap19: cze upped the pace again and gap to mal in 2nd is back to 3.5s...fastest lap for mex...
lap21: top 10: cze, mal, aus, nzl, pak, can, fra, ita, mex and lib...lib in danger of losing that one point with usa breathing down his neck...
lap23: eight laps to go...mal looks like consolidating his 2nd position as alex maintains the gap of 3s from aus in 3rd...cze leads by 4.5s from mal...
lap24: cze takes fastest lap of the race!...usa takes 10th from lib...poor lebanon as they are still pointless...top 10: cze, mal, aus, nzl, pak, can, fra, ita, mex and usa...
lap26: if the race finishes in this order now malaysia will finish 5th in the championship...six laps to go...mex takes ita for 8th...and then ita spins but didn't lose a place...
lap27: new fastest lap by malaysia!...top 10: cze, mal, aus, nzl, pak, can, fra, mex, ita and usa...
lap29: 2 laps to go!...mal will stay in 2nd and not push apparently...this is good tactic to preserve the championship points...and cze takes fastest lap from mal...
lap30: top 10: cze, mal, aus, nzl, pak, can, fra, mex, ita and usa...fra takes can for 6th...can fights back...side by side and finally can yields 6th to fra...
chequered flag: alex of malaysia takes second behind tomas enge of cze with australia's ryan briscoe third...top 10: cze, mal, aus, nzl, pak, fra, can, mex, ita and usa...mex takes fastest lap in the final lap from cze!
championship top 5 are: champion-france, 2nd-switzerland, 3rd-great britain, 4th-new zealand and 5th-malaysia...

Full results of both the Sprint and Feature race are available HERE.

Max Revson