Racing For Malaysia

Ex-Ferrari driver Stefan Johansson Teams With Alex Yoong & Jan Lammers

2006-05-27T16:22:00.000+08:00

For the 2006 LE MANS 24 Hours

Former Ferrari driver, Stefan Johansson who won the 1997 Le Mans 24 Hrs with his Ferrari team mate Michele Alboreto and Tom Kristensen in a TWR Porsche completes the RfH team line up of Alex Yoong and RfH team owner, Jan Lammers, for its assault on the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans race next month.

Johansson, from Sweden, who also drove for McLaren, presently runs his own American Spirit Racing Champ Car team in America.

A1 Team Malaysia driver and shareholder, Alex Yoong and Jan Lammers, who also owns A1 Team Holland, have already competed in a Le Mans Series race with their Dome LMP1 car, in Turkey and prior to the season, took part in a 24 hour test. Further testing for the team is planned before official testing for the Le Mans 24 hour race takes place on 4 June. The blue riband race will start on 17 June.

Yoong is looking forward to competing in the race with Lammers and Johansson, saying, “I’m pleased that Stefan is joining the team for the 24 hour race. We have a strong driver line-up which is very important in a race such as this. Experience counts and we all have the ability to drive long stints whilst staying on a good race pace. In an event such as this it is teamwork that is the key to success. With three drivers contributing their skills and expertise, we give ourselves the best possible chance of achieving our goals. Stefan, Jan and I will certainly be a formidable trio for our opponents to be up against.

“We’ll have our first chance to share the car at the pre-event test at the beginning of June and this will be a great opportunity for us to work together to develop the strategy for the race. And I think it’s at these times, that our professionalism as drivers can help to raise our game. The three of us, with such diverse racing careers, will compliment each other and draw on each others strengths to unite for the team.”

Yoong will be driving in the famed 24 hour race for the first time this year and is excited about the prospect, saying, “I think every driver wants to have experienced this unique race. It’s a part of motorsport heritage which touches so many people. For the fans it’s an annual pilgrimage and for the drivers it sits with the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix and Indy 500 as one of the ‘dream’ races. I’m lucky enough to have driven in the Monaco F1 event, but with the IRL/champ car split, not the Indy 500, although I did race through turns one and four in the F1 race! Racing at Le Mans will fulfil a dream for me and I think it’s going to be a unique experience.”

Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive of A1 Team Malaysia and Yoong's partner, said, “It says a lot about Alex that drivers such as Jan and Stefan should choose to drive with him. These guys aren’t driving with Alex on June 17 because they haven’t got anything better to do! Their doing so is a major statement of their intent to do well at Le Mans and a clear tribute to Alex. His driving with such experienced individuals is very helpful to us as we build on this year for our own efforts at Le Mans and we thank them for that.”

The RfH team will be competing with car number 14, a famous number in Holland from the legendary soccer player Johan Cruyff. With the football World Cup taking place during the Le Mans event, Lammers has paid homage by liverying the racing car with black and white football imagery.

To follow the legendary great race Malaysian fans can log on HERE.

A1 Team Malaysia Supports Proton

2006-05-27T08:05:00.000+08:00

At 2006 KL International Motor Show

A1 Team Malaysia team’s car will be a prominent feature on the Proton stand at the KL International Motor Show from the 26th May to 4th June at the Putra World Trade Centre.

The A1 Team Malaysia car driven to victory by Alex Yoong at the Shanghai International Circuit on 2 April 2006 is currently in Malaysia and from 26 May to 4 June can be seen on the Proton stand at the Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show.

A1GP chassis number 41 was used throughout the inaugural A1 Grand Prix World Cup of Motorsport season at circuits in 11 countries on 5 continents. The car was driven by both Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy resulting in A1 Team Malaysia finishing 5th overall in the World Cup of Motorsport.

Yoong says of the KL International Motor Show, “When Proton approached us and requested our car be featured as part of their stand at the Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show, we felt that it was a good opportunity for the Malaysian public and the Malaysian automotive sector to see the car with their own eyes. We are very proud of our achievements in the first A1 Grand Prix season and want to share that feeling with our supporters and fans. This is another way of exposing the race car to many people. I own a Proton Waja and my first ever car was a Proton. I hope that many attendees to the show will enjoy seeing the Proton stand encouraging them one day to be an owner of a Malaysian built Proton.”

Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive A1 Team Malaysia, “As an important sponsor of the team in the 05/06 season, we take our relationship with Proton extremely seriously, so when we were asked whether we would consider placing the car on the Proton stand at the show, we immediately said ‘yes’. We were proud to carry the Proton logo and are proud to be with them at the Motor Show. Proton makes superb cars and we hope that the A1 race car and the team personnel in attendance will assist in raising the levels of awareness of the Proton brand ultimately to sell more Proton cars.”

The A1 Team Malaysia show car will be on the Proton stand in Tun Razak Hall 1 for the duration of the show.

A1 Team GB Drops Arden For Season Two

2006-04-13T07:56:00.000+08:00

12/04/2006 - Despite ranking third overall in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series, A1 Team Great Britain has told Arden International that it will not be requiring its services for the second A1 Grand Prix series that kicks off at Zandvoort in Holland on 1 October.

"We were pleased with third overall," said Team Principal John Surtees, "but you go racing to win, not come third. There's no doubt that we were beaten by two extremely good teams, but Seat Holder Tony Clements and I felt that A1 Grand Prix is big enough and important enough to warrant the services of a team that gives A1 Grand Prix its full attention. Arden are an extremely professional and very well managed team, but their involvement with both GP2 and the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team made for the occasional conflicts of interest, such as personnel allocation and A1 Team GBR management believes A1 Grand Prix should not be subordinated to other series.

We had an option with Arden to sign up for Series Two, which we decided not to exercise".

For Series Two, A1 Team Great Britain will form its own team of personnel to run its car rather than paying an established team to do the job.

A1GP Release

Starter Motor Woes Stopped RfH While Second On Lap 62

2006-04-10T12:25:00.000+08:00

Start of the Istanbul 1000km...(click image to enlarge) - Photo (c) Planetlemans.com

Yoong's 2 hour stint in Dome Mugen proved encouraging for the team

The RfH team of Jan Lammers and Alex Yoong made an early exit in lap 62 during the inaugural Le Mans Series race in Istanbul while lying in second spot behind the eventual winner Pescarolo Sport near the two-hour mark. The reason was a broken starter.

Pescarolo Sport with E. Collard and J-C Boullion won the race which was cut short from six to four hours because the organisers had made a calculation mistake in the amount of fuel to bring to Istanbul.

Yoong had set the fastest time at the one and a half hour mark then and was making good progress towards the 2 hour mark driver change pitstop until their exit, racing just behind the Pescarolo.

Despite the early exit, Jan Lammers was satisfied with the first LMS weekend: "We have learned a lot and gathered a lot of information. At the start the car was doing great, we were only half a second per lap behind the Pescarolo and our top speed was very high. We had to retire because vibrations had killed off the starter. The same thing happened to our other starters earlier on. We faced this problem all weekend together with some electronic issues. We couldn’t find the cause but we think that we have found it now."

"We have another engine this year, a Mugen. Engine vibrations affected the subframe where the gearbox and the engine are located and this damaged the starter. We let Alex start the race today because I wanted him to get the competitive time on our car and was concerned about reliability. It was very important that we came here. The information we have gathered matches our findings from the test at Paul Riccard and that is very encouraging for Le Mans.”

Yoong who had driven nearly two hours by the time of the team's exit was happy with his experience gained from Istanbul, saying, "The car is fun to drive and in the quicker corners feel similar to an F1 car because of all the downforce they generate. It’s only in the slow corners that you really feel the extra weight but can still be aggressive with it. I like to thank Jan for the opportunity as well as the team members who had all worked very hard despite the difficulties we were facing with the car's electricals and starter."

The next round of the Le Mans Series will be at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on the 12th to 14th of May 2006. It will be another six hour long 1000km race where RfH will field Jan Lammers with Alex Yoong again.

Max Revson

Full race results available HERE.

RfH Duo of Jan Lammers and Alex Yoong Qualified Third

2006-04-09T14:27:00.000+08:00

Photo (c) Planetlemans.com

With Dome Mugen In the Istanbul 1000km of the 2006 Le Mans Series

Saturday, 08 April 2006 - Istanbul Park, Turkey - The RfH Dome Mugen of Jan Lammers and Alex Yoong secured third position at the Le Mans Series opening round's qualifying in Istanbul, Turkey today.

The duo has quietly been improving each of the three free practice sessions with sixth in the first session, fifth in the second and fourth in the third earlier on Friday and Saturday.

Having put the team in the second row, pundits are now predicting a strong finish for the Dome Mugen as the RfH team is blessed with two matched drivers who are equally quick, "This team could make it onto the top step of the podium tomorrow if their run is trouble free.", predicted some lead media covering the Le Mans Series.

RfH team boss and principal driver commended Yoong on his efforts in the team so far, "Alex has done a good job with the team and he will be the team's driver to do the warm-up session and also start the race tomorrow."

Yoong, a front runner with the just concluded A1GP inaugural series was pleased with the qualifying by the team, saying, "We are happy with third as we had a little problem with the front damper of the car so tomorrow we should be better. Its great for me that Jan is sending me out for the first stint in the car."

The LMP and GT split qualifying sessions provided great action on the track with an added twist when raindrops started to fall on the Istanbul Park circuit. Nevertheless, just seven hundredths of a second separated the top two starters in Sunday’s 1000km race. Nicholas Minassian in the Creation and Frenchmen Emmanuel Collard in the Pescarolo battled throughout the session, with the Pescarolo pilot came out on top.

“It took a long time to get heat into the tyres, and then I had a small flat-spot on a front tyre when I made the time” said Collard.Nicolas Minassian was characteristically honest about the outcome of qualifying. "When you miss out by so little, it's disappointing! But I'm really pleased we managed to be so close to the Pescarolo which, at the end of the day, is the benchmark for Hybrids.

Fourth and fifth in the LMP1 category went to the two new Courage LC70’s – the works entry of Shinji Nakano, Haruki Kurosawa and Jean-Marc Gounon edging out the Swiss Sport entry of Marcel Fassler and Harold Primat. Sixth went to the new Chamberlain-Synergy Lola B06/10 of Bob Berridge, Peter Owen and Gareth Evans.

The 36 strong field is set for the 1000km race tomorrow. The weather being unpredictable, the teams will be asking if rain will play a factor in the race. But whatever comes it looks like a really great opening race for the 2006 Le Mans Series.

Max Revson

Le Mans Series - Istanbul, TurkeyQualifying Results (Top 10)Pos/Class/No./Entrant/Nat/Car/Drivers/Nat/Time

1 LMP1 17 Pescarolo F Pescarolo C60 Judd E. Collard (F)/J-C Boullion (F) 1:40.266

2 LMP1 9 Creation GB Creation CA06/H-002 N.Minassian (F)/F.Ortiz (CH) G.Gabbiani (I) 1:40.336

3 LMP1 14 Jan Lammers/RfH NL Dome Mugen Jan Lammers (NL)/Alex Yoong (MAL) 1:42.140

4 LMP2 25 RML GB MG Lola EX264 M. Newton (GB)/T. Erdos (BR) 1:42.336

5 LMP1 13 Courage F Courage LC 70 Mugen J-M Gounon (F)/S.Nakano (J)/H.Kurosawa (J) 1:42.672

6 LMP1 5 Swiss Spirit CH Courage LC70 - Judd H. Primat (F)/M. Fassler (CH) 1:42.883

7 LMP2 22 Roll Centre GB Radical SR9-Judd J.Barbosa (P)/M.Short (GB)/T.Greaves (GB) 1:43.359

8 LMP2 32 Barazi-Epsilon F Courage C65-AER M.Vergers (NL)/J.Barazi (F) 1:43.820

9 LMP2 37 Paul Belmondo F Courage C65-Ford P. Belmondo (F)/D.Andre (F)/Y.Clairay 1:44.336

10 LMP1 19 Chamberlain GB Lola B06-10 Bob Berridge (GB)/G.Evans (GB)/P.Owen (GB) 1:44.976

Full results of 36 starters available HERE.

Le Mans Series: Fourth fastest time for RfH In Final Practice

2006-04-08T22:09:00.000+08:00

RfH set a fourth fastest time with 1:43.383 in the final free practice for the Istanbul 1000 km.

Jan Lammers and Alex Yoong drove a total of 10 laps in this final practice 3.

Earlier, Lammers and Yoong drove 29 laps in the one hour free practice 2 and finished fifth in the session with a time of 1:43.969.

This afternoon at 15.30 hours local time the qualifying session will be run. In a 20 minute session the grid will be set for the race tomorrow, the opening round of the 2006 Le Mans Series.

Top 10 In Practice 3:
Pos. Class Team Car Drivers Time
1 LMP1 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo C60 Judd Collard, Bouillon 1:40.625
2 LMP2 RML MG Lola EX264 AER Erdos, Newton 1:43.032
3 LMP1 Courage Competition Courage LC70 Mugen Gounon, Nakano, Kurosawa 1:43.125
4 LMP1 Racing for Holland Dome S101hb Mugen Lammers, Yoong 1:43.383
5 LMP1 Swiss Spirit Courage LC70 Judd Primat, Fassler 1:44.641
6 LMP1 Chamberlain Synergy Lola B06/10 AER Berridge, Owen, Evans 1:45.141
7 LMP2 Barazi Epsilon Courage C65 AER Vergers, Barazi, Belloc 1:45.547
8 LMP2 Paul Belmondo Racing Courage C65 Ford Belmondo, Andre, Clairay 1:46.164
9 LMP1 Lister Storm Lister Storm Hybrid Keen, Moller, Kiesa 1:46.969
10 LMP2 Paul Belmondo Racing Courage C65 Ford Ojjeh, Ragues 1:48.113

Le Mans Series: Jan Lammers/RfH Team 6th In Istanbul Friday Practice

2006-04-08T11:53:00.000+08:00

Photos (c) Planetlemans.com
After only running 9 laps due to electrical problems

Malaysia's Alex Yoong arrived at Istanbul on Thursday morning and immediately settled down to study the Istanbul circuit by walking it and conferred with the RfH team boss Jan Lammers and the engineers in preparation for this Sunday's Le Mans Series Istanbul 1000km in Turkey.
With Yoong and Lammers driving, the team managed only 9 laps in the one hour practice session on Friday due to problems with a starter and the ECU - the team only managed 2 flying laps and had to settle for sixth fastest with a time of 1:47.711.

With rain being forecast for Saturday, the team hopes to have the electrical bugs solved before qualifying.

For the full entry list of 38 cars and Istanbul programme, click HERE.

For full results of Friday practice, click HERE.

Max Revson

2006 Le Mans Series - Rd.1 Istanbul

2006-04-08T10:59:00.000+08:00

The five-round 2006 Le Mans Series kicks off with round 1 in Istanbul, Turkey this weekend.
We will keep up to date with the latest news on the Jan Lammers/RfH team which Malaysia's Alex Yoong has been engaged to drive alongside the team's boss Jan Lammers.
Meanwhile here are the full entry list of 38 entries for Istanbul.
2006 Le Mans Series - Rd.1 Istanbul
Full List of 38 Entries
N°/LM P1 Teams/Nat/Car/Drivers
5 Swiss Spirit CH Courage LC70-Judd H.Primat (F) M.Fassler (CH) Tba
6 Lister GB Lister Storm Hybrid A. Belicchi (I) S. Zonca (I) J. Moller (DK)
9 Creation GB Creation CA06/H - 002 N.Minassian (F) F.Ortiz (CH) G.Gabbiani (I)
13 Courage F Courage LC 70 Mugen J-M Gounon (F) S.Nakano (J) H.Kurosawa (J)
14 Jan Lammers/RfH NL Dome Mugen J.Lammers (NL) A.Yoong (MAL)
17 Pescarolo F Pescarolo C60 Judd E. Collard (F) J-C Boullion (F) Tba
19 Chamberlain GB Lola B06-10 Bob Berridge (GB) G.Evans (GB) P.Owen (GB)
N°/LM P2 Teams/Nat/Car/Drivers
20 Pierre Bruneau F Pilbeam MP93-01PB-Judd M.Rostan (F) P.Bruneau (F) Tba
22 Roll Centre GB Radical SR9-Judd J.Barbosa (P) M.Short (GB) T.Greaves (GB)
25 RML GB MG Lola EX264 M. Newton (GB) T. Erdos (BR) Tba
28 Ranieri Randaccio I Lucchini R.Randaccio (I) F.Mancini (I) G.Collini (I)
32 Barazi-Epsilon F Courage C65-AER M.Vergers (NL) J.Barazi (F) Tba
35 G-Force B Courage C65-Judd E.Morris (GB) J.F.Leroch (F) F.Hahn (D)
36 Paul Belmondo F Courage C65-Ford C-Y Gosselin (F) K. Ojjeh (SA) P.Ragues (F)
37 Paul Belmondo F Courage C65-Ford P. Belmondo (F) D.Andre (F) Y.Clairay (F)39 Chamberlain-Synergy GB Lola B05/40-AER M.Amaral (P) M.A.Castro (E) A.Burgueno (P)N°/LM GT1 Teams/Nat/Car/Drivers
50 Larbre F Aston Martin DBR9 P.Lamy (P) G.Gardel (CH) V.Vosse (B)
51 B-Racing D Lamborghini Murcielago GTR N.Walchhofer (USA) B.Leuenberger (CH) M.Bartyan (I)
61 Russian Age RUS Aston Martin DBR9 N.Kinch (SCO) A.Garcia (E) Tba
62 Russian Age RUS Aston Martin DBR9 P.Hardman (GB) C.Vann (GB) Tba
67 Convers Menx RUS Ferrari 550 Maranello P.Kox (NL) R.Pergl (CZ) A.Vasiliev (RUS)
70 PSI Experience B Corvette C6-R P.Kuismanen (FIN) J.Menten (NL) M.Palttala (FIN)
72 Luc Alphand F Corvette C5-R J.Policand (F) P.Goueslard (F) A.Beltoise (F)
N°/LM GT2 Teams/Nat/Car/Drivers
73 Ice Pol B Porsche GT3 RSR Y-E Lambert (B) C.Lefort (B) R.Iannetta (F)
75 Thierry Perrier F Porsche 996 GT3 RSR N.Smith (GB) P.Hesnault (F) Tba
76 Autorlando I Porsche GT3 RSR M.Lieb (D) J.Camathias (CH) Tba
77 Seikel D Porsche GT3 RSR T.Burgess (CDN) P.Collin (USA) T.Bergneister (D)
78 Autorlando I Porsche GT3 RSR G.Kristensen (GB) J.Edamann (GB) A.Simonsen (AUS)80 Farnbacher D Porsche GT3 RSR L.E.Nielsen (GB) M.Seefried (D) Tba
81 LNT GB Panoz Esperante GTLM W.Hughes (GB) R.Bell (GB) Tba
82 LNT GB Panoz Esperante GTLM L.Tomlinson (GB) R.Dean (GB) Tba
84 ICER Brakes E Ferrari F430 GT J.D.Villarroel (E) P.Sunberg (E) D.Romero (E)
85 Spyker Squadron NL Spyker C8 Spyder GT-2R J.Bleekemolen (NL) M.Hezemans (NL) Tba
86 Spyker Squadron NL Spyker C8 Spyder GT-2R J.Kane (GB) D.Crevels (NL) Tba
90 Farnbacher D Porsche 996 GT3 RSR P.Ehret (D) D.Farnbacher (D) Tba
92 IMSA Matmut F Porsche 996 RSR C.Bouchut (F) S.Dumez (F) R.Narac (F)
97 GPC Sport SRL I Ferrari F430 GT L.Drudi (I) G.Rosa (I) J.Melo (BR)
99 Virgo GB Ferrari F430 GT D.Eagling (GB) T.Sugden (GB) I.Khan (MC)

Istanbul Programme:
Saturday, April 8 2006
09:00 - 10:00 Le Mans Series Free Practice 60'
12:30 - 13:30 Le Mans Series Free Practice
15:30 - 15:50 Le Mans Series Qualif. - "LM"P1 +"LM" P2 20'
16:00 - 16:20 Le Mans Series Qualif. - "LM"GT1+"LM" GT2 20'
Sunday, April 9 2006
08:00 - 08:20 Le Mans Series Warm -up 20'
10:30 - 16:30 Le Mans Series Race 1000Km

Yoong Prefers A1 To F1

2006-04-06T20:40:00.000+08:00

Former team-mates win on same day in opposite hemisphere...(click image to enlarge)
Yoong dominant in China...(click image to enlarge)
A brand new team coming good and feeling great...(click image to enlarge)

"It has to be a very good deal to pull me back to F1."

Malaysia's only F1 driver, Alex Yoong had 16 races in Formula 1 in 2001 and 2002 with a highest finish of 7th in the 2002 Australian GP - however, he was matched against two of the most highly touted F1 rookies for team-mates. Fernando Alonso who was his team-mate in 2001 is already the youngest world champion while his 2002 team-mate, Mark Webber, is now with Williams as their no. 1 driver.

Both these team-mates of Yoong had extensive F1 test experience before making their debut in F1 - Yoong, without any F1 test experience behind him, had huge odds stacked against him. It was his dream to be in F1 but it wasn't smooth sailing for him by any measure as he had to contend with an underfunded minnow team in addition to a complete lack of testing opportunities with the Minardi team.

A year in the inaugural A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, however, had certainly turned Yoong around with a series of spirited top class drives in his Proton sponsored yellow bedecked A1 Team Malaysia car. Yoong had shown himself easily running with the top third of the 22 to 24 car field from six continents from the word go.

Before midway through the season Yoong had already shown himself capable of taking the podium and he followed up his second in the Indonesian Feature race with nearly a perfect weekend in the season finale in China by topping Friday practice, qualifying pole, fastest in the warm-up, winning the Sprint race and finishing second in the Feature race.

Yoong's stock has now shot up sky high...and he is slotted to pair with former F1 driver and Le Mans specialist Jan Lammers in not only the five-round 2006 Le Mans Series but also in the incomparable Le Mans 24 Hrs in June between the just completed A1 season and the start of the next.

When given a choice between A1 Grand Prix and Formula One, Yoong readily replied that A1 would be for him.

"You cannot compare F1 and A1GP, they are completely different," said Yoong shortly after his inaugural A1 win. "Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport in terms of technology. It is about manufacturer against manufacturer, about engine deals and about money. A1GP is run by countries, the cars are identical, it is an equal playing field. The aim is to see which is the best team and driver, it is about the people.

"I would definitely stay in A1GP, it would have to be a good deal for me to move to F1. A very good deal!"

Max Revson

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

2006-04-02T16:27:00.000+08:00

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

A1GP China: Alex Yoong Wins Sprint Race For Malaysia

2006-04-02T14:17:00.000+08:00

A historic win for Alex Yoong and A1 Team Malaysia in China today

Alex Yoong, today, on the 2nd of April in the year 2006, gave the Proton sponsored A1 Team Malaysia a historic lights to chequered flag maiden victory in the China A1GP Sprint race in a cool and calculated manner.

He extended his lead in the 15 lap race from 1.5s in lap 1 to win by more than 9s from Great Britain's Darren Manning without any relief for the chasing pack.

Winner in USA, Mexico with Salvador Duran on board pressured Great Britain all the way to the finish for third.

All Malaysia will be watching with great anticipation for a repeat win from Yoong in the one hour long 30 lap Feature race which will start in an hour's time.

Max Revson

A1GP Shanghai, China - Sprint Race Results
Team/Driver/Time
1 Malaysia Alex Yoong 28:17.807
2 Great Britain Darren Manning +9.841
3 Mexico Salvador Duran +10.417
4 Ireland Michael Devaney +13.905
5 Indonesia Ananda Mikola +19.171
6 Czech Tomas Enge +20.815
7 France Alexandre Premat +25.341
8 New Zealand Matt Halliday +25.739
9 Australia Ryan Briscoe +26.670
10 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi +26.670
(Top 10)

Alex Takes Pole For Team Malaysia In China Finale!

2006-04-01T17:30:00.000+08:00

A proud moment for Malaysia...(click image to enlarge)

Team Malaysia in qualifying in China...(click image to enlarge)

A1 Team Malaysia with Alex Yoong snatched their first pole position for the final Sprint race of the 2005/06 A1 Grand Prix season this afternoon after the flag had dropped in the last of the four Qualifying sessions. A1 Team Great Britain’s Darren Manning, who led from the word go, was denied the opportunity to head up the grid in his first A1GP race by Yoong.

While Manning used his new tyres early in the four sessions of qualifying, Yoong saved his 2 sets of new tyres for the third and final session to pushed his aggregate time ahead of A1 Teams France and Great Britain, with a 1.51.846 flying lap after leaving the pits in the last few minutes of the session.

First time A1GP pole sitter Yoong, was pleased with his performance: ‘Today was really good, the car was brilliant, we made a couple of small improvements from yesterday. It’s a great day for A1 Team Malaysia. The team is brand new, and was only put together for A1GP, it has been a big effort for a lot of people. This will mean a lot to the people in Malaysia, which, like China, does not have a motorsport background.’

When asked during the post qualifying press conference Yoong declined to reveal what are the set-up tricks for China, joking, "I'm not going to tell you in front of these guys (Manning and Premat)!" But revealed enough that, "We did some great work over the two days to find the balance needed for not only the fast corners but the slow ones as well."

Former Macau GP winner and F1 test driver, Manning praised the A1GP Qualifying system for the excitement that it added to the day. ‘I thought it was all over after I was quickest in the first session but this qualifying system is different, it isn’t over until the last car crosses the line. It’s a really good result for A1 Team Great Britain. I made a small mistake just before the back straight, and lost too much speed. The back straight is very long and I lost a lot of time. Without that I think I would have been even closer to Alex. I have little experience as to how the Series is run, but we are doing ok, and I will be going out to win the race tomorrow.’

Alex Premat took to the track for the first time today, after his team mate, Nicolas Lapierre drove yesterday’s practice sessions. ‘Just before Qualifying I managed to do a few laps during third practice. So I had to learn the set up of the car and the circuit quickly. I made a few mistakes, but for tomorrow I think it will be perfect.’

A1 Team Malaysia turned out in the Shanghai International circuit with new sponsorship brandings on their car with FTEC computers, Royal Selangor Pewter, Visit Malaysia 2007 and MBF cards joining principal sponsor Proton.

Max Revson

A1GP Shanghai, China - Qualifying Results

Team/Driver/Aggregate Time

1 Malaysia Alex Yoong 3.43.700

2 Great Britain Darren Manning 3.43.888

3 France Alexandre Premat 3.44.392

4 Mexico Salvador Duran 3.44.560

5 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 3.44.656

6 Ireland Michael Devaney 3.44.724

7 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 3.45.206

8 Czech Tomas Enge 3.45.554

9 Australia Ryan Briscoe 3.45.683

10 Switzerland Giorgio Mondini 3.45.965

11 Canada Patrick Carpentier 3.46.254

12 S. Africa Stephen Simpson 3.46.430

13 New Zealand Matt Halliday 3.46.455

14 Pakistan Adam Khan 3.46.458

15 China Tengyi Jiang 3.46.543

16 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 3.46.737

17 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 3.46.864

18 Portugal Cesar Campanico 3.47.489

19 USA Phil Giebler 3.47.565

20 Lebanon Graham Rahal 3.47.714

21 Austria Mathias Lauda 3.48.036

22 Germany Sebastian Stahl 3.49.171

A1GP China: Less Than One Second Seperates Top 13 In Practice 2

2006-03-31T17:49:00.000+08:00

Alex Yoong Just Four-Tenths From Fastest In Fifth

It's going to be a cracker of a qualifying tomorrow as less than one second seperates the top 13 in the just concluded second official practice in the Shanghai International Circuit in China this afternoon.

A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong, as usual, was not using up his new tyres in practices like the other top teams. He finished fifth less than four-tenths away from France's Micholas Lapierre who clocked 1m 51.972s.

Great Britain finished second with Mexico in third and Australia in fourth ahead of Malaysia.

Max Revson

A1GP: SHANGHAI - Official Practice 2

Pos/Team/Driver/On Lap/Time/Total Laps

1 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 9 1'51.972 19

2 GBR Darren MANNING 9 1'52.079 19

3 MEX Salvador DURAN 15 1'52.321 21

4 AUS Ryan BRISCOE 7 1'52.355 19

5 MAL Alex YOONG 17 1'52.371 21

6 IRL Michael DEVANEY 7 1'52.376 19

7 CAN Patrick CARPENTIER 17 1'52.38

8 228 CHN Tengyi JIANG 20 1'52.436 23

9 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 7 1'52.477 16

10 INA Ananda MIKOLA 9 1'52.701 20

11 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 8 1'52.703 19

12 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 8 1'52.858 19

13 CZE Tomas ENGE 4 1'52.960 23

14 ITA Enrico TOCCACELO 22 1'53.052 22

15 SUI Giorgio MONDINI 10 1'53.066 19

16 PAK Adam KHAN 10 1'53.200 16

17 POR Cesar CAMPANICO 22 1'53.423 23

18 USA Philip GIEBLER 3 1'53.564 20

19 AUT Mathias LAUDA 10 1'53.918 24

20 LIB Graham RAHAL 8 1'53.951 22

21 BRA Christian FITTIPALDI 10 1'54.073 15

22 GER Sebastian STAHL 10 1'56.172 20

Alex Yoong 2nd In Practice 1, Looks Forward To Strong Qualifying In China

2006-03-31T15:57:00.000+08:00

A1 Team Malaysia which lies 10th in the A1 Grand Prix championship with one round to go in Shanghai, China got off to a good start with second in the first official free practice at the Shanghai International Circuit an hour ago.

The team's pre-event release quoted Yoong as saying, “Shanghai is a fairly new circuit and shares the same designer as for Sepang, Hermann Tilke so there are a number of characteristics which are similar, not least the high-tech, modern architecture of the facility. It’s another of the many new experiences for both me and the team, and an exciting challenge. I think very few of the drivers will have been here, so if we can be on the pace quickly there’s a good chance of a strong qualifying result.”

“As the first season of A1 Grand Prix draws to a close we are tenth in the championship standings, but, only sixteen points separate the fourth placed team and ourselves in tenth. The competition is so close we could improve on this if we can have two good race finishes. This will be our goal for the weekend.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia, announced new sponsors in the same release, “We’re aiming to finish on a high note at Shanghai. We had a second place podium in Indonesia and 12 top ten finishes, so we’ve had some good results and are capable of more. It’s only when you reach the final race weekend and look back at what has been achieved that you realise how far you’ve come. Putting together a new team, with a new car and racing competitively at eleven venues all around the world is a huge undertaking. A1 Team Malaysia has really proved to be an excellent team that have worked tirelessly to be part of the spectacle of A1 Grand Prix, and really deserve everything achieved so far. We’ll keep pushing this weekend and hope to be celebrating a successful end to the season on Sunday evening.”

“In addition to the prominent Proton branding on the A1 Team Malaysia car, we will feature 4 additional Malaysian brands on the car in China. We are in discussion for long-term commercial participation with a number of brands for the much-anticipated second season of A1 Grand Prix. The brands featured for this event include “Visit Malaysia 2007”, FTEC, MBF Cards and Royal Selangor. Their possible future long term inclusion in our programme highlights our strategy to promote Malaysia and Malaysian brands internationally and our focus on the development of national pride, both domestically at a grass roots level and within the corporate sectors.”

Max Revson

A1GP: SHANGHAI - Official Practice 1
Pos/Team/Driver/On Lap/Time/Total Laps
1 MEX Salvador DURAN 19 1'52.513 20
2 MAL Alex YOONG 14 1'52.721 17
3 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 16 1'52.733 17
4 IRL Michael DEVANEY 8 1'52.919 9
5 CAN Patrick CARPENTIER 17 1'52.989 18
6 AUS Ryan BRISCOE 16 1'53.229 21
7 GBR Darren MANNING 18 1'53.314 20
8 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 12 1'53.452 13
9 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 20 1'53.508 21
10 USA Philip GIEBLER 16 1'53.546 18
11 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 9 1'53.560 16
12 INA Ananda MIKOLA 16 1'53.626 17
13 PAK Adam KHAN 11 1'53.662 19
14 SUI Giorgio MONDINI 18 1'53.966 21
15 LIB Graham RAHAL 22 1'54.001 22
16 CZE Tomas ENGE 18 1'54.125 19
17 POR Cesar CAMPANICO 15 1'54.264
18 18 BRA Christian FITTIPALDI 19 1'54.841 20
19 ITA Enrico TOCCACELO 18 1'54.868 20
20 CHN Qinghua MA 3 1'55.087 12
21 AUT Mathias LAUDA 7 1'55.095 10
22 GER Sebastian STAHL 19 1'56.833 21

Le Mans Series: "Alex looked very good." said Jan Lammers

2006-03-29T11:31:00.000+08:00

Alex Yoong in action with RfH Dome Mugen at Paul Ricard on Monday 27th Mar 06

Alex Yoong: "The Dome Mugen is quick and reliable."

RfH, the team owned by Jan Lammers and based in Katwijk started the 2006 Le Mans Series season in promising fashion. The team which will also compete the Le Mans 24 Hours in June with a Dome S101 Hybrid Mugen with Lammers and A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong sharing driving duties, was in the top-three on both days of the first official test of the season at Paul Ricard.

“From the first time we met, Alex fascinated me as a driver and a person. He’s got a pleasant character and above all he’s very competitive. At the beginning of the year we were looking for the ideal combination for a private team such as RfH: a paying but also highly competitive driver. When that turned out to be impossible and it became clear that I had to come up with the money myself I aimed at drivers that would be able to add some value to RfH and also to our new “football campaign”. Even though I wasn’t able to offer to pay Alex any money, and he couldn’t bring sponsorship immediately, he turned out to fit our bill. Alex has proven earlier and also during the test that he’s an asset to RfH and our Sportscar programme. It’s good to see that A1GP’s national philosophy brings people together,” Jan Lammers said to RaceXpress from France.

Lammers is pleasantly surprised by the results at Paul Ricard where RfH tests the new Dome for the first time.

“Because of our difficult financial situation our Sportscar programme was off to a slow start. At the moment we are accelerating though. We didn’t have high expectations coming to Paul Ricard but Alex, I and the whole team are pleasantly surprised by the way in which things seem to unfold. Everyone at RfH, Dome, Dunlop and Mugen works very hard and our cooperation turns out to be an enjoyable experience. Dome has entrusted RfH with the running of their factory car this year. During the winter months they did a lot of wind tunnel tests in Japan and using their knowledge and experience and combining that with our know-how we were able to come up with some modifications that had immediate result.”

“It’s all looking quite good, we are satisfied with our first results. We have the highest top speed of the pack with 315 kph and we still have a bit of a margin to improve that by some small aerodynamic changes without compromising too much on downforce. That’s a very pleasant thought when looking forward to Le Mans where top speed is paramount on the long straights. We’re faster than Pescarolo who were best in terms of top speed last year, and that’s great. Of course Audi will be our biggest rivals,” said Jan Lammers who was also in high spirits about the performance of his new RfH driver Alex Yoong: “Alex looked very good indeed.”

Alex said, "I'm very happy with the test and am pleased that I'm up there with the pace. The Dome Mugen is very quick and reliable - I think we should go well in the season."

Max Revson

Le Mans Series: RfH Team 2nd in Paul Ricard Test With Jan Lammers & Alex Yoong

2006-03-28T09:56:00.000+08:00

Dome Mugen in soccer livery in action at Paul Ricard yesterday with Lammers...(click image to enlarge)

Jan Lammers' RfH Le Mans Series team with Lammers and Malaysia's Alex Yoong at the wheel completed a successful 2-day test at the Paul Ricard circuit with 26 other cars on the 26th and 27th Mar 2006.

The soccer liveried Dome-Mugen completed 126 laps on the second day (yesterday) to finish second with a time of 1m 45.594s. On day 1, it completed 88 laps with a time of 1m 46.738s in third.

The first round of the 2006 Le Mans Series will kick off in Istanbul, Turkey on the 9th April with the 1000km race in round 1 of the five round championship for 2006. The team will also take part in the classic Le Mans 24 Hrs. this year.

Yoong is at the moment on his way from France to Shanghai for the final round of the A1 Grand Prix - World Cup of Motorsport where he will step into the A1 Team Malaysia car to do battle against Lammers' A1 Team Holland and 22 other national teams to consolidate Malaysia's current top ten championship position.

Max Revson

Le Mans Series - Paul Ricard Test 27 Mar 06
Pos/Car No/Cat/Team/Car/Laps/Time

1 9 LMP1 Creation Autosportif/Creation-Judd 85 01:44.240

2 14 LMP1 Racing for Holland/Dome Mugen (Jan Lammers/Alex Yoong) 126 01:45.594

3 19 LMP1 Chamberlain/Lola AER 89 01:45.781

4 13 LMP1 Courage/Courage LC70 - Mugen 69 01:46.060

5 17 LMP1 Pescarolo/Pescarolo C60 - Judd 170 01:46.760

6 39 LMP2 Chamberlain/Lola AER 106 01:47.139

7 5 LMP1 Swiss Spirit/Courage LC70 - Judd 60 01:48.199

8 25 LMP2 RML/MG Lola EX 264 153 01:48.335

9 22 LMP2 Rollcentre/Radical SR9 - Judd 68 01:49.341

10 36 LMP2 Paul Belmondo Racing/Courage C65 - Ford 65 01:50.282

11 50 LMGT1 Larbre Competition/Aston Martin DBR9 107 01:52.293

12 72 LMGT1 Luc Alphand Aventure/Corvette C5-R 48 01:53.769

13 55 LMGT1 Oreca/Saleen S7R 128 01:53.838

14 70 LMGT1 PSI Experience/Corvette C6-R 129 01:54.012

15 67 LMGT1 Convers/Ferrari 550 103 01:54.093

16 61 LMGT1 Russian Age Racing/Aston Martin DBR9 117 01:54.278

17 6 LMP1 Lister/Lister Storm "LM" P1 Hybrid 23 01:54.300

18 71 LMGT1 PSI Experience/Corvette C5-R 104 01:56.361

19 76 LMGT2 Autorlando Sport/Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 100 01:58.668

20 84 LMGT2 Team ICER Brakes/Ferrari 430 GT 54 02:00.400

21 92 LMGT2 IMSA/Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 43 02:00.726

22 35 LMP2 Gforce/Courage C65 - Judd 5 02:00.772

23 44 LMP2 Kruse/Courage C65 - Judd 17 02:01.574

24 82 LMGT2 Team LNT/Panoz Esperante 39 02:02.093

25 81 LMGT2 Team LNT/Panoz Esperante 44 02:02.289

26 95 LMGT2 Raceport Peninsula TVR/TVR Tuscan 400R 25 02:07.756

Alex Yoong to compete in Le Mans with former Le Mans 24 Hr. winner, Jan Lammers

2006-03-25T15:33:00.000+08:00

Alex Yoong will be driving in the Le Mans Series with Jan Lammers, the A1 Team Netherlands seat holder during the A1GP off season 2006. The first Le Mans series race is in Istanbul, Turkey 7, 8, 9 April 2006, the week immediately following the final A1 Grand Prix of Nations in Shanghai, China and from Turkey the Le Mans Series goes to Belgium (May 12-14), Germany (July 14-16), UK (August 25-27) and Italy (September 22-24).

In June, the series arrives at the small French town of Le Mans itself, where the silence of the French countryside will be shattered for the week of intense activities culminating in the Le Mans 24 hour race, the world’s biggest, oldest and most prestigious race attended by some 200,000 spectators, 2,500 members of the world’s media and watched by a TV audience of around 200,000,000. The “who’s who” of the business world of motorsport and the automotive industry attend this event.

Lammers is one of the most versatile racers of the modern era having driven everything from sports cars to Indy cars, most forms of single seaters, as well as touring cars and rally cars. His impressive career spans more than 3 decades including, uniquely, 2 stints in Formula 1 some ten years apart. He has competed in Le Mans sportscars for many years winning at Le Mans itself in 1988 and putting up impressive fights against the all-powerful manufacturer teams ever since.

He and Yoong have spent the last 6 months getting to know each other in the A1 paddock, and Lammers believes that Yoong is an ideal partner for the 2006 Le Mans Series season.

Lammers recalled, "One of the pleasures of this first A1GP season is that it really has brought people together through the A1GP “nation vs. nation” concept. One of the people that I have met and have been very impressed with is Alex Yoong and we are looking forward to working with him over the coming months.”

Yoong says of the opportunity… “I have always wanted to drive the Le Mans 24 hours and to be able to do it do it for the first time with such a well known and respected personality and driver such as Jan Lammers is an excellent opportunity. It has been a pleasure and a challenge to race against his team in A1GP and I look forward to racing with him through out the summer months.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia comments… “This announcement perfectly illustrates our long-term strategy to be competing in A1GP in the winter months and then to have a significant presence in sports cars and long distance races in the summer months. Our strategy is to work with some of our commercial and technical partners in motorsports environments throughout the calendar year in a way that is complimentary to our A1GP programme. This is a key part of our long term plan for the promotion of Malaysian brands for 2007 and beyond, as well as forming part of the build up to the second season of A1GP starting in September 2006.”

The funding for the project will be generated via a unique sponsor concept developed by RFH displaying a car that is covered in soccer balls!

Each ball or part of a ball can be bought for anything from € 100 up to € 5,000 depending on the location and whether it is a full ball or a part of it. High exposure ball locations cost € 5,000 and regular positions are € 2,500. The smaller pieces that are left on the car are ideal for the fans. Half a ball is half the price, a quarter ball is a quarter of the price and so on. This way the team can accommodate everyone and have a blend of sponsors.

Jan Lammers, “Basically the car will be covered with ‘enthusiasm’ as we learned from the great late Enzo Ferrari that ‘Nothing beats enthusiasm’. When I learned that the start of the Le Mans race was postponed by one hour to accommodate the end of a World Cup soccer match I realized the influence of World Cup soccer. I wondered ‘How will we get in the sports papers’? Well if you can’t fight them, join them…… So here we are.”

Jack Cunningham says… “Details of a specific Malaysia sponsor programme will be announced in April where balls will be available to Malaysian companies and to be shared by individuals. First of all, though, our focus is on Alex carrying out a testing programme with Jan early next week at the famous Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France and then our final event of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations 2005/6 series in Shanghai, where Proton sponsored A1 Team Malaysia will be putting all their efforts into beating A1 Team Netherlands!”

A1 Team Malaysia

A1 Team Malaysia Salvages Tenth From a Difficult Day

2006-03-14T15:57:00.000+08:00

A1 Team Malaysia, with its best qualifying performance of the season yesterday, was able to add another point for the team’s World Cup of Motorsport points standings. The team takes away a tenth place finish in the Feature race and a retirement in the Sprint race, from the Laguna Seca, California event, the penultimate round of the A1 Grand Prix 2005-2006 season.

In the Feature race, the track was damp after earlier heavy rain and along with most teams, Malaysia opted to start the race on wet tyres. Starting from the back end of the grid after retirement in the Sprint race, Yoong had his work cut out to make it into the top ten, but he attacked from the start. After a quick pit stop to change to slick tyres as soon as regulations allowed, Yoong was off in pursuit of Series points. His attacking style and the lack of grip he experienced left him with a spin and an off-track excursion, but Yoong was relentless and committed. His hard work and endurance was repaid with a tenth place finish. While other front-running cars retired from track incidents, Yoong battled on to the end.

For the Sprint race, A1 Team Malaysia lined up fourth on the grid after the team’s best qualifying performance. Just ten minutes before the green flag the weather changed from bright sunshine to a hard downpour of rain, forcing all the teams to change from slick tyres to wets.

The torrential rain falling so close to the start left A1 Team Malaysia, along with all the other teams, no time to change the car setup for these weather conditions. Yoong took the start and with spray from cars ahead resulting in minimal visibility the experienced driver was able to hold position in the opening laps. As the race progressed he found the car had very little grip and consequently struggled to keep pace, then dropped back a few places before a spin put him into the gravel. He was unable to extract the car from the gravel, leaving him stranded and out of the race.

Yoong said at the end of the weekend, “The team worked exceptionally hard in difficult conditions and although we didn’t get the results we wanted, we did manage to salvage a World Cup of Motorsport point for the team.

We raced in the most difficult conditions of the season in the Sprint race and I fell victim to them. It was disappointing for us, as starting from fourth, we should have been able to finish strongly. In the feature race I struggled from lack of grip and had to work really hard to keep four wheels on track for the hour of racing. My perseverance was rewarded with a point though.”

Jack Cunningham, A1 Team Malaysia Team Principal added, “The weather really didn’t help us this weekend – less track time than usual hurt our race preparations and the torrential rain made the Sprint race a bit of a lottery. Still, taking away another top-ten finish is a small consolation. Twelve top ten finishes from twenty races shows our consistency. China is our final opportunity to record two more strong finishes and we’ll be going all-out for these in Shanghai.”

A1 Grand Prix now moves on to China in three weeks time for the final round of the Series, which will take place at the Shanghai circuit, a state-of-the-art facility, from 31 March to 2 April. 8TV is the official Malaysian broadcaster of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations series.

A1 Team Malaysia Release

RESULTS OF SPRINT RACE & FEATURE RACE

Great Teamwork Gifts Malaysia Best Ever 4th Qualifying Position

2006-03-12T11:02:00.000+08:00

Alex on Malaysia's first ever second row start for Sprint race

A1 Team Malaysia achieved its best ever qualifying position today with 4th at the USA A1 Grand Prix in Laguna Seca Speedway near San Francisco today (Saturday).

Malaysia's Alex Yoong firmly attributed this success solely on the great teamwork which enabled a much improved setup to the car compared to the two practice sessions yesterday and this morning, saying, "The whole team collective have worked hard over the last two days to steadily improve the car's setup and a great improvement was found from the second practice session this morning to put us in this good position to score more points in the run-in to the championship."

"I'm very happy with this qualifying result but credit goes to the whole team." Yoong added.

Malaysia will line up alongside New Zealand on the second row with Mexico, who won its maiden pole position, and France on the front row.

Meanwhile A1 Team Malaysia has strongly refuted that pit-stop efforts have hampered better results for the team. The team's principal, Jack Cunningham and Yoong have both defended the team's pit-stop performance. "The crew cannot be blamed as the thread design on the wheel nut is not designed for tyre changing under high temperature in race condition." said Cunningham.

Yoong said that the other top running teams also had similar problems and added, "The team did very well in the pit-stops in Indonesia and Malaysia and were not the slowest in the last few races. Overall I'm happy with the crew's performance under these very arduous conditions."

Max Revson stands corrected.

Max Revson

USA Qualifying Results
A1 Team/Driver/Aggregate Time
1 Mexico Salvador Duran 2.30.744
2 France Nicolas Lapierre 2.30.895
3 New Zealand Matt Halliday 2.31.596
4 Malaysia Alex Yoong 2.31.810
5 Australia Ryan Briscoe 2.31.964
6 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 2.31.970
7 Portugal Alvaro Parente 2.32.042
8 Ireland Ralph Firman 2.32.098
9 Germany Timo Scheider 2.32.307
10 S. Africa Stephen Simpson 2.32.535
11 Lebanon Graham Rahal 2.32.560
12 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 2.32.571
13 Italy Max Papis 2.32.745
14 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 2.32.838
15 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 2.33.249
16 Switzerland Giorgio Mondini 2.33.299
17 USA Bryan Herta 2.33.602
18 Canada Patrick Carpentier 2.33.641
19 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 2.33.686
20 Austria Mathias Lauda 2.34.338
21 Pakistan Adam Khan 2.36.325
22 China Tengyi Jiang 2.37.715

Despite a regulation which allows A1 Teams to switch drivers between Qualifying and the Sprint race, all teams have decided to retain their qualifying selection and there will be no driver changes. The Sprint race will be contested over 50 miles lasting up to 30 minutes in duration. With a rolling start at 13.30 PST (Malaysian Time 5.30am Monday), tomorrow’s race will be run over 22 laps of the 3.6 km circuit.

The outcome of the race determines the grid positions for the Feature race which will start at 15.00 PST (Malaysian Time 7.00am Monday) with a standing start. The Feature race will be run over 100 miles (44 laps) lasting up to 60 minutes in duration.

A1GP USA: Official Practice Times

2006-03-11T13:10:00.000+08:00

Alex in action at Laguna Seca's famous "cork-screw" - (click image to enlarge)

And Malaysian Live Telecast Times

Official Practice 1 Results
Pos/Team/Driver/LapTime/Gap First/Gap Prev
1 USA Bryan HERTA 1'18.620 - -
2 MEX Salvador DURAN 1'18.948 +0.328 +0.328
3 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 1'19.085 +0.465 +0.137
4 POR Alvaro PARENTE 1'19.169 +0.549 +0.084
5 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 1'19.176 +0.556 +0.007
6 LIB Graham RAHAL 1'19.318 +0.698 +0.142
7 CZE Tomas ENGE 1'19.445 +0.825 +0.127
8 IRL Ralph FIRMAN 1'19.458 +0.838 +0.013
9 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 1'19.501 +0.881 +0.043
10 BRA Christian FITTIPALDI 1'19.565 +0.945 +0.064
11 GER Timo SCHEIDER 1'19.603 +0.983 +0.038
12 MAL Alex YOONG 1'19.624 +1.004 +0.021
13 INA Ananda MIKOLA 1'19.731 +1.111 +0.107
14 GBR Robbie KERR 1'19.905 +1.285 +0.174
15 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 1'20.189 +1.569 +0.284
16 ITA Max PAPIS 1'20.190 +1.570 +0.001
17 AUS Ryan BRISCOE 1'20.585 +1.965 +0.395
18 SUI Giorgio MONDINI 1'20.758 +2.138 +0.173
19 PAK Adam KHAN 1'21.667 +3.047 +0.909
20 CHN Tengyi JIANG 1'21.823 +3.203 +0.156
21 AUT Mathias LAUDA 1'22.074 +3.454 +0.251
22 CAN Patrick CARPENTIER 1'22.464 +3.844 +0.390

Malaysian Live Telecast Times On Astro Star Sports

Qualifying (California Time - 11th Mar, Saturday, 2.15pm)
Star Sports Telecast Starts At Malaysian Time Saturday, 6.00am

Sprint Race Starts (California Time - 12th Mar, Sunday, 1.30pm)
Star Sports Telecast Starts At Malaysian Time Monday, 5.00am

"Laguna Seca, One Of Top 10 Drivers Track In The World"

2006-03-11T13:05:00.000+08:00

A1 Team Malaysia USA Preview

The penultimate round of the A1 Grand Prix series takes place this weekend in Laguna Seca, California and A1 Team Malaysia is ready to take on its rival nations in a bid to secure more World Cup of Motorsport points. Driver for A1 Team Malaysia, Alex Yoong, is determined to record more top ten finishes and improve Malaysia’s seventh place position in the standings.

Laguna Seca is one of the most revered circuits in North America, featuring the unique Corkscrew. The complex of corners starts with a blind crest followed with the track dropping through 50 feet, and sweeping through a curling ‘S’ of turns and on to the front straight. The circuit lies in a natural bowl to provide elevation changes, sweeping corners and long straights; a track which Yoong anticipates will suit him.

“Visiting Laguna Seca is definitely one of the highlights of the A1 Grand Prix calendar for me,” says Yoong. “The circuit is on every driver’s ‘10 tracks I most want to drive’ list, all due to the appeal of the corkscrew. I don’t think I can gauge just how good it is as a corner until I get in the car, but roll on Friday practice, I can’t wait!”

“The job for me this weekend is to learn the circuit quickly and then start setting up the car for the track and weather conditions. We need to qualify well for the Sprint race, improve on the start position to get some points in the bag, then from a good Feature race starting spot, have a good pitstop strategy, run cleanly and bring the car home in the points again. With only four races left, we’ll definitely be going for it.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia, says of the race weekend, “We’ve had our ups and downs in this first season of A1 Grand Prix, and we have made steady progress as we have gained experience, the excellent team of mechanics, engineers and support staff have gelled and built the strong framework needed for a successful team. In an ideal world, we’d like to finish the season with four strong points results and hopefully.”

The Californian round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series will be held this weekend, 10-12 March. This tenth event will be followed by the season finale to be held at Shanghai circuit, China from 30 March – 2 April.

8TV is the official Malaysian broadcaster of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations series.

A1 Team Malaysia Release

A1 Team Malaysia - An Analysis Of Performance

2006-02-27T22:36:00.000+08:00

And What's Possible With 2 Rounds To Go

A1 Team Malaysia went away with a seventh and a eleventh in the Mexican round last weekend but more preciously were the 4 points scored in the Sprint race's seventh position which propelled Malaysia from ninth to seventh in this inaugural A1 Grand Prix also known as the "World Cup of Motorsports".

The nations which the Malaysian team leapfrogged over were Ireland and Portugal which had even less to show as Ireland had two non-finishes while Portugal had a non-finish in the Sprint race and a tenth with one point in the Feature race.

A recap of the results for the team over the nine rounds run thus far showed seven top tenth qualifying in nine rounds with a highest qualifying position of sixth in the Indonesian round and 11 top ten race results over 18 races with the best race result a second in the Indonesian round.

The team's performance at the mandatory pitstops of the Feature race to change tyres seemed to be lacking as there was not a single time where the team has not lost positions to other teams in the pitstop - in fact on some occasions the team lost as much as fifteen positions to other teams following a pitstop.

Car set up also clearly did not allow the Malaysian team to run as quick as the top two teams which are the championship leaders France and Switzerland. This definitely posed a serious obstacle for the team to make a serious bid to run in the front with France.

So, where does that leave the Malaysian team in relation to the 25 A1 national teams that have started the championship?

The answer is indisputably top-seven using the championship standings after Mexico as a marker. And perhaps top-five if we consider the fact that the team finished in the top-five in 5 races and the team missed out on the top-five in 6 races when the team had disastrous pitstops.

In comparison with other Asian teams, Malaysia at 7th is on top of the Asian pile as the nearest rival Indonesia in a lowly 19th position followed by Japan, China and Pakistan in 20th to 22nd positions and India yet to score a single point.

Twenty championship points tantalisingly separate Malaysia in 7th and Great Britain in 3rd. Do we dare dream that the chase for Malaysia to dislodge the GB team from 3rd with 40 maximum points available in the 2 remaining rounds of USA and China is possible?

We say anything is possible as the teams ahead of the Malaysian team's route to be the third best team in the world are afterall, Britain, Brazil, Netherlands and New Zealand, all of which the Malaysian team has the measure of - but with a qualification, the team will need to improve on the pitstop performance and dial the car in with the perfect balance for the remaining 2 races.

If, in the end Malaysia cannot be the third best A1GP team in the world, the team can reasonably be expected to reel in New Zealand which lies sixth with a 11 point advantage over Malaysia - "the sixth best team in the world" amongst 25 national teams - no one will disagree that this will be a great achievement for Malaysia.

Max Revson

A1 Team Malaysia Results (Rd.1 to Rd.8)
Rd/Host Country/Q Pos/Sprint Pos/Feature Pos
1 Britain 9th(AY) 13th(FF) 5th(AY)
2 Germany 18th(AY) 6th(AY) 16th(AY)
3 Portugal 8th(FF) 8th(FF) DNF(FF)
4 Australia 9th(AY) 8th(AY) 5th(AY)
5 Malaysia 7th(AY) 8th(FF) 5th(AY)
6 Dubai 8th (AY) 10th (AY) DNF (AY)
7 South Africa 10th (AY) DNF(AY) DNF(AY)
8 Indonesia 6th(AY) 4th(AY) 2nd(AY)
9 Mexico 11th(AY) 7th(AY) 11th(AY)

Championship Standings After Rd 9 Mexico
Pos/Nation/Points
1 France 153
2 Switzerland 121
3 Great Britain 73
4 Brazil 70
5 Netherlands 69
6 New Zealand 64
7 Malaysia 53
8 Portugal 51
9 Ireland 50
10 Canada 44
11 Czech Republic 41
12 Italy 40
13 Australia 37
14 Mexico 28
15 Germany 25
16 South Africa 20
17 USA 20
18 Austria 12
19 Indonesia 10
20 Japan 8
21 China 6
22 Pakistan 4

A1GP Mexico: Malaysia 11th In Feature Race

2006-02-27T13:59:00.000+08:00

Malaysia's Yoong leads Germany's Scheider in Sprint race...(click image to enlarge)

Sprint & Feature Race Results Plus Championship Standings

Below are the results of both the races in Mexico plus Championship standings.

An analysis of where A1 Team Malaysia is with two rounds to run in this inaugural championship will be posted later.

Mexico - Sprint Race Results
Nation/Team/Driver/Time

1 France Alex Premat 29.20.743

2 Switzerland Neel Jani 29.21.026

3 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 29.21.617

4 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 29.22.884

5 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 29.34.296

6 USA Bryan Herta 29.40.822

7 Malaysia Alex Yoong 29.43.613

8 Germany Timo Scheider 29.44.100

9 Canada Patrick Capentier 29.46.979

10 Austria Patrick Friesacher 29.47.654

11 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 29.49.444

12 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 29.59.203

13 Lebanon Graham Rahal 30.02.149

14 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 30.11.492

15 China Tengyi Jiang 30.12.464

16 Australia Christian Jones 30.33.185

17 South Africa Stephen Simpson 9 Laps

18 New Zealand Matt Halliday 4 Laps

19 Portugal Alvaro Parente 4 Laps

20 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 3 Laps

21 Ireland Ralph Firman 0 Laps

22 Mexico Salvador Duran 0 Laps

Mexico - Feature Race Results:
Nation/Driver/Time/Gap

1 France Alexandre Premat 52.26.709 -

2 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 52.27.489 +0.780

3 Switzerland Neel Jani 52.30.234 +3.525

4 Germany Timo Scheider 52.31.297 +4.588

5 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 52.31.703 +4.994

6 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 52.38.211 +11.502

7 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 52.41.549 +14.840

8 New Zealand Matt Halliday 52.45.537 +18.828

9 Austria Patrick Fiesacher 52.45.849 +19.140

10 Portugal Alvaro Parente 52.46.286 +19.577

11 Malaysia Alex Yoong 52.49.709 +23.000

12 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 52.50.270 +23.561

13 USA Bryan Herta 52.50.585 +23.876

14 Lebanon Graham Rahal 52.52.226 +25.517

15 Canada Patrick Carpentier 52.39.578 1 lap

16 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 53.05.966 1 lap

17 China Tengyi Jiang 53.12.807 1 lap

18 South Africa Stephen Simpson 55.20.794 1 lap

19 Australia Christian Jones 20 laps 16 laps

20 Ireland Ralph Firman 16 laps 20 laps

21 Mexico Salvador Duran 6 laps 30 laps

22 Japan Hayanari Shimoda Did not start

Championship Standings After Rd 9 Mexico

1 France 153

2 Switzerland 121

3 Great Britain 73

4 Brazil 70

5 Netherlands 69

6 New Zealand 64

7 Malaysia 53

8 Portugal 51

9 Ireland 50

10 Canada 44

11 Czech Republic 41

12 Italy 40

13 Australia 37

14 Mexico 28

15 Germany 25

16 South Africa 20

17 USA 20

18 Austria 12

19 Indonesia 10

20 Japan 8

21 China 6

22 Pakistan 4

Rd 10 USA 10-12 Mar 06: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, California

A1GP Mexico: Malaysia 7th In Sprint Race

2006-02-27T04:24:00.000+08:00

And Moves Up From 9th To 7th In Championship

Lap By Lap Report:

lap1: green flag...clean start for all...but 3/4 way done and a crash between ireland and mex pulled out the safety car...mal 8th...ita made up a place on rsa to 3rd...

lap2: por pits with mechanical problems...top 10 are fra, sui, ita, rsa, usa, cze, ned, mal, ger and mal...

lap3: jap crashed into another car under safety car and flips!!...debris all over, driver crawled out and ok...it was nzl whom jap clipped and nzl pits...

lap6: green flag and racing...ned and cze touched...ned takes cze for 5th...

lap7: usa passed rsa... so do cze and mal who moved up to 6th and 7th respectively...

lap8: rsa pits with problems...ned pressuring usa...ned passes usa to 4th...

lap9: top 10 are fra, sui, ita, ned, usa, cze, mal, ger, bra and can...

lap10: gap grown between cze in 6th and mal in 7th...cze takes usa for 5th...

lap 12: mal holds on to 7th under pressure from ger...top 10 are fra, sui, ita, ned, cze, usa, mal, ger, bra and gbr...

lap14: mal defends it's 7th as the pace is not there to catch usa in 6th...gbr tried a move on bra and touched...body parts flying but both stayed on track...

lap15: top10 are now fra, sui, ita, ned, cze, usa, mal, ger, can and aut...

lap16: ned now closes on ita with 4 laps to go...mal still 7th as ger cannot take advantage...

lap 17: top 10 remains the same...ita has responded to ned attack and reopen a gap...

lap18: chequered flag! fra takes win from sui, with ita 3rd, ned 4th, cze 5th, usa 6th, mal 7th, ger 8th, can 9th and aut rounding up the top 10...other positions are gbr 11th ina 12th, lib 13th, bra 14th, chn 15th and aus in 16th...

Malaysia gains 4 points in the championship for the seventh position in the Sprint race and thus leapfrogs Portugal and Ireland to 7th in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix championship.

Malaysia will start the 36 lap Feature race 7th on the grid in an hour's time.

Max Revson

A1GP Mexico: A1 Team Malaysia To Start Sprint Race From Mid-Grid

2006-02-26T19:13:00.000+08:00

Alex, "The competition is tough and I don't underestimate the task ahead for the races."

The rain of opening day practice at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Mexico, left Monterrey to be replaced with clear blue sky and bright sunshine, giving Proton sponsored A1 Team Malaysia and driver Alex Yoong a chance to experience the handling of the A1 car in the dry. In final practice Yoong posted 17th fastest time and in afternoon qualifying he finished 11th quickest.

Oil laid on the circuit from the support race cars running earlier in the day delayed final practice and also created a dusty track from the clean up operation. Yoong opted to wait in the pits for the first quarter hour leaving others to clear the dust and with previous experience of the circuit he could afford this luxury. His knowledge showed through as he got on the pace quickly and ran comfortably around the top ten for much of the session.

In qualifying Yoong also drove well and showed his talent posting eighth quickest time in the first segment and following this with another quick lap to position him ninth overall. Dropping to 13th place after the third segment, Yoong recovered with a strong fourth qualifying segment to finish 11th quickest.

Yoong reviewed his day saying, “It’s a tough, demanding circuit with high kerbs and big bumps, which makes it a challenge to find the right setup for the car and the changing weather conditions. We weren’t pleased with the car in the morning and made a number of fairly radical changes. Happily, they helped to improve the handling of the car and we were able to improve our performance this afternoon. Even in the last session, though, we were still having trouble getting temperature into the tyres due to the smooth surface of the track. I’m pleased we’re starting just outside the top ten; we have a real shot at getting more points for Malaysia in the Sprint race from there and if we can do this, we’ll be set for a good start position in the main Feature race. But the competition is tough and I don’t underestimate the task ahead tomorrow, particularly with the unpredictable weather we’ve seen so far this weekend.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia adds, “A1 Grand Prix has become more and more competitive as it has progressed through the season. There are now a number of ex-Formula One and IRL or Champ car drivers such as Jos Verstappen, Christian Fittipladi, Tomas Enge, Patrick Freisacher, Ralph Firman, Bryan Herta and Patrick Carpentier, and there are also the up and coming drivers who are doing well in GP2.

The competition is growing race by race. Against that background, our task will be more difficult each weekend as the series matures and we will need to respond to that challenge. Our qualifying position is, therefore, all the more gratifying. Alex is proving that he has the talent as a leading driver in the Series and the team is performing well. From 11th we know we can position ourselves well for another good result against this quality field.” The A1 Grand Prix of Nations Mexico culminates tomorrow with two races, a 30 minute Sprint race and a one-hour Feature race. Fans will also be entertained with the colourful pageant of the traditional A1 Grand Prix drivers parade, have an opportunity to obtain their favourite driver’s autograph at the official all-driver autograph session, and to watch the support races which include historic Formula One cars and celebrity drivers.

A1 Team Malaysia Release

Note: Live telecasts of races starts at 3.00am Malaysian time on Monday 27th Feb over Star Sports.

Mexico Qualifying Results

A1 Team Driver/Aggregate Time
1 South Africa Stephen Simpson 2.44.895
2 France Alexandre Premat 2.45.848
3 Switzerland Neel Jani 2.46.147
4 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 2.46.657
5 USA Bryan Herta 2.46.820
6 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 2.46.894
7 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 2.46.975
8 Ireland Ralph Firman 2.46.991
9 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 2.47.066
10 Portugal Alvaro Parente 2.48.071
11 Malaysia Alex Yoong 2.48.447
12 Germany Timo Scheider 2.48.810
13 New Zealand Matt Halliday 2.49.025
14 Mexico Salvador Duran 2.49.090
15 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 2.49.147
16 Lebanon Graham Rahal 2.49.266
17 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 2.49.364
18 Austria Patrick Friesacher 2.49.343
19 Canada Patrick Carpentier 2.49.511
20 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 2.50.169
21 Australia Christian Jones 2.54.116
22 China Ma Quinghua 2.56.400

Mexico A1GP: A1 Team Malaysia Goes Through Set Up Programme In Practice 1 & 2

2006-02-25T13:15:00.000+08:00

Alex going through setup programme in the wet...(click image to enlarge)

Alex: "Not Going For Times At The Moment"

Rain greeted the A1 Grand Prix field for the first practice session at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Parque Fundidora, Monterrey, Mexico today.

Alex Yoong, with previous experience at the track from his time in the American-based Champ Car series, was able to run strongly from the first time out in the A1 car.

In the first practice session Yoong used the time to reacquaint himself with the characteristics of the track, particularly with the wet conditions creating areas of standing water. Lying 10th quickest after the first hour of practice, Yoong was comfortable with his performance. In the second session he concentrated his efforts on car setup rather than quick times, finishing 18th quickest at its conclusion.

Yoong reviewed his day saying, “We’re satisfied with our opening practice sessions. This morning the car felt good, but it was difficult in these weather conditions to really get the best from the car. This afternoon we weren’t really going for a time, but putting our efforts in to making car setup changes, so our time is not representative of our potential performance on Sunday.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia adds, “Alex’s knowledge of the track gives us a small advantage which are able to use to positive effect – so he doesn’t need to run just to learn the track.

Due to the poor weather conditions and how dirty the track was today, we decided we wouldn’t run that much in today’s sessions and certainly wouldn’t push for a time. We ran only fourteen laps this morning and sixteen this afternoon, using the sessions to learn an appropriate set-up for the car for the races just in case these are the conditions that we have on Sunday. We understand, from our research, that it’s likely to be wet on Sunday.

In any case we’re confident that there’s more to come from Alex and that our overall position will be improved in the session tomorrow morning and in qualifying. We are back on track tomorrow morning at which time, weather permitting, we will push a little harder.”

The A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Monterrey, Mexico continues tomorrow with a one-hour final practice session before qualifying takes place in the afternoon. A1 Grand Prix qualifying comprises four ‘flying lap’ segments, with the fastest two laps aggregated to determine the qualifying time and grid position for the first of the two races on Sunday.

Proton is the Official Sponsor of A1 Team Malaysia and 8TV is the official Malaysian broadcaster of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations series.

A1 Team Malaysia Release

* For full results of Official Practice 1 & 2 click HERE.

A1 Grand Prix of Nations - Mexico - Round 9

2006-02-24T21:46:00.000+08:00

Weekend's Programme And Live Telecast Times

Monterrey in Mexico is in the time zone of "GMT -6 hours" - therefore, when the Sprint race starts on Sunday 26th Feb at 1.30pm Mexican time its 3.30am Malaysian standard time (MST) the next morning on the 27th Feb.

For the convenience of all A1 Team Malaysia fans here are the weekend's programme in Mexican and Malaysian times.

A1GP Monterrey, Mexico Programme (GMT - 6)
Friday, 24th Feb 06
Practice 1: 1.00pm (MST 3.00am Sat 25th Feb)
Practice 2: 4.00pm (MST 6.00am Sat 25th Feb)
Saturday, 25th Feb 06
Practice 3: 11.00am (MST 1.00am Sun 26th Feb)
Qualifying: 2.15pm (MST 4.15am Sun 26th Feb)
Sunday, 26th Feb 06
Sprint Race: 1.30pm (MST 3.30am Mon 27th Feb)
Feature Race: 3.00pm (MST 5.00am Mon 27th Feb)

Live internet timings can be viewed HERE for all the above sessions.

TV broadcasts for qualifying and the races are done by Star Sports on Astro as well as on 8TV - below are the telecast times for Star Sports:

Astro Star Sports (Ch.82) Coverage
Sat, 25th Feb - 7.00pm MST - A1 Grand Prix Highlights
Sun, 26th Feb - 4.00am MST - Mexico A1GP Qualifying (Live)
Sun, 26th Feb - 7.00pm MST - Mexico A1GP Qualifying (Repeat)
Mon, 27th Feb - 3.00am MST - Mexico A1GP Races (Live)
Mon, 27th Feb - 7.00pm MST - Mexico A1GP Races (Repeat)

Max Revson

A1 Team Malaysia Mexico Preview Release

2006-02-24T21:35:00.000+08:00

Alex Yoong And Team Looking Forward To Weekend In The Americas

Proton sponsored A1 Team Malaysia arrived in Mexico this week for round nine of the A1 Grand Prix series which is being held at the Parque Fundidora in Monterrey. Team spirits are high following the team’s first A1 Grand Prix podium, earned at the previous round in Indonesia two weeks ago.

The Monterrey circuit is located in the historical Parque Fundidora, which was built on the site of Latin America’s first steel mill in 1983. The 3.38 km track runs in an anti-clockwise direction and has 12 high and low speed corners along with fast straights where speeds of upwards of 280 km/h can be expected.

Alex Yoong is looking forward to returning to track action in Mexico at the challenging circuit, where he has previously raced when competing in the US Champ Car series three years ago. The Malaysian driver says, “There are only a few A1GP drivers with experience of this circuit, so I hope that I have the edge on some of the others at the beginning of the weekend. This track hasn’t been used for a while, so it’s very dusty and will take some cleaning during the practice sessions before we see just how quick these cars can be at this parkland venue.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia adds, “The team’s second place finish really gave us a welcome boost. To achieve a podium was just a great lift for us and the team’s fans at home in Malaysia. Can we go higher and lift the winner’s trophy? We’re out to do the best that we can at each weekend race. The team will be working hard to do everything possible for the best result we can achieve here in Mexico.”

A1 Team Malaysia Release

Track Experience Counts A Great Deal In Mexico

2006-02-24T12:28:00.000+08:00

With So Little Testing For The A1GP Drivers

With so little testing opportunities before the inaugural A1 Grand Prix season started in Britain in September last year and with zero testing once after the season has started, driver experience for the Fundidora Park circuit in Monterrey, Mexico where this weekend's races are run is a paramount jigsaw piece to a possible good result.

Especially so when this circuit has been described as "A tight and twisty circuit almost like a street course." and "Interesting circuit with very little grip and slow corners." by Malaysia's Alex Yoong and Ireland's Ralph Firman respectively.

So, who are those with experience on the Monterrey circuit?

Before this weekend, there were only three A1 team drivers with experience are A1 Team Malaysia's Yoong who finished 9th in the points in his first ChampCar race there in 2003, Christian Fittipaldi, who joined A1 Team Brazil in place of Nelson Piquet Jr last time out at Sentul, who finished third there in the 2002 ChampCar season and Marcus Marshall of A1 Team Australia, who had his first taste of Fundidora Park last year.

The ranks of drivers with experience on the Fundidora circuit swelled to five with new team driver appointees announced for Canada and home team Mexico.

Patrick Carpentier, who is taking over the A1 Team Canada seat from Sean McIntosh - winner last time out in Indonesia - has raced on this northern Mexican circuit three times in ChampCars. And David Martinez, who has raced in Fundidora twice in junior formula races before, was picked ahead of Salvador Duran to represent A1 Team Mexico in this weekend's A1 Grand Prix of Nations in his home city, Monterrey.

But the advantage of track experience that these two new appointees have must surely be wiped out by the fact that they are stepping into these A1 cars for the first time ever.

Meanwhile, France's pair of Alex Premat and Nicolas Lapierre must be the last of the drivers to arrive in Monterrey as they just wrapped up their GP2 tests at Paul Ricard yesterday (Thursday) to travel transatlantic with little hope of getting over their jetlag before practices start today.
How will this weekend go?

My money is as usual placed with consideration for the championship leaders, France and Switzerland, but with the French drivers having to contend with jetlag, Swiss Neel Jani having a purple patch and all three of them without the benfit of track experience, I would also cast an eye on Brazil, Australia and of course Malaysia.

With Mexico being 14 hours behind Malaysia, I've changed my sleep pattern since 2 nights ago to stay up from 3am on Monday morning Malaysian time to catch the live actions of this Sunday's races on Star Sports and 8TV.

Roll on Mexico!

Max Revson

Six former F1 drivers and Four Champ Car drivers Line Up For Mexico

2006-02-21T08:58:00.000+08:00

A1 Grand Prix field is getting stronger by the day

Patrick Friesacher, Minardi F1 race driver in 2005, will replace Mathias Lauda in this weekend's Mexico A1 Grand Prix round, A1 Team Austria announced yesterday.

ChampCar winners, Patrick Carpentier and Bryan Herta have also been announced to drive for Team Canada and USA respectively in Mexico for the first time.

The A1GP drivers lineup is looking increasingly stronger by the day as there are now 6 former Formula 1 drivers (Jos Verstappen-Ned, Tomas Enge-Cze, Ralph Firman-Irl, Christian Fittipaldi-Bra, Friesacher-Aut and Alex Yoong-Mal) and 4 ChampCar drivers (Carpentier-Can, Herta-USA, Marcus Marshall-Aus and Salvador Duran-Mex) not to mention F1 tester, Neel Jani of Switzerland as well as F1 hopes Alex Premat of France, Robbie Kerr of GBR and Timo Scheider of Germany.

So, how can Max Mosley, FIA's President, say that the A1GP driver lineup is weak?

The competition in A1 Grand Prix is second to none bar Formula 1 and arguably ChampCar, AND it is mere fear of it going to greater heights that draw this sort of criticisms.

Meanwhile, it was reliably learnt that A1 Team India will not be at Mexico as it continues to be embroiled in a management tussle over driver choice. Rumours also have it that the management will be changed and a more experienced driver be appointed for the USA round.

Max Revson

A Great Performance From A1 Team Malaysia

2006-02-12T19:55:00.000+08:00

Malaysia flag flies proudly on Indonesian podium with Alex...(click image to enlarge)

As they grab their first podium 2nd in Indonesia's Feature Race

A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong was elated with his podium second for the team in the Feature race run over 36 laps of Bogor's Sentul circuit in the A1 Grand Prix of Nations Indonesia today.

His last podium was when he won in the Porsche Cup Asia race in Macau Grand Prix in 2003 and the one before that was at the Formula 3000 Donnington Park round in 1999 when he mounted the second step of the podium.

Yoong said after the race, "I'm elated for the team. The car was very strong. We should have pitted earlier though, we could have been even closer. This is what the Series is all about, there was so much overtaking, the cars are strong and built to overtake. Jos Verstappen and I had a real cat and mouse fight as we made our way through the field. It is such a good result for the team and for our new sponsor Proton. Having Proton on board has made such a difference for the team, as we have been able to concentrate on the racing rather than getting to the next race."

The race was full of incidents throughout the Feature race and there were three involving the Malaysian team but the team got off cleanly from all these three incidents. The first was when France's Nicolas Lapiere who clipped the back of the Malaysian car and lost it's rear wing in lap 3, then on lap 8, Indonesia's Ananda Mikola also drove into the right rear of the Malaysian car and spun and finally from Jos Verstappen of the Netherland team who looked like he turned in to Alex, made contact and also spun off the race on lap 28.

Yoong had moved up to second in the early part of the race and then dropped to 15th after a mediocre pitstop. They climbed up steadily partly by taking advantage of cars dropping off from the wayside but mainly from overtaking cars in tandem with Verstappen.

Malaysia was just 0.9 of a second from leader Canada in the penultimate lap but had to ease off to preserve their second spot due to heavy batterings from the three coming together with the other cars as described earlier.

Malaysia consolidated it's 9th overall position in the championship with 49 points after Indonesia and have a realistic chance to improve to 6th by catching Netherlands who are just 4 points away.

A1 Team Canada fought their way from back of the grid to win the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Sentul Circuit, Indonesia giving them their first win of the season. In front of a packed grandstand of 32,000 spectators, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and government representatives including the Ministers for Sport and Tourism, A1 Grand Prix laid on a spectacular race, action-packed from start to finish.

It was a great weekend for newcomers to A1 Grand Prix as Marcus Marshall for A1 Team Australia and Christian Fittipaldi for A1 Team Brazil finished third and fourth respectively. Fittipaldi's spectacular drive put them back up above A1 Team Great Britain at third place in the championship points standing.

First-time winner, Sean McIntosh, A1 Team Canada: 'It's just an unbelievable result after the Sprint race. I shot myself in the foot in the Sprint race, and came to win from the back, even with a drive through penalty. It wasn't an easy decision to pit early and then having to do the drive through penalty I lost all the ground I made up. I overtook about six cars after that and by the end of the race there were quite severe vibrations in the tyres.'

Finishing on the podium in his first outing for A1 Team Australia, Marcus Marshall said: 'It feels really good to be on the podium, especially after I didn't even know whether I was coming or not. We really struggled in the dry and a bit in Qualifying but we kept pushing all weekend. We never gave up, and although there was too much wing on the car, which meant I was losing time on the straights, I was setting good times in the other sectors. I'm really stoked for the team, Fosters and everyone at home. A big hello to everyone in Australia.'

The ninth round of A1 Grand Prix, the World Cup of Motorsport will be held at Parque Fundidora Monterrey, Mexico on 24 - 26 February 2006.

End

INDONESIA - FEATURE RACE RESULTS

A1 Team/Driver/Time/Gap

1 Canada Sean McIntosh 55.55.779

2 Malaysia Alex Yoong 55.57.710 +1.931

3 Australia Marcus Marshall 56.08.396 +12.617

4 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 56.09.779 +14.000

5 Switzerland Neel Jani 56.12.288 +16.509

6 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 56.17.625 +21.846

7 New Zealand Matt Halliday 56.17.998 +22.319

8 France Nicolas Lapierre 56.18.477 +22.698

9 USA Philip Geibler 56.22.092 +26.313

10 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 56.38.748 +42.969

11 S.Africa Stephen Simpson 57.10.293 +1.14.514

12 Germany Timo Scheider 57.28.763 +1.32.984

13 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 35 laps 1 lap

14 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 35 laps 1 lap

15 India Armaan Ebrahim 35 laps 1 lap

DNF
Italy Max Busnelli 31 laps 5 laps

Portugal Alvaro Parente 31 laps 5 laps

Austria Mathias Lauda 24 laps 12 laps

Ireland Ralph Firman 21 laps 15 laps

Mexico Salvador Duran 18 laps 18 laps

China Tengyi Jiang 11 laps 29 laps

Lebanon Basil Shaaban 7 laps 29 laps

Japan Hayanari Shimoda 0 laps 36 laps

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER INDONESIA

1 France 132

2 Switzerland 104

3 Brazil 70

4 Great Britain 68

5 New Zealand 61

6 Netherlands 53

7 Ireland 50

8 Portugal 50

9 Malaysia 49

10 Canada 42

11 Australia 37

12 Czech Republic 31

13 Mexico 28

14 Italy 26

15 South Africa 20

16 Germany 15

17 USA 15

18 Indonesia 10

19 Austria 9

20 Japan 8

21 China 6

22 Pakistan 4

Indonesia Feature Race - Malaysia On The Podium in 2nd!

2006-02-12T17:04:00.000+08:00

Lap by Lap Report hot from the press. Report will be uploaded as soon as available.

Indonesia Feature Race - 36 laps

lap1: great start for mal into 2nd...then jos who moved to 3rd behind alex took mal into 2nd and mal fought back to retake the 2nd spot as jos ran wide...indonesia made contact with another car and stalled...
lap2: safety car out...indonesia got an assist from marshalls and restarted...top 10 are gbr, mal, ned, fra, irl, aut, ger, ind, rsa and usa.
lap3: green flag...ned takes mal for 2nd...fra lost it's nose as they contacted mal...mal now 3rd...top 10 are gbr, ned, mal, irl, aut, rsa, por, lib, ind and ita...fra pits for a new nose cone...
lap 5: can takes a drive thru penalty...
lap7: gbr still leads with ned 2nd and mal 3rd...fra off!...safety car out...irl, ita, mal and ned pit...all front runners took the pitstop except for gbr...
lap9: mal drops to 15th after the pitstops...
lap11: green flag...
lap12: ina made contact with mal's rear and spun out...
lap13: ind off and irl also off at turn 3...
lap14: mal now 12th...top 10 are gbr (not pit yet), rsa (not pit yet), por (not pit yet), mex, ita, ger, cze, aus, can and ned...
lap16: mal takes sui...
lap17: mal takes aus for 9th spot...and now mal moving up to ned...
lap18: mex and por off...and mal moves up to 7th...mal takes bra for 6th spot...safety car out once again to clear the mexican car...
lap24: green flag...rsa takes gbr to lead...ned takes cze and so does mal...mal now lies 5th but 3rd amongst cars that have made pitstops...
lap26: top 10 with gbr and rsa yet to pit are: rsa, gbr, can, ned, mal, cze, aus, bra, sui, and ger...followed by por, fra, ita, nzl, and usa...
lap28: mal makes contact with ned in a overtaking move...ned spins and mal moves up to 4th...
lap29: br pits and mal now lies 3rd behind rsa and can with rsa yet to pit...in effect mal now is 2nd!
lap31: top 3 are rsa (not pit yet), can and mal...
lap33: rsa pits...can leads from mal...by only 0.9s with mal catching up fast...
lap35: last lap...can from mal...damage to mal's side pod from earlier contact with ina...mal now cruises to maintain 2nd...
finish: can wins, mal 2nd, and 3rd aus...followed by bra, sui, ned, nzl, fra, usa and gbr.

Malaysia 4th In The Sprint Race!

2006-02-12T15:27:00.000+08:00

Alex pleased with a solid drive to finish 4th in Indonesia...(click image to enlarge)

And Lines Up Second Row For Feature Race

Proton sponsored A1 Team Malaysia driven by Alex Yoong made yet another improvement to their previous best race finishing performance by finishing 4th in the Sprint race of the Indonesian A1 Grand Prix round a few minutes ago.

Yoong made his trademark good start as usual and improved to 5th from 6th on the grid and then had to survive a scare when Canada hit him from the back in the first lap.

He later made a classic overtaking move on Switzerland down the front straight into turn one in lap seven - which succeeded to improve Malaysia to fourth.

Malaysia will line up in the second row for the longer Feature race alongside Mexico which finished third. This will offer the best chance for Malaysia to make their first podium for the Feature race should everything goes according to plans.

With rain clouds looming and drizzles expected for the start of the Feature race anything is possible in the 36 lap one-hour long main drawcard.

France which started second on the flying start grid overtook Great Britain in the opening lap and held on to the chequered flag to record their eleventh win in the series.

End

INDONESIA SENTUL CIRCUIT Sprint Race Results

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

1 FRANCE 18 24:03.360 - - 1

2 GREAT BRITAIN 18 24:10.341 +6.981 +6.981 1

3 MEXICO 18 24:11.387 +8.027 +1.046 1

4 MALAYSIA 18 24:14.682 +11.322 +3.295 1

5 SWITZERLAND 18 24:16.220 +12.860 +1.538 1

6 IRELAND 18 24:17.094 +13.734 +0.874 1

7 NETHERLANDS 18 24:17.864 +14.504 +0.770 1

8 NEW ZEALAND 18 24:19.669 +16.309 +1.805 1

9 JAPAN 18 24:22.074 +18.714 +2.405 1

10 CZECH REPUBLIC 18 24:26.482 +23.122 +4.408 1

11 INDONESIA 18 24:26.666 +23.306 +0.184 1

12 GERMANY 18 24:27.761 +24.401 +1.095 1

13 AUSTRIA 18 24:32.882 +29.522 +5.121 1

14 ITALY 18 24:35.547 +32.187 +2.665 1

15 USA 18 24:39.755 +36.395 +4.208 1

16 AUSTRALIA 18 24:41.317 +37.957 +1.562 1

17 LEBANON 18 24:48.545 +45.185 +7.228 1

18 INDIA 18 25:03.649 +1'00.289 +15.104 1

19 PORTUGAL 18 27:23.194 +3'19.834 +2'19.545 1

20 BRAZIL 17 25:06.108 1 Lap 1 Lap 2

21 SOUTH AFRICA 15 25:12.355 3 Laps 2 Laps 3

22 CHINA 5 7:01.241 13 Laps 10 Laps

23 CANADA 1 1:54.533 17 Laps 4 Laps 1

Malaysia Qualifies Sixth In Indonesia

2006-02-11T21:00:00.000+08:00

Alex in action on Friday in Sentul...(click image to enlarge)

And achieves best qualifying position in the inaugural A1GP championship

Proton sponsored A1 Team Malaysia steered by Alex Yoong qualified on the third row in 6th position from 23 teams at the Sentul circuit which host round 8 of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations in Indonesia.

This result improved on the team's previous best ever qualifying result of seventh achieved in round 5 run in the team's home race in Malaysia last November.

Sessions 1, 2 and 3 of qualifying was run on a drying but slightly damp track with rain threatening to break out. The rain finally fell in small drizzles during the fourth session after most teams have already put in their fastest attempts on new tyres.

A1 Team GB won their maiden pole with Robbie Kerr followed by France with Nicolas Lapiere who had an off in the first session. Mexico was a surprising third followed by Switzerland in fourth and Japan which also achieved their best qualifying position of fifth.

Live telecast by Star Sports and 8TV in Malaysia will commence tomorrow (Sunday) at 2.00pm Malaysian time with the Sprint race starting at 2.30pm and the Feature race at 4.00pm.

End

Qualifying Times - A1GP Indonesia, Sentul.

1. Great Britain Robbie Kerr 2min 34.257secs

2. France Nicolas Lapierre 2min 34.477secs

3. Mexico Salvador Duran 2min 34.554secs

4. Switzerland Neel Jani 2min 35.065secs

5. Japan Hayanari Shimoda 2min 35.190secs

6. Malaysia Alex Yoong 2min 35.447secs

7. Ireland Ralph Firman 2min 35.670secs

8. Canada Sean McIntosh 2min 35.685secs

9. South Africa Stephen Simpson 2min 35.750secs

10. New Zealand Matt Halliday 2min 35.797secs

11. Portugal Alvaro Parente 2min 35.808secs

12. Czech Republic Tomas Enge 2min 35.950secs

13. Netherlands Jos Verstappen 2min 36.000secs

14. USA Phil Giebler 2min 36.113secs

15. Germany Timo Scheider 2min 36.319secs

16. Italy Max Busnelli 2min 36.631secs

17. Indonesia Ananda Mikola 2min 36.805secs

18. China Tengyi Jiang 2min 37.313secs

19. Australia Marcus Marshall 2min 37.950secs

20. Lebanon Basil Shaaban 2min 38.275secs

21. Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 2min 38.290secs

22. India Armaan Ebrahim 2min 38.603secs

23. Austria Mathias Lauda 2min 39.229secs

Alex Takes A1 Team Malaysia To The Top in Indonesian Friday Practices

2006-02-10T18:45:00.000+08:00

Alex revels in the wet...(click image to enlarge)

A1 Team Malaysia tops Friday's free practices in Indonesia's A1 Grand Prix round with a time of 1m 27.557s today.

This is the first time A1 Team Malaysia has headed an A1GP official practice day in the current season.

Malaysia's driver Alex Yoong set the time in lap 10 of the 15 laps he put in during the free practice 2.

Both the day's practices were run in wet conditions with many teams falling by the wayside with spins and crashes bringing out the red flag on four occasions in practice one and once in practice two.

Australia was second fastest 0.263s behind Malaysia followed by Netherlands, Indonesia and Ireland in 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively.

Qualifying will be run tomorrow (Saturday) at 2.15pm Indonesian time (3.15pm Malaysian time) where Star Sports and 8TV will be covering live.

Live timing service is available in the internet at: http://130.117.162.12/pagines/cursa.asp

End

A1GP A1 Grand Prix - Sentul circuit

Programme [GMT + 7 Hours]

Saturday 11 Feb

11:00 - 12:00 Practice 3

14:15 - 15:45 Qualifying

Sunday 12 Feb

13:30 - 14:00 Race 1

15:00 - 15:50 Race 2

Friday Practice 2 Results:

Weather: Wet

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

1 MALAYSIA (ALEX YOONG) 10 1'27.557 - - 17

2 AUSTRALIA 18 1'27.820 +0.263 +0.263 21

3 NETHERLANDS 14 1'28.279 +0.722 +0.459 20

4 FRANCE 23 1'28.680 +1.123 +0.401 23

5 INDONESIA 9 1'28.776 +1.219 +0.096 15

6 IRELAND 18 1'28.915 +1.358 +0.139 20

7 CANADA 10 1'29.203 +1.646 +0.288 18

8 GREAT BRITAIN 17 1'29.380 +1.823 +0.177 21

9 SOUTH AFRICA 12 1'29.437 +1.880 +0.057 17

10 MEXICO 15 1'29.666 +2.109 +0.229 19

11 AUSTRIA 28 1'29.786 +2.229 +0.120 28

12 CZECH REPUBLIC 6 1'29.839 +2.282 +0.053 23

13 INDIA 18 1'29.925 +2.368 +0.086 22

14 CHINA 25 1'30.019 +2.462 +0.094 30

15 JAPAN 21 1'30.100 +2.543 +0.081 22

16 PORTUGAL 26 1'30.172 +2.615 +0.072 26

17 GERMANY 19 1'30.349 +2.792 +0.177 23

18 BRAZIL 12 1'30.414 +2.857 +0.065 25

19 SWITZERLAND 24 1'30.489 +2.932 +0.075 24

20 USA 26 1'30.772 +3.215 +0.283 26

21 ITALY 8 1'30.822 +3.265 +0.050 23

22 NEW ZEALAND 14 1'31.464 +3.907 +0.642 23

23 LEBANON 24 1'32.958 +5.401 +1.494 24

A1 Team Malaysia faces Wet Weekend In Indonesia

2006-02-10T14:39:00.000+08:00

Team Malaysia in Proton livery...(click image to enlarge)

Sentul, Indonesia 8 February 2006 - The eighth event in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix Series takes place this weekend in Sentul, Indonesia. With the rainy season coming to an end, A1 Team Malaysia is expecting to be racing in heavy rain mixed with bright sunshine.

A1 Team Malaysia arrives in Indonesia after the first race weekend of 2006 held on a street track in Durban, South Africa two weeks ago. The team endured a difficult weekend at this tricky circuit and are now looking forward to returning to a purpose-built racing circuit.

Driver for A1 Team Malaysia, Alex Yoong, says of the forthcoming weekend, “I enjoyed my taste of street racing in Durban where the concrete walls dominate the landscape, but I’ll also enjoy the wide track in Sentul. The street track didn’t bring much good fortune to the Malaysian team, so we’re hoping that we’ll fare better at this track. We’ve had some strong results in the Series so far, but really need to get back to the form that we know we’re capable of achieving, and putting in the levels of performance that will bring us World Cup of Motorsport points.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia, adds, “We’ve put the Durban race weekend behind us and our focus is on the weekend ahead. We have the crew, the driver and the engineers that are all capable of putting a top-five car on the track and racing hard for a strong finish in each race. Motor racing is a fickle sport and there are so many factors that come into play at each event, and particularly this weekend in Sentul, where the weather is so unpredictable. We’ll be putting all our efforts into performing well and getting the results that we know are possible.”

The Sentul circuit is located 45 minutes from Jakarta and 8 km from Bogor in West Java. It is 3.9 km long, has 11 turns and runs in a clockwise direction. The circuit has been used predominantly for bike racing and the Asian F3 series, with A1 Grand Prix the largest international motor racing series to visit the circuit. It is fast and wide with very high speeds. Extreme heat, humidity and the unpredictable wet weather at the end of the rainy season are added challenges for the international field of drivers in the Series.

A1 Grand Prix was introduced into the international motor racing calendar in 2005, with nations competing against nations in races around the globe in the winter months, complimenting the traditional summer season of motorsport. The Series has visited Europe, Australasia, the Middle East, and South Africa, and will move on to Central and North America before the season finale in Shanghai, China.

From A1 Team Malaysia

Sentul, Indonesia - Programme [GMT + 7 Hours]

Friday

10 Feb13:00 - 14:00 Practice 1

16:00 - 17:00 Practice 2

Saturday

11 Feb11:00 - 12:00 Practice 3

14:15 - 15:45 Qualifying

Sunday

12 Feb13:30 - 14:00 Race 1

15:00 - 15:50 Race 2

Live timing go HERE

A Testing Weekend In Durban For Malaysia

2006-02-10T14:27:00.000+08:00

A1 Team Malaysia endured a tough day’s racing in Durban and were unable to capitalise on the competitive running that the team had enjoyed in practice and qualifying, with retirements from both races for driver Alex Yoong at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations in South Africa today.

The first street race of the A1 Grand Prix calendar certainly proved a crowd-pleaser with an estimated 50,000 spectators experiencing the action-packed racing of this new motor racing Series which pits nation against nation in 11 countries around the globe.

A1 Team Malaysia lined up tenth for the Sprint race after yesterday’s ‘four flying laps’ style of qualifying session. The start was delayed for race officials to improve the catch fencing safety, but when it finally got underway, Team Malaysia’s race was short-lived.

On the opening lap Yoong was forced to brake hard behind Team Brasil, making contact with the rear of his car. The accident resulted in the Malaysian car losing its front wing and damaging the nose cone, which left Yoong with no option but to retire immediately from the race.

In the feature race Yoong was at the back of the grid for the start due to his earlier race retirement. After an early pit stop for the mandatory tyre change, Yoong rejoined the race and quickly made his way towards the front of the field, running comfortably within the top ten and at half distance lying seventh. On lap 26 of the 40 lap race, with Yoong racing hard and under pressure from the New Zealand car behind, he braked late at the end of the back straight, sending him into a spin and out of the race.

Yoong said after the two races, “A disappointing weekend for us, particularly with our retirements today. In the Sprint race it was just one of those racing incidents. In the Feature race I reckon I could have finished in fourth place. The guys in my crew have worked so hard this weekend I would have liked to have rewarded them with a good finish, but it just wasn’t my day.”

Jack Cunningham, A1 Team Malaysia Team Principal added, “This wasn’t an easy weekend for us, but that’s the nature of motor racing and we just have to put this behind us now. This street race has certainly captured the attention of South Africa and I think A1 Grand Prix put on a great show for the fans. It was exciting racing with plenty of action, but it was a shame we weren’t able to go the distance in either race. We have lost a lot of ground in championship points and we will be mindful of that as we arrive in Indonesia in just over a weeks time.”

From A1 Team Malaysia

Race Results Click HERE

Proton Confirms Partnership With A1 Team Malaysia Till 2008

2006-01-29T10:57:00.000+08:00

at the moment when the world watches Alex Yoong made his Durban qualifying run in Proton branding

28 Jan 2006 - Proton Bhd. through it's wholly owned subsidiary, Proton Marketing Sdn. Bhd. has confirmed their partnership with A1 Team Malaysia through a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the team's parent company A1 Grand Prix (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

A1 Team Malaysia has thus pulled off a major coup in being the first A1 Grand Prix team to introduce a motor manufacturer to the World Cup of Motorsport.

The sponsorship deal with Malaysia's national automotive manufacturer has been inked through until the end of the third A1 Grand Prix season till April 2008.

The revelation was made when guaranteed TV coverage worldwide was possible as it was when Alex Yoong guided the proud yellow A1 Team Malaysia car out of its pit garage for the start of the first qualifying session. The world saw through their TV sets the team's first qualifying run for the entire lap around the Durban street circuit of South Africa.

Proton Managing Director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohd Tarir said that he saw sponsorship of the team as an excellent avenue for Proton to reach an international audience as well as participate in a recognised global motorsport series.

"The sponsorship will allow us to play our role in promoting Malaysia as well as the Proton brand to global spectators all year round," continued Syed Zainal. "At the same time, this sponsorship gives us access to valuable skills and experience in areas of professional race team logistics, support and promotion as well as management know-how. The partnership with A1 Team Malaysia, including the drivers, mechanics and supporting members adds value to Proton's core business and products."

A1 Team Principal Jack Cunningham said that he was delighted to be taking as the first step in the development of a long-term relationship that will encompass technical and branding opportunities.

"Our new partner Proton has had the vision to see the strength of the A1 Grand Prix platform and recognises the excellent branding opportunity that A1 Team Malaysia represents for Malaysian companies to reach an international audience," said Cunningham.

It was particularly fitting that the announcement was made here in South Africa, as this is one of Proton's new markets as they started selling their model range here only two months ago.

Malaysia qualified in the top ten for the Sprint race on Sunday.

DURBAN SOUTH AFRICA - QUALIFYING RESULTS
Pos/A1 Team/Driver/Aggregate Time
1 France Alexandre Premat 2.36.841
2 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 2.38.079
3 Switzerland Neel Jani 2.38.093
4 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 2.38.452
5 Ireland Ralph Firman 2.38.509
6 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 2.38.541
7 New Zealand Matt Halliday 2.38.856
8 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 2.38.876
9 Canada Sean McIntosh 2.38.996
10 Malaysia Alex Yoong 2.39.197
11 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 2.39.240
12 Germany Timo Scheider 2.39.325
13 USA Philip Giebler 2.39.355
14 Italy Massimiliano Busnelli 2.39.419
15 Portugal Alvaro Parente 2.39.671
16 South Africa Stephen Simpson 2.40.193
17 Australia Will Davison 2.40.652
18 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 2.41.845
19 Mexico David Martinez 2.41.846
20 China Tengyi Jiang 2.42.824
21 Austria Mathias Lauda 2.42.871
22 India Armaan Ebrahim 2.46.880
23 Pakistan Adam Khan N/A

Alex To Drive The Whole Weekend In South Africa

2006-01-27T12:25:00.000+08:00

As Fairuz concentrates on new GP2 programme

Malaysia's Alex Yoong will be doing all the driving at the A1 Grand Prix South Africa round in the streets of Durban this weekend.

He will be involved in the free practice sessions, the qualifying as well as race in the Sprint and Feature races.

Fairuz Fauzy has earlier last week said in a press release that he wants to concentrate in his new GP2 programme for 2006 and he is in the midst of deciding on a new team. January and February traditionally involves alot of testing in the European season.

Max Revson

A1 Team Malaysia Ready To Take To The Streets of Durban

2006-01-27T11:56:00.000+08:00

A1 Team Malaysia will return to track action in the A1 Grand Prix of Durban, South Africa this weekend, the seventh round of the 11-event A1 Grand Prix series. This event will be the first, and only, street race of the inaugural season, with a temporary circuit being built along the Durban shoreline.

Alex Yoong will be back behind the wheel for this historic event, the first-ever street race for the city. With three fifth place and three eighth place finishes in the season so far, the team moves into the second half of the season with Yoong ready to step back into the car and bring home more points for Malaysia in the concluding five races of the season.

“Street racing is very exciting” says Yoong. “There are a few more challenges than on the permanent tracks, primarily from the barriers being a lot closer at street events than on a racetrack. So it’s really important to keep away from these and place your car carefully on the track. I’ve driven at the Monaco Grand Prix which is held on the public roads, so I have some experience of this type of track and know what to expect, so I hope that I can use this to my advantage."

“I haven’t seen the track yet, so I don’t know how twisty, bumpy or tight it will be, but I’ll try and walk or drive round it before the event to get a feel for the flow of it. I think it’ll be a popular race for the local motor racing fans. The South Africans are avid motorsport enthusiasts and I expect we’ll have good support which will be very welcome and will add to the atmosphere and spectacle of the event. It should be fun.”

The 3.2 km track uses the city’s highways, runs alongside the Sun Coast Casino and the beach, featuring nine turns and grandstands for over 20,000 spectators. The city is expecting a sell-out event with full grandstands and spectators watching from every vantage point.

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia, says of the next round, “We’ve had a long break away from the racetrack and it’ll be hard to get back into race-mode quickly, but we have a highly professional team of mechanics, and engineers, Alex knows his job and what is required from him, so if we can bring it all together quickly and be on the pace after the first session, we should be in a good position for the races on Sunday.”

The A1 Grand Prix of Durban takes place on Sunday 29th January with practice and qualifying earlier in the weekend. The Indonesian round of the Series to be held at Sentul was due to be held earlier in the month, but has been postponed until February and will now follow the Durban race, with race day on February 12. A1 Grand Prix then moves across the globe with a race in Monterrey, Mexico and in California, USA before the finale of the Series in Shanghai, China.

From A1 Team Malaysia

The Secret of Success In A1 Team Malaysia

2006-01-27T11:40:00.000+08:00

Julian Randles (l.) and Greg Wheeler

Top Management and Engineer Team

A1 Team Malaysia is proving to be one of the top contenders in the new A1 Grand Prix series, lying ninth at the halfway stage of the season with its two talented and high profile professional drivers, Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy.

So what are the ingredients of success for a team like A1 Team Malaysia?

Undoubtedly the two men in the cockpit of the A1 Team Malaysia race car are highly experienced and skilled racing drivers, but it’s also the support network around them that is giving the team an edge on its rivals in the series.

In particular, two individuals within the team are making valuable contributions to the technical operations and providing the specialist engineering guidance that makes a real difference. These men are Julian Randles, Technical Director (pictured left) and Greg Wheeler, Chief Engineer (pictured right), who bring a wealth of experience that ensures the team is able to perform competitively at each race weekend.

Julian Randles has an illustrious career with many top racing teams and drivers. He started his career with Sid Taylor Racing, fielding a Lola T70 sports car driven by Jack Brabham. After working in sports car racing in the UK for a number of years Randles moved to America, running cars for Jody Schekter and Alan Jones among others. Returning to the UK, he worked with Patrick Tambay, Derek Warwick and Desire Wilson in Formula One before another transatlantic move to USA sportscar racing in the 90s.

There Randles enjoyed developing a natural gas-powered Chrysler Patriot sports racing car for the giant General Motors Corporation, but with the technology some years ahead of itself, the car was never able to run competitively and Randles moved back to the UK to continue his sportscar racing career with British racing teams before joining A1 Team Malaysia in August 2005.

Greg Wheeler’s biography also reads like a “Who’s Who of Motorsport”, with his career including roles with Mitsubishi and the works World Rally team, engineering the Williams Touring Car team competing in the British Touring Car Championship as well as the Williams Formula One Team with Alex Zanardi, and latterly with Jos Verstappen at Arrows Grand Prix and with Verstappen and Alex Yoong at Minardi F1. The breadth of experience that Wheeler brings to the team has also assisted in its ongoing success.

Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, says of their contribution, “These two motorsport professionals have been instrumental in the success of our team. Many of the races are held at circuits which are new to the drivers and the team, but through the skills and experience of both Julian and Greg, working with the drivers and mechanics, we have been able to set the car up for the track conditions quickly enabling Alex and Fairuz to concentrate on learning the circuit where necessary and then improving their performance by working with the technical team to optimise the car for the different requirements, for example, the ‘flying lap’ style of qualifying. Every team has had a steep learning curve in this new series and we’ve been able to accelerate our development programme with the input and direction from Julian and Greg. We’re now looking forwards to the second half of the season and are confident that we can continue to improve our race weekend performance in the upcoming races. Julian and Greg are also spending a great deal of timing training and assisting our team members where necessary – they are dedicated to passing on the experience they have gained over a collective 50 years or more of motor racing. This is an integral part of our on-going effort as we build the team and try to improve our standard, performance and results.”

A1 Team Malaysia is one of twenty five teams competing in the new A1 Grand Prix series and has enjoyed strong results in the first half of the season including three fifth place finishes and three eighth place finishes, which have contributed to the overall ninth place in the World Cup of Motorsport standings for this inaugural season.

8TV is the official Malaysian broadcaster of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations.

From: A1 Team Malaysia

Nazrie Ramli Wins PanGlobal Alex Yoong F1 Driver Search Title

2005-12-20T20:58:00.000+08:00

The 2005 Champion, Nazrie Ramli...(click image to enlarge) - Photo from Max Revson
The Class of 2005 ...(click image to enlarge) - Photo from Max Revson
At the top-5 podium with the VIPs...(click image to enlarge) - Photo from Max Revson
At the chequered flag...(click image to enlarge) - Photo frm Max Revson

from Terengganu's Mohd Zurairi and Syazril Amri

Twenty-six year old Nazrie Ramli was dominant amongst the 40 grand finalists in yesterday's PanGlobal Alex Yoong F1 Driver Search Grand Finals held in the Sepang International Kart Circuit as he won with ease from second on the grid to snatch the 2005 crown from second finisher Mohd Zurairi Mohd Nasir from Terengganu and Syazril Amri Abd Rahman.

He was unperturbed when he had a dissasterous qualifying which placed him seventh on the grid for his pre-final race which meant he had to climb to at least second to qualify for the final race. This he did and he proceeded to the final race where he fought out an initially tough battle in the first three laps of the eight-lap final race to finally overtake pole sitter Syazril on lap 4.

Terengganu boy, 21 year old Zurairi had an inspired final race as he managed to fight through the field from 6th on the grid to second. Raja Mardiah Idris, 24, one of only two lady grand finalists to get into the final race of the day also did very well to finish fourth from eighth on the grid. Md. Misbahudin Idrus Tam rounded off the top five podium finishers in the grand finals.

"It was a very tough race," said the newly crowned 2005 F1 Driver Search champion, Nazrie. "I had taken this very seriously and had been in training for the last two months. It has now paid off and I'm really looking forward to the Formula BMW test."

First runner-up Zurairi who was one of four Terengganu residents who made it to the grand finals became the sole Terengganu representative after the pre-finals and he duly acknowledged the strong support from his home state saying, "I can hear the cheers from my friends and relatives from Terengganu who are here to support me. They have helped me to climb from 6th to second. This is my first time ever in the Sepang track and I am sure I could have done better if I had trained here. But second is fantastic for me."

Third finisher, Syazril was disappointed with third as he said, "To finish third after getting pole for the final race is disappointing. I however enjoyed the competition very much and I hope to get the second spot of that Formula BMW test drive."

A large crowd had turned up to watch the grand finals yesterday. They were treated with a huge load of exciting action from all the races from the 40 grand finalists as well as from an entertaining display of advance and stunt driving from the Lotus Club, courtesy of Lotus Asia Pacific. Malaysia A1 team owner, Alex Yoong and former GP Bike racer Oh Kah Beng and Lotus Club members took time off to give members of the enthusiastic crowd exciting rides in the Lotuses.

PanGlobal Insurance Bhd.'s senior manager, N. Sharmila was at hand to give away the prizes with Alex and MMOCA's president Ahmad Awang. Sharmila announced, "PanGlobal Insurance are extremely appreciative of all the spectators' and racers' support for the series. We take this opportunity to announce a continuation of the Driver-Search programme with the A1 Driver Search for next year."

End

GRAND FINAL RACE RESULTS

Pos./Kart No./Driver/Laps/Best Lap/On Lap/Total Time

1 2 Nazrie Ramli 8 01:06.35 8m 59.52

2 6 Mohd Zurairi Mohd Nasir 8 01:06.26 +1.21s

3 3 Syazril Amri Abdul Rahman 8 01:06.96 +1.80s

4 8 Raja Mardiah Idris (Ms.) 8 01:05.86 +1.96s

5 9 Md. Misbahudin Idrus Tam 8 01:06.06 +2.01s

6 5 Nevsky Chin Wai Leong 8 01:06.54 +5.81s

7 1 Thomas Ong 8 01:06.75 +7.15s

8 10 Mohd Nazri Ng b. Mohd Ng 8 01:06.36 +7.25s

9 7 Ramzul Zai b Zainudin 8 01:07.57 +16.64s

10 4 Abd Razak Abd Halim 8 01:08.02 +1 lap

PanGlobal Alex Yoong F1 Driver Search Climaxes With Grand Finals

2005-12-15T20:38:00.000+08:00

2004 Champion, Roduwan Rashid at the Formula BMW test last year...(click image to enlarge) - Photo from Max Revson

at the Sepang International Kart Circuit from 10am this Sunday, 18th December

A huge challenge awaits the country's 40 top newcommer-karters as they head to the Grand Finals which is the climax of the 2005 PanGlobal Alex Yoong F1 Driver Search programme this Sunday, 18th December at the Sepang International Kart Circuit.

They will all be chasing the Formula BMW prize drive which will be awarded to the champion of 2005.

These top 40 karters selected from the top five of eight rounds of qualifying rounds held all over Malaysia since March this year comprise two lady karters, six students and 28 young karters in their teens and twenties. More than 320 newcommers took part in the eight qualifying rounds.

The programme starts with registration and sign-in of the grand finalists from 8am followed with five qualifying races from 10am. The 40 finalists will then be grouped into five pre-final races of seven laps each. The fastest five finalists in qualifying will head up the five positions of the five pre-final races with the second five fastest in the second grid and so on.

The top two winners of the five pre-finals races will then advance to the 8 lap grand final race comprising the ten top of the cream racers. The grand final race is scheduled to be run at approximately 1.30pm this sunday.

In the pre-final races, competitors will need to not only be the top two to qualify for the grand final but they will also all have to go all out as their fastest single lap time recorded in the pre-finals will be used to line them up in the ten grid positions in the grand final race.

The winners of the eight qualifying rounds are Raja Mardiah, Muhd Amirullah, Roazri Mustafa, Md. Misbahudin, Lee Kel Vin, Khairul Izwan, Hafidz Rozi and Nazrie Ramli from round 1 to 8 respectively. Although they will be deemed the favourites to be this year's champion, it is by no means a foregone conclusion as all the other grand finalists have recorded very close times to these winners of the qualifying rounds.

PanGlobal Insurance Bhd is the originator and joint organiser of this F1 Driver Search series which had it's inaugural running in 2004 which produced the first champion, Roduwan Rashid who tested the Formula BMW at the end of 2004.

PanGlobal Insurance's senior manager, Sharmila Nadarajah said, "PanGlobal Insurance is proud to be able to contribute to grass-root racing development for Malaysia's youths in a substantial manner through our F1 Driver Search programme in cooperation with Malaysia's only Formula 1 driver, Alex Yoong. We are all awaiting this Sunday's grand finals with great excitement and we can assure all those who turn up will be treated with a day of great racing from 40 of the best newcommer karters in our country."

Alex Yoong, who has returned from Dubai's round 6 of the A1 Grand Prix will be present this Sunday to guide these finalists through their paces, he intimated, "I strongly believe that PanGlobal's programme will bear the fruits of their labour in the coming years. We have unearthed some real gems from these two years of running the F1 Driver Search programme. Our A1 Team Malaysia should also benefit from PanGlobal's efforts as we are on the same tune of ensuring a high volume of new race drivers feeding into higher racing hierachy through these grassroot racing programmes. Our A1 Team Malaysia is in the proccess of looking into a joint cooperation programme with PanGlobal from next year."

"Admission to the grand finals in the Sepang International Kart circuit is free for all spectators and all media are invited to attend and cover the event. Enthusiasts and motorsports fans are also welcomed to attend as well as to speak with Alex or capture some photographic moments with the man himself this Sunday." concluded Sharmila.

GRAND FINALS PROGRAMME AT SEPANG INT. KART CIRCUIT
Sunday, 18th Dec 2005
8.00am – 9.00am: Compulsory Sign-In of all finalists
9.00am – 9.30am: Compulsory attendance of briefing by all finalists
9.30am: Balloting of karts for Qualifiers 1 to 5
9.45am: Qualifier 1 – 5 laps
10.00am: Qualifier 2 – 5 laps
10.15am: Qualifier 3 – 5 laps
10.30am: Qualifier 4 – 5 laps
10.45am: Qualifier 5 – 5 laps
11.00am – 11.15am: Break & Balloting of karts for Pre-Finals
11.30am: Pre-Final 1 – 7 laps (top 2 into Grand Final race)
11.50am: Pre-Final 2 – 7 laps (top 2 into Grand Final race)
12.10pm: Pre-Final 3 – 7 laps (top 2 into Grand Final race)
12.30pm: Pre-Final 4 – 7 laps (top 2 into Grand Final race)
12.50pm: Pre-Final 5 – 7 laps (top 2 into Grand Final race)
1.00pm – 1.30pm: Break, Invitation Race and Lotus Demo
1.30pm: Grand Final race – 8 laps
1.50pm: Presentation Ceremony

A1GP Dubai: Alex Yoong Retired From Feature Race

2005-12-13T11:39:00.000+08:00

After being nudged off into a spin by Verstappen

A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong was only three laps into the Feature race when he was nudged off by Netherlands' Jos Verstappen. He couldn't keep the engine running and retired from the race - his first retirement after 8 races in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix championship.

Alex had a very good start from 10th on the grid to launch himself to 6th upon taking turn 1. He was then involved in a coming together with another car in turn 2 which lost him 2 spots to 8th.

Malaysia was in 5th spot when Verstappen made his ambitious move on Alex.

"It was a disappointing weekend for us," said Alex.

"We have the pace to be up there with the top three this weekend. In the Feature race, I was up to fifth place but jos tried an apportunistic move from the outside, which left me no room and forced me into a spin. The engine died and we couldn't continue."

France's Nicolas Lapierre won the Feature race after starting from seventh on the grid. Battling up from ninth, A1 Team Great Britain took second place followed by Stephen Simpson who drove his way to South Africa’s first podium finish.

Malaysia maintained their top-10 championship position with 33 points in ninth.

Max Revson

Yoong Maintains Point Scoring Streak in Dubai's Sprint Race

2005-12-11T18:36:00.000+08:00

Alex scores point in Dubai's Sprint race...(click image to enlarge) - Photo from HBL Network

Despite Nearly Taken Out By Germany

After qualifying 8th on the grid at the A1 Grand Prix Dubai round, A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong made a good getaway in the Sprint race rolling start and was on the inside line of turn 2 with a chance to move to 6th. But Germany's Adrian Sutil drove him off the track and Alex dropped to 11th.

He made up one position to 10th and had an interesting race fighting on and off battles with Netherlands' Jos Verstappen throughout the 15 lap race.

Alex even had a chance for 9th after Great Britain's Robbie Kerr dropped from 4th after a spin into Alex's clutches.

In the end Alex defended well to grab the final point for 10th at the chequered flag to push Netherlands to 7th in the championship.

Malaysia is now 6th in the championship instead of joint 6th with the Netherlands before the Sprint race in Dubai.

Alex has now scored points for Malaysia in every A1GP race he took part for Malaysia bar one.

Max Revson

rd. 6 dubai - sprint race lap by lap

lap1: malaysia started well to go 7th but germany moved out and made coontact with malaysia...alex dropped to 11th...indonesia had a fantastic start to move up to 8th as was netherlands who slotted in behind alex...(lib had crashed out going to the grid earlier)...
lap2: 1st sui, 2nd irl, 3rd.gbr, 4th fra, 5th cze...mal 10th.
lap3: netherlands' jos pressures alex of malaysia...fra takes gbr for 3rd...top 10 are sui, irl, fra, gbr, ita, cze, can, ina, por & mal...ned 11th.
lap6: gbr spun and dropped to 9th from 4th...
lap7: fra pressures ire...top 10 now are: sui, ire, fra, ita, cze, can, ina, por, gbr and mal...gbr, mal and ned are close together...
lap9: good battles all round between ire and fra, between usa and rsa as well as amongst gbr, mal and ned....mex and aut also battle closely..
lap10: aus into pits...with probably gear problem...cars out of race are ger and bra...
lap12: mal's alex hounding gbr after pulling a gap from ned...alex made a half move on gbr which didn't come off and dropped back into the clutches of ned's jos...top 10 remains unchanged...
lap14: sui's gap to second car ire is now 4.6s with 1 laps to go...fra spins! fra drops to 7th...
lap15: top3: drama in the last lap as ita and cze both take ire!
chequered flag: sui breaks fra's stranglehold and wins from ita and cze in 3rd...ire 4th with can 5th, ina 6th, fra 7th, por 8th, gbr 9th and mal held on to the final point for 10th...the rest finished as follows: 11th ned, 12th rsa, 13th usa, 14th jpn, 15th nzl, 16th pak, 17th aut, 18th mex, 19th chn, 20th ind and 21st aus. lib, ger and bra dnfs.

A1 Team Malaysia Heads To The Desert

2005-12-08T14:38:00.000+08:00

Alex optimistic in Sepang...(click image to enlarge) - Photo from HBL Network

Alex will drive both races

The Arabian desert is the next destination on the A1 Grand Prix calendar for A1 Team Malaysia, with the sixth round of the Series taking place at the Dubai Autodrome in the United Arab Emirates next weekend.

Two top ten finishes in the team's home race at Sepang circuit, Kuala Lumpur has elevated the team to sixth place in the overall points standings for the World Cup of Motorsport, and the team is now aiming for consistent points-earning places.

Alex Yoong will be driving for the team in the Dubai event, while team mate Fairuz Fauzy prepares for his wedding, which takes place in early January.

Yoong scored a fifth place finish in the main feature race in front of his home crowd two weeks ago and is now looking to improve on this in sunny Dubai.

Yoong says, "Our highest finish position so far is fifth, which we've achieved three times now, so we've proved we're competitive and can run up front. We want to step up another gear now and our goal is to bring the car home consistently in the points and hopefully get us, one day, in the top three. The name of the game is consistency now. I haven't been to the Dubai Autodrome, but most of the other drivers are also new to the track, so I need to learn it quickly and spend as little time as possible getting on the pace and dialling the car in for this new, challenging circuit. We have a lot of experience in this Team so that should help us get ahead at a new track."

The Dubai circuit features 16 turns in its 5.39 kilometre course, which is set in the sandy desert surroundings of this popular holiday destination. The event is the home race for the Series founder, His Highness Sheikh Maktoum.

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia, looks forward to the Dubai event saying, "As we head towards mid-distance in the first year of A1 Grand Prix, A1 Team Malaysia has proved it is a serious contender in the Series, with seven top-ten finishes in the ten races that have taken place so far. Alex will be trying his hardest this weekend to keep us in the top six in the championship. However, motor racing is never just a one-man effort; it is the work of a dedicated team of hard-working professionals that has brought us these results. We're a very determined bunch of people, and we'll be pushing ourselves hard this weekend to bring home more points. Fairuz has to prepare for his wedding so can't be with us this week - nothing will give the Team greater pleasure but to inform him of a good result on Sunday night."

Following the summer sun around the globe, A1 Grand Prix will deliver 12 weekends of exciting racing action outside of the traditional motorsport season. Now midway through its inaugural season A1GP has raced in Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Australia and Malaysia. A1 Grand Prix is now preparing for the next race at the Dubai Autodrome on 9-11 December before heading to Indonesia, South Africa, Mexico, USA and China to complete the season.

Full details of the race calendar can be found at www.a1gp.com.

8TV is the official Malaysian broadcaster of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations.

A1 Team Malaysia

A1 Team Malaysia's Fairuz To Skip Dubai

2005-12-08T13:27:00.000+08:00

Fairuz and Dara at Sepang recently...(click image to enlarge) - Photo from Max Revson

as he prepares for his wedding

A1 Team Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy will miss this weekend's A1 Grand Prix of Nations round 6 in Dubai as he prepares for his coming wedding this month.

Fairuz presented his lovely fiancee, Dara, for the first time at the Malaysian A1GP round in Sepang 3 weeks ago.

Despite, his current pre-occupation for his marital plans, we have no doubt that Fairuz will be glued to his TV set at home to cheer the Malaysian team and Alex Yoong on.

We wish the happy couple the very best for their future.

Max Revson

A1GP: Malaysian Fans - The Greatest and The Loudest!

2005-11-23T18:23:00.000+08:00

The fans that mattered were definitely there...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from A1GP
So were the Jalur Gemilang...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from A1GP
Mostly dressed in A1 Team Malaysia teeshirts...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from Max Revson
and with their huge banners...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from Max Revson
and no less than two Miss Malaysia and one multiple best actress award winner...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from A1GP
as well as die hard friends...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from Max Revson
AND our Malaysian team drivers duly acknowledge them all gratefully...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from HBL Network

Fans' written response and latest photos

Don't let anybody kid you that the Malaysian fans were not there to cheer A1 Team Malaysia's Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy on...they were out there in their throngs...they were fantastic...and man, were they loud...they were electrifying...and they were the ones that mattered to Alex and Fairuz.

Sure, we could have had more fans turning up last Sunday but for the A1 Team Malaysia, they loved those who came for they were the ones whom they raced their hearts out for as well as for those hundreds of thousand Malaysians who watched out of the box in their homes, whether through live or delayed telecasts.

The young and the old were there in Sepang, the government was well represented and there were more than enough fans in the stands to drown out the world. Of course the team wouldn't mind a sell-out crowd at all...and this will surely happen next year as the sceptics would now have been converted while others who missed being there are disappointed...what a show they missed from the A1 Grand Prix of Nations and what a gutsy performance they missed from our team.

Published below are just some of the huge avalanche of positive fans' response from just two sites. Many more appeared in other Malaysian and international forum sites following last Sunday's Malaysia A1 Grand Prix of Nations at the Sepang International circuit.

Max Revson - Racing for Malaysia

Fans' Write-in Reactions:

From: Racing For Malaysia

well done to Alex, Fairuz and Team Malaysia. Alex was splendid in the feature race. Even a brief off and a few lurid sideways moments did not slow him down in hunting New Zealand down. Shame about the pitstops again. Malaysia is looking strong and promising.

TheFazz: 11/22/2005 10:59:50 PM

The presence of PM and HRH Sultan made the moment of Malaysia Boleh shout out sweeter!! Alex looked pretty confident before the race when seen in Paddock..Nobody dared to bet with me before the race that Alex will get podium ..It shows they pretty much thought he could do it too..Max, tell Alex he's shut up plenty of self-declared critics and won plenty more fans!!!

SRV8:37 PM

Spot on Jack (Cunningham)..Hopefully, Malaysia will end the season high so that sponsors will open their eyes on this exciting series which is a lot cheaper than F1 to enter..Being at the track on Sunday made me goosebumped with the fans reaction..Good Luck for Dubai!!

SRV8:30 PMDear journey man,I was there for the race on sunday and it was so great to see the fans all supporting team Malaysia. Being in the stands was eletricifying!! almost like a football atmosphere, i must say i've enjoyed this race more than the F1 races in sepang!, and i would like to commend your site for keeping me and other fellow supporters informed about the progress of team malaysia. Other than this site, i really don't know where to get info about A1 and Team Malaysia. I feel the only thing that A1 needs is abit more promotional and on ground Hype. Keep up the great work.looking forward to more updates:)

- Kelvin Long12:39 PM

Anonymous said...i was there at the race. despite the very poor crowd turn out, i have to say that the crowd that actually attended was super great! it was unbelieveable of all the cheers and support for the national team. (such a goodsport they are, they also cheer once Brazil car able to start at the grid).And it was a really brilliant gesture when the whole team came up to the wall to appreciate the supporters at the grandstand and later on came Alex & Fairuz doing the same thing.fan in yellow.

2:41 PM

f1 @ c.c.c.p. said...i agree. all those fans support is really brilliant. team malaysia is really worthed supporting, and i'm very proud of how well the team is doing. i hope they keep up the good work.joint sixth and potentially able to overtake team gbr is awesome. what more, m'sia is the best asian team on the grid. finally, it takes a fantastic race track to produce a fantastic race. there were so many overtakings going on, it was such a thrill. best a1 race yet.

3:39 PM

Anonymous said...If this keeps up, i wouldn't be suprised if A1 had more publicity than F1. So much action! Controversial ones too, eg: India and Pakistan. But F1 has plans to bring back overtaking in 2006 with the new wing design.Oh, what fun, F1 and A1 all together!

5:13 PM

Rikeys said...congrats to Alex & Fairuz keep up our nations pride!7:52 PMGO GO GO! said...WOOHOO!! Sepang nicest race of the season hands down! It looks as if you don't have to win the race to be a winner! Case in point, Alex Yoong and the cheers from the Malaysian crowd. Good drive nonetheless. Go Team Malaysia!

9:09 PM

f1 @ c.c.c.p. said...what happened during m'sia pit? i missed the action. pls explain

3:42 PM

Anonymous said...Right rear wheel nut got stuck, or something like that. But 5th is still good!5:09 PM

Anonymous said...hey, journey man. Are you one of the crew or what? you always get the best pix and story. I was taking video just acorss from the pit at the grandstand. Maybe can see who took the pix. Anyway, excellent job Alex. Heard on the 4th qualifying segment, you actually get the top 3 place. well done. Malaysia are proud.

9:55 PM

From: Pitstop Forum

Matfoo 22 Nov 2005 : 5:03:19 PMThe atmosphere was fantastic, especially when Alex passed Matt at the last lap to gain back his 5th place. Though I couldn't see it from where I was sitting but the loud cheer of the crowd told the whole story that Alex overtook him.
Being in the garage and see Alex drove off to do his qualifying was also a good experience. Overall, it was an exciting race and I can say the best A1 race so far after 4 rounds. Not only Malaysia did well, the battle between Alexandre and Neel is also heart beating.The proudest moment is when both Alex and Fairuz stand on the pit wall and wave to the cheers of the Malaysian crowd. Superb job team Malaysia.

HYMS 21 Nov 2005 : 09:26:11 AMI don't really count how many times the crowd shouted the "MALAYSIA BOLEH" but it was the first times I ever heard in Sepang for many years.

TheFazz 21 Nov 2005 : 11:43:44 AMThe Malaysian round of A1GP was to me was the most exciting race so far. I was really pleased that the crowd acknowlegded the achievement by Team Malaysia. We have been consistent and fairly competitive. There are a few areas to improve on particularly the car setup and pitstops, but overall they have been doing a great job so far.Kudos to Alex for a strong race and the last lap pass on New Zealand was excellent despite the car being very tail happy towards the end with the drizzle and tyre wear.
HYMS - great picture! I love the crowd rallying for Alex & Fairuz! This is great encouragement - I am sure both Fairuz and Alex would be delighted by this.Now - support from the media and corporates. My media watch: The Star had a 1/3 page report on the race and a bit on Malaysia's performance and Alex comments. Would have liked it to feature HYMS' picture and capture the electric atmosphere as both Alex and Fairuz stepped up on the barriers to the acknowledgement of the crowd. That magic should have been captured.

grs8k8ergal 21 Nov 2005 : 11:54:14 AM
it was the bestest race!!!!!.......now, i'm totally hooked to A1.....i was jumping up and down cheering team malaysia...something i have not been doing for some time now.....i'm definitely going next year!!!!.....congrats to the whole team malaysia!!

SRV 21 Nov 2005 : 09:11:21 AMAs I've told you earlier, the crowd will not exceed 10,000..This is pretty bad for an entertaining series like A1..A lot of free tickets given out and hillstand ticket holders have option to join in at Main G/Stand.. On a positive note, A1GP will definitely be bigger next year..I'm 110% confident..Alex could've been on podium should the pitstop went a ok..Italy & Czech started 16 & 17 but came home higher than Malaysia. On thing I noticed is that the A1 is way different from F1 and the patriotism for Malaysia really shows..Alex & Fairuz got great reception from crowd..I'm sure deep down Alex feels that he's shut up few critics. Hopefully, after last race in Shanghai in April 2006, Malaysia will be at top 5 overall...This will open eyes of corporations who intend to go international and do their bit in sponsoring Malaysian team..After all, the A1 world coverage is tremendous and definitely 70-80% cheaper than investing in F1..

Brandon 19 Nov 2005 : 10:22:36 PMCongratulation! to those who made it to the garage visit, the experiences can only be explained if u were there! We will post up the pictures ASAP.

A1GP Malaysia: YAB Tun Dr. Mahathir, As Always, Still A Hardcore Motorsport Fan

2005-11-22T11:57:00.000+08:00

Tun Mahathir with our drivers together with his family members and the chairman of the Sepang circuit, Dato Mokhzani...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from Max Revson
Some words of advice from Tun?...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from Max Revson

Malaysia's former Prime Minister, YAB Tun Dr. Mahathir who brought Formula 1 to Malaysia was also there at Sepang last Sunday with his family and grandchildren to lend his support to the A1 Team Malaysia.

He took the time to chat with both Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy and wished the team good luck before Fairuz tackled the Sprint race.

A1GP Malaysia: Thank You YAB Prime Minister & HRH Sultan Selangor!

2005-11-21T16:45:00.000+08:00

YAB Prime Minister with Alex Yoong...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from HBL Network
Malaysian drivers with YAB PM and HRH Sultan Selangor...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from HBL Network
"This is how we are going to do it."...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from HBL Network
HRH Sultan gives a word of encouragement...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from Max Revson
"One final request, sir..."...(click image to enlarge) - Pic from HBL Network

For gracing the A1GP Malaysia race which greatly encouraged our Malaysian warriors.

A1GP: A1 Team Malaysia Quotes From Sepang

2005-11-21T16:20:00.000+08:00

Great support from Malaysians

Fairuz Fauzy: "I had a good race out there today, equalling my best result in the Series so far. We have a good car, and I think there are a few improvements we can make for Alex; he'll start from eighth, so he'll be towards the front of the grid, which should give us a good start."

Alex Yoong: "It was an exciting race. I had a really good start. I think I could have been third or fourth but unfortunately Brazil stalled in front of me and I had to get right off the throttle, but we were still sixth and looking good. I was happy with our race pace today. I could be aggressive with the car, I could attack. I overtook New Zealand , but then they got me back in the pitstop, so I had to overtake him again. I was working hard to close down on Italy which I was starting to do, but then when I was pushing hard and the rain started I made a small mistake and I ran wide into the gravel. New Zealand overtook me again, so I had to take him which I did on the last lap. All in all, I'm pleased with fifth and I think we've shown today we have the pace to be on the podium. That must be our target from now on."

Jack Cunningham (Team Principal): "Alex and Fairuz did a superb job for us today. I would like to congratulate them on their excellent performances. I would though especially like to thank the fans of the Team who came to Sepang today. They have been truly wonderful in their support - I hope they realised as they left the circuit how appreciative we were of their encouragement. I have no doubt that our 5th place was the result of the impact of the fans constant encouragement of Alex throughout the hour-long race. It's been a busy week for us here in Kuala Lumpur, but I think we've brought to the city an exciting new motor racing series, which has everything the fans want - close racing, plenty of thrills and spills, entertainment and the chance to meet their favourite drivers. I hope that the fans enjoyed their visit to Sepang as much as we have."

A1GP: Malaysia Now Lies Joint Sixth In Championship

2005-11-20T22:22:00.000+08:00

Alex preparing for the start of the Malaysian Feature race...(click image to enlarge)

Detailed race report and Championship standings from Sepang

Sepang, 20 November - The local Malaysian fans turned out in force at the Sepang International circuit today, the majority of whom were wearing A1 Team Malaysia t-shirts waved their flags enthusiastically every time Alex Yoong's bright yellow car passed them.

For them, the last lap was particularly sweet as Alex came up behind A1 Team New Zealand and used all his experience to snatch fifth place, matching the team's highest finishing place achieved in the Feature races of Britain and Australia.

The 5th position achieved is also a record of sorts as this is the highest position achieved by a team in it's home race after 5 rounds of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix which has been run in Britain, Germany, Portugal, Australia and Malaysia.
With the three points from Fairuz in the Sprint race and nine from Alex in the Feature race, Malaysia now lies in joint 6th overall position out of 24 teams, up from joint ninth before the Malaysian round.

"The Malaysian fans are fantastic. I could see their reaction each time we passed the grandstands was electrifying. It is appropriate that we thank them all for turning up to give us their support and this is from every member of A1 Team Malaysia. We are happy that we didn't disappoint them with our performance in the Feature race as well as in the Sprint race. The team has done their best - everyone of the team members - and Fairuz has done a good job to bring the car home in eighth. We are now all hungry for even better days to come." said Alex after the race.

Eight has proved a lucky number in Malaysia for A1 Team France who won the Feature race after starting from pole position while A1 Team Switzerland again followed home in second place. However, there was a newcomer to the podium with A1 Team Czech Republic finishing in third, one place higher than their previous best.

This time France made no mistake by getting away and into an early and unchallenged lead with A1 Team GBR taking second. It was Switzerland who pressured Britain's Robbie Kerr but was not able to overtake him until lap 12 after the two of them had been racing wheel to wheel for about one third of a lap.

It was again an action-packed race with the first casualty being A1 Team China when their A1 race car rolled several times after contact with Portugal on lap two. Luckily Tengyi Jiang was soon out of the car that landed on its wheels and A1 Team Portugal was able to continue after visiting the pits for repairs. Soon after this it was India and Pakistan who collided with Armaan Ebrahim running into the back of the car driven by Adam Khan. India continued in the race although it was eventually excluded after receiving a push start from the marshals while Pakistan never made it back to the pits.

Battles down the field were fast and furious with Mexico and Australia driving side by side on lap eight while contesting fourteenth position. Two teams who had an awful lot of hard work to do were A1 Teams Netherlands and Brazil who both failed to get away from the grid with the other cars. Nelson Piquet Jr was particularly lucky as cars swerved around him on the grid but he soon started to make his way up the field and scored a point for his team.

Italy, USA, Canada and the Czech Republic were also doing battle and for several laps the four were only separated by 1.5 seconds. The pit stops came relatively late in the race with A1 Team France waiting until the end of lap 16. Until that point the order at the top had been France, Switzerland and Great Britain but of these three, only France managed a trouble-free pit stop. Theirs took just 40.5 seconds while for A1 Team GBR it was problems both getting the wheel off and putting the wheel nut on that kept them there for nearly two minutes. When the car lost all its drive a short while later it was all over for the British team. The Swiss stop at the end of lap 18 was 53.11 seconds.

Mexico was the last of the teams to pit and therefore its top three position as the race drew to a close was unrepresentative. At the end of lap 28, they came in from fourth and dropped down to sixteenth. The other late stopper was A1 Team Netherlands with their stop at the end of lap 26 when lying in eleventh place.

A1 Team Canada was on for a top six finish but when Sean McIntosh decided to try an overtaking manoeuvre for fifth on lap 22 that was the of the end of his race as he clipped the rear of Enrico Toccacelo's Italian car and afterwards accepted total responsibility for an error in judgement.

The sixth round of A1 Grand Prix, the World Cup of Motorsport will be held at the Dubai Autodrome on 9 - 11 December 2005.

Max Revson - Racing For Malaysia

2005/2006 A1GP Rd. 5 Malaysia
Feature Race Results
A1 Team/Driver/Total Time

1 France Alexandre Premat 1.00.06.495

2 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.00.11.051

3 Czech Rep Tomas Enge 1.00.22.184

4 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1.00.30.233

5 Malaysia Alex Yoong 1.00.38.136

6 New Zealand Matt Haliday 1.00.39.192

7 USA Bryan Herta 1.00.39.832

8 Germany Timo Scheider 1.00.41.876

9 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.00.42.240

10 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 1.00.45.883

11 Australia Will Davison 1.00.56.978

12 S. Africa Stephen Simpson 1.00.59.334

13 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 1.01.04.243

14 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1.01.11.734

15 Mexico Luis Diaz 1.01.28.935

16 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1.01.53.803

17 Lebanon Khalil Beschir 29 laps

18 Portugal Alvaro Parente 29 laps

19 Canada Sean McIntosh 21 laps

20 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 20 laps

21 Austria Mathias Lauda 17 laps

22 India Armaan Ebrahim 11 laps

23 Pakistan Adam Khan 4 laps

24 China Tengyi Jiang 1 lap

Championship Points to date after Malaysia

1 France 92

2 Switzerland 65

3 Brazil 60

4 New Zealand 42

5 Great Britain 38

6 Malaysia 32

7 Netherlands 32

8 Ireland 29

9 Portugal 29

10 Australia 26

11 Canada 20

12 Czech Republic 16

13 Mexico 16

14 USA 13

15 Italy 12

16 Germany 11

17 Japan 6

18 South Africa 6

19 Indonesia 5

20 Pakistan 4

21 Austria 1

A1GP: Alex Scores Another 5th For Malaysia In Home Feature Race

2005-11-20T16:12:00.000+08:00

Alex in Feature race pitstop...(click image to enlarge)

An exciting race which saw Malaysia finish 5th from 8th on the grid.

The team had a pitstop which was about 12 seconds longer than most teams running in the top 10 which might have cost Malaysia a couple of positions and maybe a possible podium spot...but the crew cannot be faulted as this is the vagarrities of motor racing...you also need some luck.

More detailed report later.

start: bra stalls! alex took evasive action nearly crashed into piquet...despite that good start 8th to 6th...
lap1: fra leads, gbr, sui, ire, nzl, mal (6th), ita, usa, can, cze (10th)...
lap2: chn and mex clashed with chn flipping over...
lap3: mal hounding nzl for the 5th spot less than 0,9s apart...
lap4: fra still leads from gbr, sui, ire, nzl, mal, ita, usa can czec top 10...ger, pak jpn, ind, aut, aus, mex, ina, rsa, lib next 10...ind hits pak!!...pak out...ind into pit...
lap6: no change in top 10...mal still tracking nzl now 0.3s apart...
lap8: mal takes nzl for 5th!
lap12: ind black flagged for crshing into pak...
lap13: mal 8s away 5th...
lap15: mal pits...52.2s...12s too long!
lap17: gbr fumbled pitstop...aut off parked on grass verge...
lap18: sui also has a longer than average pitstop!
lap19: mal in 9th took nzl for 8th...2 more cars in front of mal, bra and mex yet to make their pitstops...which means mal effectively in 7th now...
lap20: can drove into back of italy at the front straight...
lap22: mal now 7th with mex in front in 2nd yet to stop...
lap23: can pits from damage...mal in 6th now...effectively mal in 5th with mex yet to pit...
lap24: fra leads from mex who has yet to pit,...mal in 6th 5s from ita in 4th...mex now pits...
lap25: fra leads, sui, mex, cze, ita, mal (6th), nzl, ger, usa, ire, ned, bra, aus, rsa, jpn, ina, lib, por (18th),...the rest dnf...
lap26: mal had a massive oversteer and nearly went off!...lost a position to nzl...mal now in 7th with mex yet to stop...
lap27: ned pits...bad stop and then verstappen stalls...
lap28: mal 0.8s from nzl trying to take back 6th....mexpits and changed to wets...
lap29: fra leads, sui, cze, ita, nzl, mal (6th), usa, ger, ire, bra top 10...
lap30 last lap: mal's alex takes mal for 5th!! a huge roar from the crowds!
chequered flag: 1st fra, 2nd sui, 3rd cze, 4th ita, 5th mal, 6th nzl, 7th usa, 8th ger, 9th ire and 10th bra...

Max Revson - Racing For Malaysia

A1GP Malaysia: Fairuz Brings Home 3 Points With 8th In Sprint Race

2005-11-20T14:14:00.000+08:00

Fairuz drove a steady race to score 3 points for Malaysia...(click image to enlarge)

France made a late move in the final lap to take an exciting win from Switzerland in the 15 lap Sprint race.

Third finishing Great Britain held off Brazil for third with Netherlands fifth.

Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy had a goo dstart and moved ahead to 6th momentarily in the rolling start but dropped a couple of spots to 8th.

He made several moves to try to get back his seventh spot from Ireland and one a couple of occasions nearly made the move stick in turn 1.

He maintained 8th to the chequered flag and adds another 3 points to Malaysia's tally.

Malaysia will turn out with Alex Yoong in the Feature race which will be held over twice the distance as the Sprint race.

Tyre wear and fitness of drivers will be big factors in the long Feature race where Alex is hopeful of a podium place if all goes well in the pitstop.

Max Revson - Racing For Malaysia

Malaysia Sprint Race Results
1. FRA
2. SUI
3. GB
4. BRA
5. NED
6. NZL
7. IRE
8. MAL Fairuz Fauzy
9. POR
10. USA
11. IND
12. GER
13. PAK
14. JPN
15. CDN
16. CZE
17. ITA
18. AUT
19. MEX
20. CHN
DNF: RSA, LIB, INA, AUS

A1GP: Malaysia Qualified With Best Ever 7th

2005-11-19T17:52:00.000+08:00

Saturday in Malaysia - Greg Wheeler, Fairuz Fauzy and Alex Yoong

in dry-wet qualifying session of Malaysia A1GP

Sepang, Malaysia - Saturday, 19 November 2005 - It was an exciting afternoon's qualifying which saw the dark clouds threatening during the first of four qualifying segments with Malaysia, piloted by Alex Yoong lying in 16th position after the first timed lap. When the window opened for the second qualifying segment all the cars filed up at the pitlane, jostling to get out to beat the rain - it was still dry. Midway into the flying lap the heavens opened with some drivers spinning out. Malaysia's Yoong kept his cool and still beat his first qualifying time to haul the A1 Team Malaysia to a splendid best ever qualifying in 7th to allow Fairuz Fauzy to line up on the fourth row for tomorrow's Sprint race.

After that the results of the third and final flying lap timed sessions were just academic with drivers taking to the track in soaking conditions which turned corners into streams, to just test out the wet conditions of the Sepang International Circuit at the Malaysia A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Sepang International Circuit, 2005 presented by Astro.

A1 Team Switzerland took it's first ever A1GP position over France in second followed by Ireland, Great Britain, New Zealand and Netherlands in 3rd to 6th position.A1 Team Malaysia, are the only team that will take advantage of A1 Grand Prix's unique rule which allows them to swap drivers between qualifying and the two races. While Yoong qualifiedin seventh position, Fairuz will drive in tomorrow's Sprint Race and Alex in the Feature Race.

Alex described the conditions of the second run as very treacherous, saying, "We have expected more from the team as we have three sets of new tyres and my first run was exploratory as I had not done any practice in new tyres. The rains, however, came down hard by turn 7 of my second qualifying and cars were snaking everywhere ahead of me. I am therefore pleased with the seventh for Malaysia as despite of running half the lap in the wet we still beat the first run's time."

Malaysia is in good shape for both the Sprint race as well as the Feature race. The Sprint race will be contested over 50 miles lasting up to 30 minutes in duration. With a rolling start at 13.30 local time, tomorrow's race will be run over 15 laps of the full Sepang International Circuit. The outcome of the race determines the grid position for the Feature race which will start at 15.00 local time with a standing start. The Feature race will be run over 100 miles (30 laps) lasting up to 60 minutes in duration.

Max Revson - Racing For Malaysia

MALAYSIA - QUALIFYING RESULTS
A1 Team/Driver/Aggregate Time
1 Switzerland Neel Jani 3.48.962
2 France Alexandre Premat 3.49.868
3 Ireland Ralph Firman 3.49.969
4 G.Britain Robbie Kerr 3.49.972
5 New Zealand Matt Halliday 3.50.569
6 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 3.51.036
7 Malaysia Alex Yoong 3.51.199
8 Brazil Nelson Piquet 3.51.398
9 Portugal Alvaro Parente 3.51.547
10 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 3.51.894
11 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 3.51.996
12 USA Bryan Herta 3.52.013
13 S. Africa Stephen Simpson 3.52.118
14 Pakistan Adam Khan 3.52.200
15 India Armaan Ebrahim 3.52.829
16 Germany Timo Scheider 3.53.267
17 Mexico Luis Diaz 3.53.656
18 Czech Rep Tomas Enge 3.53.766
19 Japan Hayanari Shimoda 3.53.948
20 Austria Mathias Lauda 3.54.989
21 China Tengyi Jiang 3.56.047
22 Canada Sean McIntosh 4.00.397
23 Lebanon Khalil Beschir 4.17.659
24 Australia Will Davison 4.17.860

A1GP: Malaysia Friday Practices - Fairuz 8th and 9th

2005-11-18T18:58:00.000+08:00

Sepang, 18 November - The A1 drivers and A1 Cooper tyres were tested to the limit today in the searing heat of the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. With a track temperature of 39ºC and an ambient temperature of 32ºC, this was A1 Grand Prix's hottest two sessions to date.

A1 Team Malaysia are among only three teams that are preparing to share the driving duties this weekend, with both Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy taking their turn in the yellow A1 car.

Fauzy, who drove in both of today's practice sessions said: 'During the first session we had a problem with the rear suspension and by the time we had solved it the session had finished. The tyres started to go away during the second session and by the end of the session, I could not push anymore.'

Asked if the publicity surrounding his home race was distracting, Alex Yoong who will be in the Malaysian car for tomorrow's session, said 'I am doing promotional activity, but I'm here as a racing driver and that is what I concentrate on. Both Fairuz and I have raced here before so we both have experience on the track.

'In a relatively trouble free day, with no red flags, the drivers took their time to learn their way around this highly technical circuit. The fastest lap time of the day was put in by a master of the Sepang circuit, A1 Team Netherland's Jos Verstappen. Verstappen last raced at Sepang with F1 in 2001 when he went from seventeenth to sixth in the first lap of the race and then worked his way up tosecond place as the rain fell. A slow pit stop and drying track saw Verstappen finish the race in seventh.

Commenting on his performance Verstappen said: 'We were trying a lot of different set ups with the car, but not a lot of things worked as the grip level was falling and the track was very slippery. It will certainly make for a very interesting qualifying session tomorrow.'

A1 Team Brazil recorded the day's second fastest lap time in practice session one despite a run in with A1 Team Canada. Commenting on the collision Nelson Piquet Jr said 'I was doing a quick lap and I think Sean had just left the pits. I saw him going slower in front of me and came off the throttle, which put the car into a spin. Unfortunately I hit Sean slightly, although our car had littledamage. We always do well in the practice sessions with new tyres, and I think we will do well in the qualifying tomorrow.'

Another master of the Sepang circuit, Ralph Firman put in the fastest lap of practice session two, with a time of 1.56.663. He said, 'It's great now that I will be able to concentrate on A1GP for the rest of the season. We had a good day today, even though it was hard and there was little grip. It isn't quite as hot here as it is in Japan where I have raced before, but it will be very difficult towards the end of the second race on Sunday. The main difficulty will be to keep hydrated. Drivers who have a good level of fitness should be fine.'

Malaysia - Official Practice 2 Classification
Pos/Team/Driver/Time/Gap/Laps
1 IRL Ralph FIRMAN 1'56.663 - 20
2 CAN Sean McINTOSH 1'56.952 +0.289 18
3 USA Bryan HERTA 1'57.188 +0.525 19
4 CZE Tomas ENGE 1'57.273 +0.610 23
5 FRA Alexandre PREMAT 1'57.316 +0.653 19
6 BRA Nelson PIQUET 1'57.344 +0.681 15
7 GBR Robbie KERR 1'57.347 +0.684 18
8 SUI Neel JANI 1'57.374 +0.71117
9 MAL Fairuz FAUZY 1'57.506 +0.843 18
10 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 1'57.525 +0.862 16
11 INA Ananda MIKOLA 1'57.605 +0.942 13
12 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 1'57.871 +1.208 20
13 ITA Enrico TOCCACELO 1'57.918 +1.255 13
14 JPN Hayanari SHIMODA 1'57.929 +1.266 17
15 CHN Tengyi JIANG 1'57.959 +1.296 19
16 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 1'57.994 +1.331 21
17 AUS Will DAVISON 1'58.040 +1.377 19
18 PAK Adam KHAN 1'58.066 +1.403 12
19 POR Alvaro PARENTE 1'58.488 +1.825 15
20MEXLuis DIAZ1'58.796+2.13320
21 IND Armaan EBRAHIM 1'59.043 +2.380 22
22 LIB Khalil BESCHIR 2'00.146 +3.483 5
23 AUT Mathias LAUDA

Malaysia - Official Practice 1 Classification
Pos/Team/Driver/Time/Gap/Laps
1 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 1'56.342 - 17
2 BRA Nelson PIQUET 1'56.351 +0.009 12
3 IRL Ralph FIRMAN 1'56.737 +0.395 10
4 FRA Alexandre PREMAT 1'56.917 +0.575 16
5 POR Alvaro PARENTE 1'57.272 +0.930 16
6 NZL Matt HALLIDAY 1'57.282 +0.940 19
7 PAK Adam KHAN 1'57.393 +1.051 18
8 MAL Fairuz FAUZY 1'57.494 +1.152 9
9 SUI Neel JANI 1'57.564 +1.222 19
10 CAN Sean McINTOSH 1'57.818 +1.476 12
11 CZE Jaroslav JANIS 1'57.899 +1.557 18
12 GBR Robbie KERR 1'58.002 +1.660 19
13 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 1'58.246 +1.904 16
14 USA Bryan HERTA 1'58.251 +1.909 16
15 JPN Hayanari SHIMODA 1'58.324 +1.982 20
16 INA Ananda MIKOLA 1'58.379 +2.037 9
17 AUT Mathias LAUDA 1'58.414 +2.072 18
18 ITA Enrico TOCCACELO 1'58.507 +2.165 18
19 AUS Christian JONES 1'58.968 +2.626 19
20 LIB Khalil BESCHIR 1'59.139 +2.797 19
21 MEX Luis DIAZ 1'59.562 +3.220 18
22 IND Armaan EBRAHIM 1'59.791 +3.449 21
23 CHN Tengyi JIANG 2'00.019 +3.677 8

A1GP: Fairuz To Drive Free Practice 1 and 2 Today While Alex Will Drive Free Practice 3 On Saturday

2005-11-18T11:09:00.000+08:00

Russia will not appear in Malaysia while Germany will miss Friday action as teams nominate drivers.

Sepang, Malaysia - 18 November 2005 - and A1 Team Malaysia will use Fairuz Fauzy for the first two sessions today (Friday) and Alex Yoong for tomorrow's final morning practice session.
As to who will qualify for Malaysia, it is speculated that the faster of the pair maybe nominated. Alex will probably race in the longer hour long Feature race while Fairuz do the Sprint race.
A1GP announced that the following drivers have been named for the Malaysia A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Sepang International Circuit.

A1 Team/Driver 1/Driver 2
Australia Christian Jones, Will Davison
Austria Mathias Lauda
Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr, Tuka Rocha
Canada Sean McIntosh
China Tengyi Jiang
Czech Republic Tomas Enge, Janis Jaroslav
France Alexandre Premat ,Nicolas Lapiere
Germany Timo Scheider
Great Britain Robbie Kerr
India Armaan Ebrahim
Indonesia Ananda Mikola
Ireland Ralph Firman, Michael Devaney
Italy Enrico Toccacelo
Japan Hayanari Shimoda
Lebanon Khalil Beschir, Basil Shaaban
Malaysia Alex Yoong, Fairuz Fauzy
Mexico Luis Diaz
Netherlands Jos Verstappen, Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand Matt Halliday, Jonny Reid
Pakistan Adam Khan
Portugal Alvaro Parente, Joao Urbano
South Africa Stephen Simpson
Switzerland Neel Jani
USA Bryan Herta

A1 Team Indonesia re-join the World Cup of Motorsport with their driver Ananda Mikola who missed the Australian round of the A1GP series to take part in the final round of the Asian F3 Championship, which saw him take the title.
A1 Team Germany will miss today's two practice sessions as their driver Timo Scheider travels from Dubai after competing in the 5,500 kilometre endurance race. Adrian Sutil, scheduled to drive in this weekend's race is unable to take part after breaking the thumb on his right-hand during the Sprint race at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Eastern Creek, Sydney.
Due to prior commitments made before joining the World Cup of Motorsport, along with a number of technical reasons, A1 Team Russia will not take part in this weekend's event. The team is determined to return to the World Cup of Motorsport for the Dubai round, with a realigned strategy to further strengthen their performance.
Other A1 Teams will who will have drivers sharing practice session duties are A1 Team Australia will use Christian Jones in the first session and Will Davison in the second and third and A1 Team Czech Republic which will use new driver Janis Jaroslav for the first practice session and Tomas Enge for the second and third.
Programme:
Sepang International Circuit, MalaysiaCircuit Length: 5,542 km GMT+8
Friday 18 Nov
13:00 - 14:00 Practice 1
16:00 - 17:00 Practice 2
Saturday 19 Nov
11:00 - 12:00 Practice 3
14:15 - 15:45 Qualifying
Sunday 20 Nov
10:00 - 10:15 Warm-up
13:30 - 14:00 Race 1
15:00 - 15:50 Race 2
Max Revson - Racing For Malaysia

Latest A1 Team Malaysia Photos

2005-11-17T11:22:00.000+08:00

Pitstop simulation in Berjaya Time Square...(click image to enlarge)
A1 team Malaysia hosting sponsors & media at Soul-ed Out, Mount Kiara...(click image to enlarge)
Pitstop scene - wide view...(click image to enlarge)
Signing autographs for fans...(click image to enlarge)
Alex with one of his many young ardent fans, Aaliyah...(click image to enlarge)

from this week's Kuala Lumpur Malaysia A1GP event promotions. All photos supplied by HBL Network and Max Revson.

A1GP: Heat Will Be A Big Factor In Malaysia

2005-11-17T10:08:00.000+08:00

Malaysia 5th in Australia looking for podium at home...(click image to enlarge)

and A1 Team Malaysia can take advantage of this

This weekend's round 5 of the 1005 A1 Grand Prix of Nations will literally put many of the top 10 teams in the "broiling pot" for the first time at the Sepang International Circuit near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and A1 Team Malaysia to feature both Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy must take advantage of this.

Drivers of the top 5 teams placed in the championship so far - France, Brazil, Switzerland, New Zealand and Great Britain - and favourites again for this round have never raced under such hot and humid conditions before in their racing careers while Malaysia's Alex and Fairuz have experienced many races in hot equatorial conditions and have even done 12 hour endurance races in closed cockpit GT cars at their home venue.

The Lola built and Zytek powered A1 cars will also be subjected to this new environ which may affect their performance with all eyes on their reliability especially in the hour long Feature race. A1 Team Malaysia is however ready for this challenge in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix series.

A1 Team Malaysia has been producing good results and the team’s two drivers are eager to put on a strong showing for the home crowd. It is planned for both drivers to share driving duties with Fairuz Fauzy, who missed the Sydney race weekend, eager to return to the car, saying, “There is definitely something special about driving in your home country, particularly in this Series which is based on nations competing against each other. I hope that my knowledge of the Sepang circuit will prove to be valuable.”

Alex Yoong will be joining Fairuz in the A1 Team Malaysia car and adds, “It’s been a hectic build-up to this race weekend, with a non-stop programme of media activities and fan promotions. I’m looking forward to getting behind the wheel in front of all our supporters and showcasing the A1 Grand Prix series. I hope we’re going to see plenty of Malaysian flags flying at the circuit and that all support we get can will help us to bring home the A1 Team Malaysia car with good results.”

Jack Cunningham, Team Principal, A1 Team Malaysia says of Sepang, “This is an fabulous venue for A1 Grand Prix. It’s a wonderful track and facility and also our home race, so it is quite special for us.”

A1 Team Malaysia is one of 25 national teams represented on the A1 Grand Prix grid - the team lies equal 9th in the Championship. With UK, Germany, Portugal and Australia completed, the Series now in Malaysia will travel on to Dubai for the last race of 2005 before continuing the present championship season into the new year of 2006 with races in Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, USA and China.
Astro's StarSports and 8TV will provide live coverage of the weekend’s activities.

Max Revson - Racing For Malaysia

A1 Team Malaysia Will Give Out Team Tee-Shirts To All Spectators

2005-11-14T14:29:00.000+08:00

Attending this weekend's Malaysian A1GP raceday on Sunday, 20th November

The A1 Team Malaysia announced that they will attempt to create one of the world's biggest fan club by giving away one free team teeshirt to every spectator who goes through the Sepang International Circuit turnstiles this coming Sunday, 20th November 2005, for the A1 Grand Prix Of Nations - Malaysia.

This is indeed good news for the fans of the team in Malaysia as they have plenty to cheer for as the team is determined to wrest a podium spot or two this round at their home track.

The whole team will be at "Souled Out", a favourite Kuala Lumpur nightspot in Mount Kiara, from 6pm to 10pm tonight (Monday, 14th Nov) with their chassis number 41 car on display.

The public are invited to meet the drivers, Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy as well as the Malaysian and other technical team members if they have any questions to ask or want autographs signed.

Tomorrow, the team will conduct start up and short runs at the Berjaya Times Square both in Bukit Bintang (10am to 2pm) with Alex in attendance and at One-Utama complex in TTDI (4pm to 8pm) with Fairuz in attendance.

Max Revson - Racing for Malaysia

A1 Team Malaysia Hits Kuala Lumpur With Numerous PR Promotions

2005-11-12T17:01:00.000+08:00

Both Alex and Fairuz will make appearances with race cars...(click image to enlarge)

Plenty of opportunity to catch the drivers, race cars and team as well as see live demo

The A1 Team Malaysia will hit the City of Kuala Lumpur after having both their running cars (chassis no.18 and no.41) off-loaded from the MASKargo plane into the Sepang International Circuit yesterday.

An extensive PR programme to bring the team to the city folks of the Klang Valley has been planned by the home team ahead of next weekend's A1 Grand Prix of Nations - Malaysia.

The race cars will be displayed with drivers present at the Berjaya Times Square, Shangri La Hotel, Sri Pentas/8TV and Souled Out at Mount Kiara on this Sunday and coming Monday.

Team crew will fire up the cars' engines and some spectacular live running will also be done at the Berjaya Time Square and I-Utama with Alex Yoong and Fairuz Fauzy in attendance in Berjaya Times Square and I-Utama respectively on Tuesday afternoon.

Then on the same evening of Tuesday, the team car will conduct a "Rush Hour City Tour" on a driven flatbed in Kuala Lumpur downtown area between 4pm and 8pm with live radio shows.

The promotions will end with a A1 Team Malaysia presentation to the media and guests by Sheikh Maktoum, the President and Founder of A1 Grand Prix on Thursday evening.

So, don't tell us we haven't alerted you of these exciting promotions where you can meet the team members and see as well as hear for yourself this exciting national team of ours which is presently challenging for the top 5 in almost every A1GP race so far held.

Most of these PR happennings are held in areas with great attractions and good accesses for the general public and fans and even for those private functions like the Thursday Presentation, there's no stopping anyone to catch a word or two with the drivers and team members outside the function room at the hallway.

Max Revson

A1 TEAM MALAYSIA PR PROGRAMME
Sunday, 13/11/05
1. 12h00 – 16h00 Berjaya Times Square, A1TM chassis 18 on display, whole team, both drivers will attend Autograph Sessions
2. All day Shangri-La lobby, A1TM chassis 41 on display, local print media and photographers invited by A1TM, interviews on site with team and drivers
Monday14/11/05
1. Up to 15h00 Shangri-La lobby, A1TM chassis 41 on display, local print media and photographers invited by A1TM, interviews on site with team and drivers
2. 15h00 – 17h00 Sri Pentas 8TV – Taman TDI, A1TM Chassis 18 on display and engine started, Press Conference, both drivers & 8TV
3. 18h00 – 22h00 Souled Out Mount Kiara, “Meet The Team”, A1TM chassis 41 on display, whole team, both drivers, local TV, Print and radio media invited. public invited via AMP radio stations broadcasts, interviews, autograph sessions,
Tuesday, 15/11/05
1. 10h00 – 14h00 Berjaya Times Square, A1TM Chassis 41, Start up car and pit stop demo, small support team, Alex present, autograph sessions
2. 16h00 – 20h00 1 Utama - Taman TDI, A1TM chassis 18, Start up car and pit stop demo, small support team, Fairuz present, autograph sessions
3. 16h00 – 20h00 Rush Hour City TOUR, A1TM chassis 41 on flatbed touring peak hour down town, small Support team, Alex present on board radio broadcast – live link to ERA FM / HITS FM / MIX FM
Thursday, 17/11/05
1. 14h00 – 16h00 Shangri-La Ballroom, H.H. Sheikh Maktoum and drivers Malaysia media briefing, all media

F1 Champs Fittipaldi & Jones To Race In Malaysian A1GP

2005-11-09T10:07:00.000+08:00

in Proton Satria support race

Apparently there is a real strong "whiff" of a possible Proton Satria support race of ex-F1 champions and other international and local celebrity stars for the A1GP of Nations Malaysian round at the Sepang International circuit scheduled for the 18-20 Nov 2005. (See NST page 39 today).
Slotted to drive are former Formula champions Emerson Fittipaldi, twice world champion in 1972 and 1974 as well as double Indy 500 winner and Australia's only world champion, Alan Jones who won the title in 1980. Former Dutch Formula 1 star, Jan Lammers have also confirmed himself for this event in Sepang.
In addition the report said that A1GP founder and President, Sheikh Maktoum who is not short of racing experience himself and the A1GP General Manager and former F3000 racer, Stephen Watson have also confirmed and will use their advantage of age to push these middle aged F1 stars to their limits in the race tuned Proton Satria GTIs.
From the local scene, our own flying sikh FIA Group N world rally champion, Karamjit Singh and Malaysia's fastest lady racer and Merdeka Millenium endurance racer as well as Channel V manager, Phillipa Yoong have also confirmed along with local Proton manager and racer Tengku Djan Ley.
This site wants to suggest that other locals whom the organisers should look towards topping the field should include Yasmin Hani, the "Wachaaa!" girl in Astro's Muzik @ Ria programme and Phillipa's racing team-mate, TV host and Anna and the King star, Deanna Yusof who have both raced in the endurance races before. The more pretty Malaysian girls who might beat these champs the better eh?
How many more celebrities both local and international are included in the final line-up or how many cars will start this exhibition race which will be run on the A1GP raceday Sunday of 20th November is not known yet but we certainly feel that if anything less than 20 cars around the full length of the very long F1 circuit at Sepang may be a tad boring even if there may be ex-F1 champions and beautiful local girl racers lined up.
We certainly hope that if this proposed race becomes a reality, Proton will get more local celebrity racers like rock-star Amy Search and real racers like Saladin Mazlan and former production car champions Y.S.Khong and Kan Chee Hong as well as more regional racing stars involved to ensure a line-up of 20 or more cars for this potentially very attractive support programme for our home A1GP event.
See you guys and gals at Sepang in a week's time - are you going? I certainly will be there!
Max Revson

Horrific A1GP Crash In Sequence Photos

2005-11-07T13:55:00.000+08:00

Hayanari Shimoda off at turn 1 at 240kph...(click image to enlarge)
Flips across the gravel trap...(click image to enlarge)
The Team Japan car starts to disintegrate (click image to enlarge)
As the engine seperates from the cockpit...(click image to enlarge)
Then smashes into the concrete barriers almost head-on...(click image to enlarge)
Bounces off the wall after the huge impact...(click image to enlarge)
Comes to a rest in a mangled heap as safety marshalls sped to the scene...(click image to enlarge)
Medical doctors took care to extricate Shimoda...(click image to enlarge)
Shimoda conscious as he left for the hospital...(click image to enlarge)

Lola Chassis Tub Intact and Driver Survived

A1 Team Japan Hayanari Shimoda should count himself very lucky to survive this horrific crash at 280kph in Australia's Eastern Creek circuit.
The Lola built car hurtled itself off the track, skimmed across the sand track, with the car breaking up into 2 sections before smashing into the turn 1 wall head-on!
It was a clear testimony of how good the integrity of the Lola tub is.
In a media statement by A1GP, we have been informed that Hayanari Shimoda has been declared fit this morning following his high-speed accident in the A1 Grand Prix of Nations race held yesterday at the Eastern Creek Raceway. He has spent the night in the High Dependency Unit of Westmead hospital under the care of the trauma team who discharged him today after confirming all the tests they ran on him were fine.
A1 Team Japan’s Team Manager, Malcolm Swetnam said: ‘We were concerned about his condition after such a heavy impact, however, the news we received this morning that he was recovering well was just what we wanted to hear.’
A1 Grand Prix’s Global Operations Manager, John Wickham, responsible for all the A1 race cars said: ‘The massive accident that Hayanari Shimoda suffered proved the strength of the A1 chassis. We have always made driver safety one of the prime concerns of the A1 Grand Prix series and everyone involved in the building of our cars felt yesterday’s accident proved the strength of these cars. We are all delighted that he is recovering well.
The 21-year-old who was having his first drive for A1 Team Japan was born in Tokyo and started his racing career in karts at the age of 13. He raced in Formula Renault series and sports cars in Europe and Japan from 2001 to 2004 and when he raced in Le Mans in 2003, he was the youngest driver in the race.
Max Revson
Photos with thanks from Chris Ormerod and Trent Wallis

A1GP: Malaysia 5th in Australian Feature Race

2005-11-06T13:59:00.000+08:00

Alex in practice on Saturday in Australia...(click image to enlarge)

and Alex achieved his country's best results over a A1GP race weekend...

The 40 lap Feature race was reduced to 35 laps as the maximum one hour of racing was applied when three safety car periods prolonged the race time period with a number of incidents from various teams as Malaysia recorded the country's best weekend result by Alex Yoong with a fifth in this race following an eighth in the Sprint race earlier.

A spectacular and potentially very serious accident involving Japan's driver Hayanari Shimoda sent shivers down the spines of millions watching the race from the comfort of their homes. But thankfully, he was pronounced OK although somewhat suffering from concussion and a huge headache. The A1GP car was broken into two parts following the mega shunt onto the barriers.

Earlier, Alex starting from eighth on the grid, when interviewed by the start-grid TV predicted that, "A top 5 is within the team's capability this weekend...lets wait and see...". True to his words he drove steadfastedly following another good start to make true his promise for the Malaysian fans at home ahead of his country's home round in two weeks time.

France consolidated their championship lead with yet another win followed by Great Britain and Switzerland.

Malaysia moves up to 10th in the championship after collecting 6 points in the Feature race's fifth to add to the 3 points from the Sprint race earlier. The next highest Asian nation is Japan in 16th position of 25 nations with 6 points.

The next round will be held at Malaysia's home track, Sepang International circuit on the 18th to 20th of November 2005.

Max Revson

Feature race lap by lap transcript:

lap1: lights green...great start from alex once again...from 8th to 6th...por leads from fra, bra, gb, sui, mal, aus, ned, nzl and pak in 10th...ire into the gravel from 4th!

lap2: gb takes bra for 3rd...ire, ger, ind and can pits...

lap3: usa pits...lap5: top 10 remains unchanged...top 10 yet to make pitstops...

lap6: rsa shunted out of t7...hard into the wall...ita in the pits with mechanical problems.. por penalised drive-through penalty for jump start...

lap7: ger off grass cutting...bra makes pitstop...mex braked too late and rode over rus and both crashed out...top3 are fra, gb, sui, with mal in 4th!

lap8-11: sc...mal went into pit in 4th but emerged in 6th...top 10 are lib (not pitted yet), fra, gb, sui, ned, mal, ire, aus, por, and nzl 10th...

lap12: green...mal tried a move on ned but didn't make it...

lap14: top 5 are fra, gb, sui, ned and mal 5th...followed by aus, por, lib, ire and bra in 10th...bra informed of drive through penalty for pitlane infringement...

lap15: op 10 are fra, gb, sui, ned, mal, aus, por, nzl, irl, and can 10th...

lap17-20: cze and aut contact...sc called out to clear cze and aut cars...17 cars left running with 7 cars out of running...aut, cze, rus, mex, ger, ita and rsa out...

lap21: green...top 5 are fra, gb, sui, ned and mal...aus behind mal has 3 power boost chances with mal with 5 power boost chances...

lap22: china locked out big time and off into gravel...lap25: mal still 5th, 6s from leader...

lap26: huge huge accident from jap...car split into 2...driver hardly moving...sc...can pulled off to grass verge...was it a contact between can and jap that caused the huge shunt by jap???lap27-32: sc...medical doctors announced jap driver shimoda ok, phew...14 cars left running...full running order on lap 32 is 1st fra, 2nd gb, 3rd sui, 4th ned, 5th mal, 6th aus, 7th por, 8th ire, 9th nzl, 10th bra, 11th usa, 12th pak, 13th ind and 14th lib...

lap33: green...but 2 minutes to the hour...so maybe one or two laps left of racing...racing! lap35: final lap...top 5 fra, gb, sui, ned and mal...

chequered flag: fra wins from gb second, sui third, ned fourth and mal (alex yoong) fifth!

Rd 4 Australia - Feature Race Results

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

1 FRA Nicolas Lapiere 35 1:00:54.068 - -

2 GB Robbie Kerr 35 1:00:56.547 +2.479 +2.479

3 SUI Neel Jani 35 1:00:57.086 +3.018 +0.539

4 NED Jos Verstappen 35 1:00:57.593 +3.525 +0.507

5 MAL Alex Yoong 35 1:00:58.955 +4.887 +1.362

6 AUS Will Davison 35 1:00:59.499 +5.431 +0.544

7 POR Alvaro Parente 35 1:01:00.070 +6.002 +0.571

8 IRE Michael Daveney 35 1:01:01.140 +7.072 +1.070

9 NZL Jonny Reid 35 1:01:02.989 +8.921 +1.849

10 BRA Nelson Piquet 35 1:01:03.108 +9.040 +0.119

11 USA Bryan Herta 35 1:01:03.896 +9.828 +0.788

12 PAK Adam Khan 35 1:01:05.010 +10.942 +1.114

13 LIB Basil Shaaban 35 1:01:07.071 +13.003 +2.061

14 IND Armaan Ebrahim 35 1:01:08.343 +14.275 +1.27

DNF: CAN, JAP, CHN, AUT, CZE, RUS, MEX, GER, ITA, RSA

A1GP: Malaysia 8th in Australian Sprint race and garners 3 points

2005-11-06T11:23:00.000+08:00

France wins untroubled from Portugal and Brazil

Great race with two safety car periods in the early laps activated. Great TV imagery of very good crowd attendance in bright early summer sunshine.
Malaysia with Alex Yoong driving had a good start to gain 2 spots but because of the defensive inside line for turn 1 lost a spot back before turn 2.
Malaysia eventually finished 8th after starting 9th on the grid.
France won the Sprint race untroubled from Portugal and Brazil.Below is the lap by lap transcript of the Sprint race.
Sprint race lap by lap transcript:
lap1: start - mal jumped 2 spots at start from 9th to 7th thru t1 then back to 8th into t2...mal alex and ned jos touched before braking for t2...top 10 - fra, por, bra, irl, gb, sui, ned, mal, can, ita....cze in gravel trap and out of race...
lap2-3: sc...
lap4: green...ger and mex clashed in t2, both cars out with drivers discussing how it happened on grassy knoll...mal 8th...
lap5-6: sc...
lap7-8: green...top 10 fra, por, bra, ire, gb, sui, ned, mal, can, aus....rsa pits with damaged car and out of race...
lap9-14: top 10 order remained unchanged...
lap15: nzl passed jpn...chn off into gravel and continued...
lap16: 3 power boost still available to mal which is still 8th...
lap17: mal still 8th 20s back...lap18: top 10 same...
lap19: race finished fra wins by 8.699s, por 2nd, bra 3rd, ire 4th, gb 5th, sui 6th, ned 7th, mal 8th (26s back), can 9th, ita 10th, aus 11th, pak 12th, rus 13th, nzl 14th, usa 15th, chn 16th, ind 17th, jap 18th, aut 19th...leb, rsa, mex and ger dnf.
Feature race will be 40 laps or one hour long whichever comes first.
Max Revson

Rd 4 Australia-Sprint Race Results
Pos/Team/Laps/Time
1 FRANCE 19 30:32.582
2 PORTUGAL 19 30:41.281
3 BRAZIL 19 30:41.677
4 IRELAND 19 30:45.067
5 GREAT BRITAIN 19 30:50.055
6 SWITZERLAND 19 30:52.566
7 NETHERLANDS 19 30:57.138
8 MALAYSIA Alex Yoong 19 30:59.418
9 CANADA 19 31:00.468
10 ITALY 19 31:02.402
11 AUSTRALIA 19 31:03.008
12 PAKISTAN 19 31:10.694
13 RUSSIA 19 31:11.600
14 NEW ZEALAND 19 31:12.646
15 USA 19 31:22.492
16 CHINA 19 31:23.701
17 INDIA 19 31:25.335
18 JAPAN 18 29:51.428
19 AUSTRIA 18 29:51.690
DNF
20 LEBANON 11 20:27.284; 21 SOUTH AFRICA 8 16:34.442; 22 MEXICO 3 6:08.176 23 GERMANY 3 6:08.645; 24 CZECH REP 0 18 Laps.

A1GP: Malaysia Bumped From 6th to 9th In Qualifying

2005-11-05T13:21:00.000+08:00

by slowing car in final flying lap in Australia

A slowing car in the midst of Malaysia's final flying lap in Australia's round 4 of the A1GP championship cost Alex Yoong a certain 6th qualifying position.
Instead the Malaysian team has to be content with a top-ten ninth position for the Sprint race tomorrow.
Less than a tenth of a second faster would have got the Malaysian team a third row start grid in 6th. The baulk by the slowing Team Mexico car right in the middle of a corner cost Alex at least three tenths of a second or maybe more.
All is not lost however as Malaysian fans can hopefully see Yoong gift us his normally quick rolling start to move up the ranks of the first lap in the Sprint race and score points in both the races tomorrow or even better gets a first podium in the inaugural A1 GP of Nations for our country.
France and Portugal will start from the front row in pole and second respectively with Switzerland and Brazil in the second row.
Max Revson
Rd 4 Eastern Creek, Australia - Qualifying
Pos/Team/Driver/Aggregate/Gap F/Gap P.
1 FRA Nicholas Lapierre 2'37.036 - -
2 POR Alvaro Parente 2'37.526 +0.490 +0.490
3 SUI Neel Jani 2'37.636 +0.600 +0.110
4 BRA Nelson Piquet 2'38.082 +1.046 +0.446
5 GB Robbie Kerr 2'38.122 +1.086 +0.040
6 IRE Michael Devaney 2'38.627 +1.591+0.505
7 CAN Sean McIntosh 2'38.636 +1.600 +0.009
8 NED Jos Verstappen 2'38.669 +1.633+0.033
9 MAL Alex Yoong 2'38.720 +1.684 +0.051
10 MEX Salvador Duran 2'38.959 +1.923 +0.239
11 ITA Enrico Toccacelo 2'39.184 +2.148 +0.225
12 GER Adrian Sutil 2'39.379 +2.343 +0.195
13 AUS Will Davison 2'39.402 +2.366 +0.023
14 NZL Jonny Reid 2'39.514 +2.478 +0.112
15 RSA Stephen Simpson 2'39.895 +2.859 +0.38
16 CZE Tomas Enge 2'40.109 +3.073 +0.214
17 PAK Adam Khan 2'40.397 +3.361 +0.288
18 RUS Roman Rusinov 2'40.671 +3.635 +0.274
19 JAP Hayanari Shimoda 2'40.889 +3.853 +0.21
20 CHN Tengyi Jiang 2'41.781 +4.745 +0.892
21 LIB Basil Shaaban 2'42.014 +4.978 +0.233
22 USABryan Herta 2'42.133 +5.097 +0.119
23 AUT Mathias Lauda 2'42.142 +5.106 +0.009
24 IND Armaan Ebrahim 2'42.546 +5.510 +0.40

A1GP: Alex Takes Malaysia To The Top In Australia

2005-11-05T09:20:00.000+08:00

with 20 minutes to go in the final free practice before a final spurt by Brazil...
With 20 minutes to go before the end of the final and third practice session of the A1GP round 3 at the Eastern Creek circuit in Australia, A1 Team Malaysia, piloted by former F1 driver Alex Yoong, leapt to the top of the time sheets with a time of 1m 19.840s followed by Team Great Britain and Portugal 0.031s and 0.046s behind in second and third respectively.
Then Brazil put in a time of 1m 19.476s with 8 minutes to go passing Malaysia for the fastest time but Malaysia remained solidly in second spot followed in tow by Great Britain, Portugal and Germany in fifth. Surprisingly, championship leader France, was placed just outside the top-10 in eleventh position.
With the circuit described by most teams as being bumpy and abrasive, most teams including Malaysia decided not to sacrifice a second set of new tyres to save them for the races.
Alex was true to his words and bettered his top-five prediction when he said after the second practice yesterday (Friday), "Our time this morning wasn't reflective of our performance as we missed out on running in the dry when other teams set their quickest lap. I'm happy with our performance this afternoon. We tried a lot of new things and I think we've learnt something about the car. We weren't going for times today; we were just trying various things on the car and we didn't put on new rubber. I'm optimistic for tomorrow (Saturday, today). I think we can qualify in the top ten, and might even improve on that and sneak into the top five."
This is Malaysia's best ever official practice result and things appear to look good for a front 2 row qualifying in a few hours time.
Good luck Malaysia!
Max Revson
RD 4 EASTERN CREEK - Official Practice 3 (Top 10)
Pos/Team/Driver/on Lap/Time /Gap F/Gap P/kmh/Laps
1 BRA Nelson Piquet 15 1'19.476 - - 178.02
2 MAL Alex Yoong 11 1'19.840 +0.364 +0.364 177.21
3 GB Robbie Kerr 15 1'19.871 +0.395 +0.031 177.11
4 POR Alvaro Parente 14 1'19.886 +0.410 +0.015 177.11
5 GER Adrian Sutil 19 1'19.922 +0.446 +0.036 177.0 23
6 AUS Will Davison 7 1'20.029 +0.553 +0.107 176.82
7 IRE Michael Daveney 14 1'20.185 +0.709 +0.156 176.42
8 ITA Andrea Montermini 21 1'20.325 +0.849 +0.140 176.12
9 NZL Jonny Reid 15 1'20.502 +1.026 +0.177 175.72
10 RSA Stephen Simpson 7 1'20.768 +1.292 +0.266 175.22

A1GP: Malaysia 7th At The Creek In Day 1 Practices

2005-11-04T15:14:00.000+08:00

Alex studying the data...(click image to enlarge)

less than a second seperates the top 11

Day one of round 4 at Sydney's Eastern Creek circuit, Australia saw Malaysia going through their test programme ending in a positive note with Alex Yoong finishing 7th of 24 teams.

The fastest time set by Alex was achieved early in the session unlike other teams going for new rubber towards the end of the two sessions for a good time.

This demonstrated that more will come from Team Malaysia as most of the session, after setting their best time very early in the session, was devoted to the test programme for an ideal set-up for qualifying tomorrow and the races on Sunday.

Meanwhile France, Brazil and Switzerland grabbed the top 3 spots.

Malaysia's best time was a less than nine hundredths of a second from fourth placed Netherlands.

Max Revson
RD 4 EASTERN CREEK-Official Practice 2

Pos/Team/Driver/LapTime/Gap First/Gap Prev

1 FRA Nicolas LAPIERRE 1'21.037 - -

2 BRA Nelson PIQUET 1'21.271 +0.234 +0.234

3 SUI Neel JANI 1'21.592 +0.555 +0.321

4 NED Jos VERSTAPPEN 1'21.882 +0.845 +0.290

5 MEX Salvador DURAN 1'21.953 +0.916 +0.071

6 NZL Jonny REID 1'21.956 +0.919 +0.003

7 MAL Alex YOONG 1'21.970 +0.933 +0.014

8 GER Adrian SUTIL 1'21.984 +0.947 +0.014

9 CZE Tomas ENGE 1'21.998 +0.961 +0.014

10 CAN Sean McINTOSH 1'22.010 +0.973 +0.012

11 POR Alvaro PARENTE 1'22.021 +0.984 +0.011

12 USA Bryan HERTA 1'22.084 +1.047 +0.063

13 GBR Robbie KERR 1'22.173 +1.136 +0.089

14 IRL Michael DEVANEY 1'22.174 +1.137 +0.001

15 IND Armaan EBRAHIM 1'22.567 +1.530 +0.393

16 AUS Will DAVIDSON 1'22.581 +1.544 +0.014

17 RSA Stephen SIMPSON 1'22.785 +1.748 +0.204

18 AUT Mathias LAUDA 1'23.101 +2.064 +0.316

19 PAK Adam KHAN 1'23.127 +2.090 +0.026

20 RUS Roman RUSINOV 1'23.230 +2.193 +0.103

21 JPN Hayanari SHIMODA 1'23.512 +2.475 +0.282

22 LIB Basil SHAABAN 1'23.513 +2.476 +0.001

23 CHN Tengyi JIANG 1'23.917 +2.880 +0.404

24 ITA Andrea MONTERMINI 1'24.118 +3.081 +0.201

A1GP: Australia Is Stopping The World This Weekend!

2005-11-01T12:00:00.000+08:00

Australian A1GP promo...(click image to enlarge for ticket prices)

Don't wait to get your tickets for Sepang's round 5 on 18-20 November.

A1Team Malaysia is looking forward to the first out-of-Europe round in Eastern Creek, Australia this weekend after scoring points in each of the three European rounds to garner 14 valuable points for the 11th position in the first ever "World Cup of Motorsport".

Eastern Creek will be familiar grounds for Malaysian driver Alex Yoong and the team's Chief Engineer, Greg Wheeler, who have both raced there in their V8 Supercars days in different teams and no doubt, the team will be looking for a strong showing ahead of their home round in the Sepang International Circuit two weeks later.

The Eastern Creek organisers have assembled a most impressive 3-day programme to keep their fans entertained non stop with a race card of Formula 3, Formula Ford, GT & Porsche and Historic Car races coupled with continous in-between racing entertainment comprising carnivals, face painting, corporate rides, motorcycle stunt shows, drift demo, jetcar display, aerobatic stunts, roving entertainers, FMX demo, pit walk abouts and a grand opening ceremony with the Australian national anthem by a celebrity singer.

For Malaysian motorsport fans who won't make it to Sydney's Eastern Creek this weekend to join the fast increasing worldwide fans who follow their nations' heroes they can refer to the A1GP race programme below to tune into 8TV or Astro's StarSports for the live telecasts this weekend.

Meanwhile don't wait to book your tickets online at www.A1GP.com to turn out in force to cheer on your national team against 24 other national teams on the 18th to 20th November 2005. Ticket prices at RM200 for the mall grandstands, RM100 for K1 stands and RM30 for the hillstands are only a fraction of Australia's prices.
Max Revson
EASTERN CREEK A1GP SCHEDULE
(All times stated are Sydney local times)
FRIDAY 4th November

13.00 – 14.00 60 min A1 Grand Prix Practice #1

16.00 – 17.00 60 min A1 Grand Prix Practice #2

SATURDAY 5th November

11.00 – 12.00 60 min A1 Grand Prix Practice #3

14.15 – 14.30 15 min A1 Grand Prix Qualifying

14.40 – 14.55 15 min A1 Grand Prix Qualifying

15.05 – 15.20 15 min A1 Grand Prix Qualifying

15.30 – 15.45 15 min A1 Grand Prix Qualifying

SUNDAY 6th November

10.00 – 10.15 15 min A1 Grand Prix Warm Up

13.30 – 14.00 30 min A1 Grand Prix Sprint Race

15.00 – 16.00 60 min A1 Grand Prix Feature Race

Last Chance To Qualify For F1 Driver Search Grand Finals

2005-10-28T14:57:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-24T16:27:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-23T08:23:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-22T12:06:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-21T20:37:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-20T13:01:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-19T16:50:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-19T09:49:00.000+08:00

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