Filipe Albuquerque (POR), driver of A1 Team Portugal gets doused on the podium by Adam Carroll

A1GP

Filipe Albuquerque claimed A1 Team Portugal’s maiden win in the A1GP Chengdu, China, Feature race to become the 17th different nation to take an A1GP victory.

Portugal took the lead thanks to a slick first pit stop and held off the charge from A1 Team Ireland’s Adam Carroll in the closing stages. Great Britain’s Danny Watts took the final podium position after starting on pole but dropping back after his two mandatory pit stops.

From pole position, Watts made a good start to lead the pack into the first corner. Portugal also made a great start from third to challenge Ireland for second position. Ireland, starting on the dirtier side of the track, struggled to get traction, allowing Portugal to get a good run round the outside of turn one on the racing line and take the position. Starting eighth, Robert Doornbos’s A1 Team Netherlands car stalled on the grid. The safety car was deployed before the end of the first lap to allow his car to be pushed back to the pits. The team got the car re-started and Doornbos made his way back out, albeit a lap down.

Great Britain led from Portugal, Ireland and Monaco as the race re-started on lap four. Watts powered across the line with a clear gap at the front. Carroll was right on the back of the Portuguese car and had a look around the outside through turn one, while also defending from Monaco’s Clivio Piccione in fourth.

Watts’ lead was now 1.5-seconds from Portugal as the first mandatory pit stop window opened. Great Britain was first to dive into the pits with Monaco, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and China also following suit. A lap later Ireland pitted and a quick, clean tire change from the Irish squad got Carroll back out on track in second. But when Albuquerque pitted on the next lap, a blisteringly quick stop from the team handed Portugal what would be the lead of the race, after the field had all pitted.

Filipe Albuquerque (POR), just beats Adam Carroll at the line.

A1GP

As Great Britain and Ireland made their way through traffic, Albuquerque began building up a comfortable lead. New Zealand appeared to be slowing along the pit straight with an electrical problem, but Chris van der Drift eventually managed to get Black Beauty going with seemingly no further problem.

By the end of lap 14 Portugal had a 2.385-second lead from Great Britain, and Switzerland was starting to hunt down Ireland for third. Albuquerque increased his lead to four seconds, leaving him in a strong position at the head of the field.

Portugal now led from Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Australia, Malaysia, Monaco, France, USA and China.

Daniel Morad

A1GP

Further down the field Lebanon’s Daniel Morad was having a good battle with Italy for 14th as the second pit stop window drew closer. For the second round of mandatory pit stops it was Portugal and Great Britain who were first to come in. Ireland took advantage of the extra time out on track, Carroll pushing hard on his in lap to try to make up time on the pair in front. Portugal re-joined in the lead but Watts emerged in traffic, losing vital seconds. A1 Team Ireland made another great stop and Carroll was able to take second from Watts and set his sights on a second win of the day. On new tires, Carroll set the fastest lap of the race so far, 1m 16.003s, his pace allowing him to close the gap on Albuquerque and as the pair started lap 33 Carroll was visibly closer, just 0.422-seconds adrift.

The order was now Portugal, Ireland, Great Britain, Switzerland, Australia, Malaysia, France, Monaco, USA and India.

After going a lap down at the start Doornbos, from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, showed what might have been if he had got away cleanly from his eighth grid-slot. He clocked the fastest lap of the race, a 1m 15.212s on lap 33, faster than yesterday’s pole position time, set by Danny Watts.

On lap 35 the battle for fifth began to heat up as Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy challenged John Martin for position. Fauzy eventually passed the Australian two laps later with a great move around the outside of the first corner. On lap 38, France’s Nicolas Prost tried the same maneuver on Martin, but gave him a little too much space and spun into the gravel on the exit after getting onto the dirtier part of the track.

The safety car was deployed for a second time on lap 40 as the French car was recovered. With the pack bunched back together, all advantages were lost and when the race re-started five laps later the race was back on to the finish.

Marco Andretti did better in the feature race, but he quickly learned just how good it can be to race against international talent.

A1GP

A1 Team USA’s Marco Andretti was now running in eighth on his debut weekend as the cars came around for the re-start. Ireland was now in prime position to challenge for victory. As racing resumed Portugal and Ireland were both on the PowerBoost button into Turn One. Ireland momentarily edged alongside, but Albuquerque held station and despite a number of exciting challenges the top eight remained the same to the finish. South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg and China’s Ho-Pin Tung were the only nations to move forward in the closing stages, taking 9th and 12th respectively.

Despite all Carroll’s efforts, Filipe Albuquerque crossed the finish line to take the team’s first ever series victory and became the 17th nation to win in A1GP. Malaysia’s fifth position was enough to hold on to the championship lead, but Ireland’s points haul brought the team right into contention. It now sits equal second with France on 23 points.

Race winner Albuquerque said: “The lap times were getting faster and faster. In the second stint, I was really fast, faster than anyone else. I was pulling away and had four seconds and everything was under control. But then Ireland was way too fast with the new tires. I could not go any faster so I just had to keep the car on the track, not make any mistakes and get the win."

After a successful day in which he claimed Sprint victory and second in the Feature race, Ireland’s Carroll said: “Well that’s the start we really wanted at Zandvoort. I came here determined to have the best weekend we could and at least try to win a race or come away with a couple of podiums.

“Practice actually hadn’t gone that well but I knew the circuit was extremely tricky and put the new tires on to try to do a good lap in qualifying as you had to start at the front here to try and win. It’s just great for the team and everybody. It’s the confidence we all need and I really think we can challenge the rest of the season for the championship.”

Third placed Great Britain driver Watts said: “How quickly the ten days have gone from getting the call, getting on a plane and arriving here to walk around the circuit. We never would have thought we’d be going away with two podiums - two third places.

“When I saw the car when we arrived here, it was still in bits with a lot to do. I think the two podiums have to go to the mechanics. They’ve been working so hard through the nights so it’s been a huge effort from everyone within the team. For them, it’s been a fantastic weekend. We’re just really glad to come out of our first weekend in A1GP with a big haul of points.”

Results

Pos	A1 Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	51	1:11'23.179	0.000
2	Ireland	Adam Carroll	51	1:11'23.750	0.571
3	Great Britain	Danny Watts	51	1:11'27.981	4.802
4	Switzerland	Neel Jani	51	1:11'30.336	7.157
5	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	51	1:11'36.481	13.302
6	Australia	John Martin	51	1:11'38.723	15.544
7	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	51	1:11'39.415	16.236
8	USA	Marco Andretti	51	1:11'39.869	16.690
9	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	51	1:11'41.209	18.030
10	India	Narain Karthikeyan	51	1:11'41.938	18.759
11	New Zealand	Chris van der Drift	51	1:11'42.854	19.675
12	China	Ho-Pin Tung	51	1:11'43.305	20.126
13	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	51	1:11'45.759	22.580
14	Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	51	1:11'54.464	31.285
15	Mexico	David Garza	50	1:11'37.063	1 lap
16	Netherlands	Robert Doornbos	50	1:11'40.217	1 lap
17	Korea	Jin-Woo Hwang	50	1:11'58.454	1 lap
18	France	Nicolas Prost	37	50'48.185	14 laps
19	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	30	42'26.221	21 laps
20	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	13	19'28.502	38 laps

Fastest Laps

Pos	A1 Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Lap
1	Netherlands	Robert Doornbos	1'15.212	0.000	33
2	Ireland	Adam Carroll	1'16.003	0.791	28
3	India	Narain Karthikeyan	1'16.315	1.103	27
4	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	1'16.375	1.163	31
5	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	1'16.475	1.263	50
6	China	Ho-Pin Tung	1'16.582	1.370	27
7	USA	Marco Andretti	1'16.693	1.481	29
8	Great Britain	Danny Watts	1'16.737	1.525	49
9	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	1'16.773	1.561	30
10	France	Nicolas Prost	1'16.968	1.756	30
11	Australia	John Martin	1'17.015	1.803	27
12	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	1'17.032	1.820	28
13	Switzerland	Neel Jani	1'17.048	1.836	31
14	Mexico	David Garza	1'17.085	1.873	32
15	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	1'17.164	1.952	37
16	New Zealand	Chris van der Drift	1'17.421	2.209	28
17	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	1'17.549	2.337	30
18	Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	1'17.888	2.676	47
19	Korea	Jin-Woo Hwang	1'18.597	3.385	30
20	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	1'19.701	4.489	5

Point Standings

Pos  A1 Team  Points
1 Malaysia 28
2 Ireland 23
3 France 23
4 New Zealand 20
5 Netherlands 20
6 Portugal 18
7 Switzerland 17
8 Great Britain 16
9 Australia 13
10 South Africa 9
11 Monaco 9
12 USA 6
13 Korea 4
14 Lebanon 3
15 Italy 2
16 China 2
17 India 1
0 Indonesia 0
0 Brazil 0
0 Mexico 0