2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, South Africa

2008–09 A1GP of South Africa
Race Details
Race 5 of 7 in the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season
Date	22 February 2009
Location	Kyalami Midrand, South Africa
Weather	Clear, 27°C
Sprint race
Qualifying
Pole	Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
Time	1:27.717
Podium
1st	Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
2nd	Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
3rd	Switzerland (Neel Jani)
Fastest Lap
FL	Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
Time	1:29.072, (Lap 9)
Feature race
Qualifying
Pole	Monaco (Clivio Piccione)
Time	1:27.269
Podium
1st	Switzerland (Neel Jani)
2nd	Brazil (Felipe Guimarães)
3rd	Monaco (Clivio Piccione)
Fastest Lap
FL	Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
Time	1:28.306, (Lap 15)
Official Classifications
PDF Booklet

The 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, South Africa was an A1 Grand Prix race which was held at Kyalami, South Africa.

Pre-race

A1 Team Korea failed to participate the race as the organiser of the series could not supply electrical units and fuel tank due to mistake of the transportation from New Zealand. The team had planned the debut of 2008 Macau Grand Prix winner Keisuke Kunimoto (Lee Kyung-Woo), a Japanese driver of Korean descent, as rookie driver on the weekend.

Drivers

Team	Main Driver	Rookie Driver(s)	Reserve Driver
Australia	John Martin	Ashley Walsh
Brazil	Felipe Guimarães
Canada	Did Not Participate
China	Ho-Pin Tung		Congfu Cheng
France	Nicolas Prost	Nicolas Prost
Germany	Michael Ammermüller	Michael Ammermüller
Great Britain	Danny Watts	Danny Watts	James Winslow
India	Narain Karthikeyan	Parthiva Sureshwaren
Indonesia	Zahir Ali	Zahir Ali	Satrio Hermanto
Ireland	Adam Carroll
Italy	Edoardo Piscopo
Korea	Did Not Participate
Lebanon	Daniel Morad	Daniel Morad	Jimmy Auby
Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	Aaron Lim
Mexico	Salvador Duran	Juan Pablo García
Monaco	Clivio Piccione	Hubertus Bahlsen
The Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Dennis Retera
New Zealand	Earl Bamber	Earl Bamber	Chris van der Drift
Pakistan	Did Not Participate
Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	António Félix da Costa
South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	Gavin Cronje	Cristiano Morgado
Switzerland	Neel Jani	Alexandre Imperatori
USA	Marco Andretti	J. R. Hildebrand

Qualifying

Sprint race qualifying Pos Team Time Gap 1 Netherlands 1:27.717 – 2 Portugal 1:28.072 + 0.355 3 Switzerland 1:28.153 + 0.436 4 Monaco 1:28.417 + 0.700 5 India 1:28.431 + 0.714 6 Ireland 1:28.437 + 0.720 7 France 1:28.531 + 0.814 8 South Africa 1:28.890 + 1.173 9 Malaysia 1:28.904 + 1.187 10 Italy 1:29.253 + 1.536 11 Germany 1:29.337 + 1.620 12 New Zealand 1:29.364 + 1.647 13 Great Britain 1:29.567 + 1.850 14 Brazil 1:29.726 + 2.009 15 China 1:29.758 + 2.041 16 Mexico 1:29.884 + 2.167 17 USA 1:29.916 + 2.199 18 Lebanon 1:30.136 + 2.419 19 Australia 1:30.414 + 2.697 20 Indonesia no time

Feature race qualifying Pos Team Time Gap 1 Monaco 1:27.269 – 2 Malaysia 1:27.405 + 0.136 3 New Zealand 1:27.569 + 0.300 4 Australia 1:28.439 + 1.170 5 Switzerland 1:28.521 + 1.252 6 Ireland 1:28.593 + 1.324 7 Portugal 1:28.773 + 1.504 8 Brazil 1:28.878 + 1.609 9 Netherlands 1:28.926 + 1.657 10 Great Britain 1:29.092 + 1.823 11 France 1:29.155 + 1.886 12 China 1:29.158 + 1.889 13 Mexico 1:29.343 + 2.074 14 USA 1:29.487 + 2.218 15 Germany 1:29.565 + 2.296 16 South Africa 1:29.884 + 2.615 17 Italy 1:30.063 + 2.794 18 India 1:30.505 + 3.236 19 Indonesia no time 20 Lebanon no time

Sprint Race

Jeroen Bleekemolen won the race from pole position for A1 Team the Netherlands, his first win in the series.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	14	21:35.105	10
2	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	14	+ 4.407	8+1
3	Switzerland	Neel Jani	14	+ 10.600	6
4	Ireland	Adam Carroll	14	+ 12.925	5
5	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	14	+ 14.363	4
6	India	Narain Karthikeyan	14	+ 18.474	3
7	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	14	+ 21.178	2
8	New Zealand	Earl Bamber	14	+ 26.539	1
9	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	14	+ 26.925
10	France	Nicolas Prost	14	+ 28.101
11	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	14	+ 32.081
12	Australia	John Martin	14	+ 34.474
13	China	Ho-Pin Tung	14	+ 37.804
14	Germany	Michael Ammermüller	14	+ 39.068
15	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	14	+ 39.717
16	Mexico	Salvador Durán	14	+ 45.006
17	USA	Marco Andretti	14	+ 55.636
18	Indonesia	Zahir Ali	14	+ 1:17.724
19	Great Britain	Danny Watts	9	Accident
20	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	6	+ 8 Laps

Feature Race

A1 Team Switzerland's Neel Jani won the race, and after Adam Carroll's earlier error, acquired the championship lead.

A1 Team Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy recorded the fastest lap of the race.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Switzerland	Neel Jani	40	1:02:24.617	15
2	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	40	+ 13.176	12
3	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	40	+ 14.193	10
4	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	40	+ 17.024	8
5	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	40	+ 17.995	6
6	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	40	+ 31.210	5
7	Great Britain	Danny Watts	40	+ 34.328	4
8	USA	Marco Andretti	40	+ 59.000	3
9	Indonesia	Zahir Ali	40	+ 1:03.995	2
10	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	40	+ 1:04.856	1
11	Germany	Michael Ammermüller	40	+ 1:08.603
12	India	Narain Karthikeyan	40	+ 1:09.150
13	Australia	John Martin	40	+ 1:20.545
14	China	Ho-Pin Tung	22	Electrics
15	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	17	+ 23 Laps	0+1
16	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	15	Electrics
17	New Zealand	Earl Bamber	3	Accident
18	France	Nicolas Prost	3	Accident
19	Mexico	Salvador Durán	3	Accident
20	Ireland	Adam Carroll	0	Spin

Post-race

Following the race, the team principals of both Ireland and Malaysia issued statements regarding the on-track incident on the first lap of the Feature Race, which resulted in Ireland spinning out into retirement, and subsequently losing the championship lead to Switzerland.

Frankly, I'm disgusted. We're pushing to win a championship and it's not the only time that this driver has caused incidents, doing the same thing to New Zealand later in the race. That's cost us the championship points lead that we fought so hard to create. We were on course to consolidate our points lead today but for a piece of poor driving. A1 Team Malaysia is one of the very best in A1GP, but today their driver has cost us dearly.

— Mark Gallagher, A1 Team Ireland team principal

It's understandable that A1 Team Ireland was feeling emotional and frustrated after this incident, considering also that they lost the lead in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. However, to blame Fairuz for the incident is unfair and we think the Irish team should stick to trying to win races rather than blaming others for their misfortune. A1 Team Ireland is a highly respected team, but on this occasion their comments are ill-judged.

— Jack Cunningham, A1 Team Malaysia chief executive

Notes

• It was the 37th race weekend (74 starts).
• It was the 4th race in South Africa but the first at Kyalami.
• Records:
  • It was the first ever pole position for Monaco and Clivio Piccione.
  • It was the first ever podium for Monaco and Clivio Piccione.
  • Switzerland's win in the feature race was driver Neel Jani's ninth in A1 Grand Prix, tying the record held by Nico Hülkenberg.
  • Lebanon recorded the best finish in their history thanks to Daniel Morad's sixth in the feature race.

External links

Previous race 2008–09, New Zealand

A1 Grand Prix 2008–09 season

Next race 2008–09, Portugal