Feature race Australlia

Published on 06 November 2005 by Thorsten Hendriks

Sheikh Maktoum served us with an excellent race. Plenty of overtaking, crashes and excitement made this race one not ot forget.

Jos: "At the start I had a lot of wheelspin, that is why I didn't have a lightning fast start. I also wanted to avoid stalling the engine. It went really went, the car felt great and the setup was fine. We are looking for a better setup for qualifying. This was the best I could do on this circuit. Overtaking was a great obstacle, that is why I didn't managed to get a podium position. We were pretty close though. The team spirit is excellent. The mechanis deliver outstanding work. Not just the setup but also the pitstop was perfect. We did all we could do and slowly but surely we are moving forward towards a top three position. I am satisfied with today's result."

The race:
The warmup lap went okay and this time the starting lights worked as they should do.

Team Great Britain had a bad start and this affected Jos's start. Jos had to go to the other side of the track to advance. Jos told us that Robbie Kerr had a lot of wheelspin. It worked out okay, as there was a lot of traffic in the first corners. After the first lap Jos came over start/finish as eighth.

Portugal took the lead because he used a powerboost. After the first lap 5 teams went in for a pitstop. The first crash was in lap 5 when South Africa ended up in the wall after a spin. Mexico went off in lap seven and the safetycar was deployed. Almost all teams went in for a pitstop. Portugal twice, but one was to serve a drive through penalty.



Team Netherlands and Jos Verstappen had a perfect pitstop and Jos returned on position five.

France took over position one after the first corner. Third and fourth, Lebanon and Switzerland are fighting for position. With all that going on Jos took advantage and overtook Lebanon.

Tomas Enge, Czechia's driver caused the next safetycar situation by colliding with Austria. Brazil had fallen back due to a drive through penalty.
Twenty laps before the end it was France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Netherlands and Malaysia on the first five positions.

The safetycar went back in and China missed his braking point, or even the complete cornet and ended up in the gravel pit.
A couple of laps later the safetycar is deployed yet again. This time due to a horrific crash of the Japanese driver Shimoda. His car is in two pieces next to the track. The driver is stretchered away. During this safetycar situation Canada retired due to technical problems.

With only 10 laps to go and Jos still in fourth position with more powerboosts to his disposal than the cars in front of him. The gaps between the cars are getting smallen. The race is changed from laps to time as only a few minutes are left to race. A race can only last for one hour in A1GP.

The last stint is over two minutes. Jos is putting pedal to the metal to try to get Switzerland's third place. He uses two powerboosts in the last lap in an effort to overtake the Swiss. Unfortunately a podiumplace was not on the menu today, but a fourth is good enough.

Question for Jos:"How is it possible that France is so much faster than the others in an equal car?"

Jos: "I don't have a clue. If you know, tell me and we will be going that fast. They have everything 100% under control. This doesn't mean that our team doesn't have that though, I just don't know what we could change to keep up with France. Maybe the organisation should have a look, this much difference in an equal car is not what the viewers want."

Jan Lammers: "We have improved, which is good. We made a fast pitstop and this is how we got Jos forward. When we are racing we re about as fast as Switzerland and for pace we are about second or third. Just our qualifying has to improve, we should be able to get fourth on the grid after qualifying. We have climbed from ninth to seventh, we are still improving."

1  FRANCE          1:00:54.068   -   -   1    
2  GREAT BRITAIN   1:00:56.547   +2.479   +2.479       
3  SWITZERLAND     1:00:57.086   +3.018   +0.539       
4  NETHERLANDS     1:00:57.593   +3.525   +0.507       
5  MALAYSIA        1:00:58.955   +4.887   +1.362       
6  AUSTRALIA       1:00:59.499   +5.431   +0.544       
7  PORTUGAL        1:01:00.070   +6.002   +0.571       
8  NEW ZEALAND     1:01:02.989   +8.921   +1.849       
9  BRAZIL          1:01:03.108   +9.040   +0.119      
10 USA             1:01:03.896   +9.828   +0.788       
11 PAKISTAN        1:01:05.010   +10.942  +1.114       
12 LEBANON         1:01:07.071   +13.003  +2.061       
13 INDIA           1:01:08.343   +14.275  +1.272       
14 IRELAND         1:01:26.140   +32.072 +17.797 
15 CANADA            41:56.866   9 Laps   9 Laps       
16 JAPAN             40:38.862   10 Laps  1 Lap       
17 CHINA             36:23.428   13 Laps  3 Laps       
18 AUSTRIA           26:53.603   18 Laps  5 Laps       
19 CZECH REPUBLIC    26:54.072   18 Laps  +0.469       
20 RUSSIA            10:02.572   28 Laps  10 Laps       
21 MEXICO            10:02.963   28 Laps  +0.391       
22 GERMANY           11:33.270   28 Laps  +1'30.307       
23 ITALY             38:23.656   29 Laps  1 Lap       
24 SOUTH AFRICA    1:37.225      34 Laps  5 Laps   

Thorsten Hendriks