A1 Team Ireland lifted the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport trophy high above Brands Hatch today after the perfect weekend for the team and its driver, Adam Carroll. They completely dominated the weekend from the time they took to the track on Friday. Two poles, victory in the Sprint race and then another lights-to-flag win in the Feature race was the perfect end for them to the 2008/09 championship.
After an aborted start when South Africa’s Alan van der Merwe stalled on the grid, the race finally got underway with Carroll getting off the line to lead into Paddock Hill Bend. As the field came through the first corner an incident involving China, USA and India left China and India in the gravel and out the race and brought out the Safety Car as the cars came round to complete the first lap. USA’s John R Hildebrand Jr limped back to the pits for a new nose cone but rejoined the race.
The order behind the Safety Car was Ireland from Monaco, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, France, Great Britain and Italy.
Ireland had a good run out of the final corner on the restart to come across the line 0.653-seconds ahead of the chasing pack. Further down the field Mexico’s Salvador Duran took tenth from Italy’s Vitantonio Liuzzi.
By the end of lap five Carroll had a 1.424-second lead before New Zealand’s Earl Bamber spun Black Beauty into the gravel and out of the race at Westfield.
As the pit window opened for the first round of stops race-leader Ireland was the first to dive in, closely followed by Portugal. Another slick pit stop from the Irish crew saw Carroll safely back out in the lead. Switzerland and Netherlands came in a lap later with Monaco opting to stay out a lap extra. The strategy didn’t work, however, as Clivio Piccione fell to fifth after the stops.
Mexico had a good stop to get out in front of Australia with the order on lap fifteen now Ireland 6.956-seconds from Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Monaco, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, Italy and Lebanon.
Great Britain’s Dan Clarke was flying on home soil placing his car perfectly on the inside of Paddock hill Bend to take seventh from John Martin. He then began attacking Mexico for sixth while Netherlands started to close the gap to Ireland up ahead.
On lap 26 Germany’s Michael Ammermüller rolled to a halt bringing his season to an early end. Ireland was now being held up by USA’s Hildebrand as Carroll came round to lap the American car.
Malaysia Aaron Lim ran wide and crashed out at druids bringing a disappointing end to his weekend just as the second mandatory pit window opened.
Ireland was first to come in again to get a new set of tyres along with South Africa, Lebanon, Indonesia and Mexico. Great Britain and the Netherlands made their stops a lap later with orange car remaining in second despite Ireland having a slightly slower stop this time around.
John Martin was flying in Jackeroo giving Australia the fastest lap, with a 1m 12.754s, which he beat a couple of laps later recording a 1m 12.698s.
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