A1 Team GBR Wins Championship Bronze At Brands Hatch
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May 04, 2008
A1GP
Brands Hatch, UK : - A1 Team Great Britain scored a brilliant home race win at Brands Hatchtoday and finished third overall in the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport
A1 Team Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr scored a fantastic home victory in the Sprint race at an electric Brands Hatchtoday, and followed that up with a second-place podium finish in this afternoon’s Feature race. The brilliant doublepodium elevated GBR to overall third place in the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport and the team will collect thetrophy for bronze at tomorrow evening’s glamorous awards ceremony in central London.
Beginning from pole position in this morning’s 15-lap Sprint race, Robbie maintained his lead after the rolling start andhad a good lead into turn 1, with USA behind in second and Ireland in third. Robbie maintained a lead of betweenseven tenths and 1.3s over USA’s Jonathan Summerton throughout the race and passed the chequered flag victoriouson home ground. With Franck Montagny finishing in tenth position and collecting just one point, GBR’s 15 point haul for the win moved the British squad two points clear of France to move up to third place. The win was GBR’s second of theseason and fifth victory in three years of A1GP.
The focus then switched to the afternoon’s 48-lap Feature race and with Robbie beginning in second place and NewZealand’s Jonny Reid beginning from 17th, there was a possibility to make up the ten point deficit and take silver in thechampionship. Robbie maintained his second place behind India’s Narain Karthikeyan after the standing start and put ahuge amount of pressure on the Indian car on the opening lap. As India and third-placed Ireland made their firstmandatory stop on lap eight, GBR opted to stay out to put in a strong lap and Robbie pitted on lap nine. After somefantastic pitstop work from the British crew, Robbie emerged in the lead ahead of India and Ireland and he was able tomaintain his lead until the second stop, which he made on lap 32. Unfortunately he emerged just behind India out of thepitstop and was unable to pass Karthikeyan over the remaining laps and passed the finish line in second place.
Robbie Kerr:
Sprint Race: “It was great to win at home once again – it was a fantastic feeling and the fans here today are brilliant. Ifelt comfortable throughout the race but I didn’t push too much as I wanted to bring it home so I just kept it sensible.The important thing is that we passed France in the championship for third.”Feature Race: “Narain and I were extremely close throughout the whole race and we kept gaining on each other andthen dropping off a little throughout. For the first pitstop we chose to stay out and it worked brilliantly. The guys did anawesome pitstop and we came out in the lead. The tyres were good to start with but dropped away a little bit towardsthe end of the second stint and then it didn’t quite go our way in the second stop. The team have put in 110% thisweekend and, although it was great to finish second, it is a shame we couldn’t get the win. We were just one pointaway from second place in the championship, just like last year, but it is fantastic to finish third again and show theconsistency in the team.”
Katie Clements, Team Principal:
“We are absolutely delighted with another home win. We were so close to winningthe feature race as well so we are a little disappointed with second, but it has been an outstanding team performanceall weekend and we finish this season third in the championship. Heading into the weekend we had our sights firmly seton passing France for third in the championship and we were not even thinking second was possible, so to finish for the second year running just one point behind New Zealand is really good. We have shown our consistency over threefantastic years of A1GP and now, while we will take a little time to enjoy today’s results, we are very excited at theprospect of season four, the new challenges that will bring, and the campaign to bring the winner’s trophy home toGreat Britain.”
