A1 Grand Prix Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani won his and Switzerland’s first race of the new season from pole position on Sunday. Second and 1,2 seconds behind was Germany’s Niko Hulkenburg, with New Zealand’s Jonny Reid a further 2,40 seconds back and local hero Alex Yoong fourth in the A1 Team Malaysia car.
Adrian Zaugg, at the wheel of A1 Team South Africa’s Vulindlela, finished 13th — 24,68 seconds behind Jani. The 20-year-old South African had qualified in eighth place on Saturday, only to be relegated to 11th as a result of a ruling that he had obstructed A1 Team USA’s Philip Giebler during qualifying.
”Sepang is a high-speed circuit and several teams had problems with the cars’ mirrors remaining in position,” said Zaugg. ”We had problems with ours and I didn’t see Philip coming up behind me until it was too late to get out of his way. As a result, they disallowed my qualifying time.
”The sprint race is too short to expect to be able to make up too many places during the race, and your grid position determines the level of competition you are going to have from the cars around you. You tend to compete at the pace of this group.
”I struggled for traction during the race and lost a couple of places early on. We were good in the first two sectors of the circuit but had problems in sector three, where there were the most overtaking opportunities.
The wide, flowing, 5,4km Sepang circuit provided many overtaking opportunities for the closely matched competition, with South Africa and Australia enjoying a race-long battle for 12th position.
After three laps Australian Ryan Briscoe squeezed ahead, but Zaugg pushed him hard throughout the remaining laps. — Sapa