Watched on TV
What did I expect heading in to Zandvoort? To be honest, I had no idea what would happen. Brand new cars, some of them having not even run yet, and heavy rain forecast. I was both nervous and excited at the same time. As I begun to watch the Circuit Park Zandvoort racecam on Saturday morning, that nervousness turned into joy. The new cars looked awesome, and were putting in superb laptimes. I was still a bit worried about the teams who hadn’t left the garages yet though…
Eventually throughout Saturday, all cars except Brazil and China made an appearance out on track, and the Netherlands put in a blistering lap time to take pole. I was hoping for an Adam Carroll pole, but I thought 3rd on the grid wasn’t too bad. How wrong I was…
After the extra practice session on Sunday morning, where Brazil and China ran, I was happy to know we would have a 17-car grid for the sprint race. I expected a race where the Netherlands would simply drive away from the field.
But at the start of the sprint, Earl Bamber made an excellent start and was right on Bleekemolen’s tail throughout the first few laps. Behind, Adam Carroll, aggressive driver that he is, put on waaaaaaaayyyyyyy too much power through Arie Luyendijk Bocht, spun, and was hit by an unfortunate Clivio Piccione in the Monaco car.
In the wet, I thought Black Beauty looked a lot quicker than the Dutch car, and I was right – eventually Bleekemolen was forced into an error, Bamber went past and drove away. Bleekemolen then slipped backwards, passed also by Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy and France’s Loic Duval, putting in a super drive after only having driven the car for the first time on Saturday afternoon!
18-year-old Bamber didn’t hold onto that lead for long though, as the yellow and black machine of Fauzy put in a hard but fair pass to take the lead, to the delight of the A1 Team Malaysia mechanics! From there, Fauzy, Bamber and Duval held onto their places to the end in vile conditions. It was a shame that, after a scintillating drive from the back of the grid, Ho-Pin Tung spun out of 6th place and hit the pit-wall, bringing out the red flag. Felipe Guimaraes also crashed on that lap, as it was like driving in a river by then!
The feature promised to be a cracker, with the track getting wetter and wetter as the rain came down. It started behind the safety car, as the sprint had, and when the safety car came in the cars begun to spread out, as visibility was almost nil due to severe amounts of spray. USA’s Charlie Kimball spun early on, but re-joined, and a lap later Duval passed Bamber to put France up into 2nd! A lap later it was the orange Dutch car also passing Black Beauty, sending the very wet crowd into a frenzy as he moved up to 3rd!
Ho-Pin Tung’s chances of another charge through the field were ended when he spun into the gravel and re-joined, only to be hit with a drive-through for overtaking under yellows, and soon after the emerald green Irish car spun into the gravel and into retirement. Not a good weekend for Adam Carroll and the team – 0 points when some of their championship rivals were not present.
Heartbreak followed for World Cup champions Switzerland when they had to retire with gearbox problems, and Neel Jani was then accosted by the new female interviewer – poor Neel!
Italy and South Africa then collided, and both went out of the race. I initially assumed it was Zaugg’s fault – he is a bit of a hothead – but it turned out to be Onidi’s. Sorry Zauggi!
Then it was pit-stop time – both the Malaysian and Dutch teams struggled with wheel nuts, whereas the French team had a good stop which allowed Duval to take the lead! For the Netherlands, though, that wasn’t the end of the drama – Bleekemolen returned to the pits a few laps later, gesticulating like a madman about something, but was sent out again. An interview with Jan Lammers revealed that there was a steering wheel problem, which could pop up later in the race…
Next we had heavy crashes for Indonesia and Portugal, and a spin for Korea, bringing out the safety car, and when it came back in Lebanon, who had never scored an A1 point before, were an amazing 4th!
It didn’t last long – Daniel Morad’s aggression getting the better of him as he spun, gifting the position to Australia. But the pit window then opened for a 2nd time, and Lebanon managed to get ahead of Australia after a slow stop from the Aussie crew! France, Malaysia and New Zealand, 1st, 2nd and 3rd at this stage, all maintained their positions after their pitstops, and I didn’t think anything else eventful was going to happen.
But first Charlie Kimball spun into the gravel and out, a lap or two after setting a fastest lap that wasn’t beaten, and then we had a huge crash when Daniel Morad spun on the start finish straight and hit the lapped Chinese car of Ho-Pin Tung – both cars skidded into the Tarzan gravel trap and the Lebanese car hit the tyre barrier hard. Both drivers were OK, luckily, but the safety car was brought out.
The race ended under the safety car, as the time was up, and we were all left to reflect on a truly thrilling race where Lebanon scored their first ever A1GP points, classified 8th despite crashing out, and newcomers Monaco (6th) and Korea (7th) also scored points. Bleekemolen in the Dutch car finished 5th in the end, with that gearbox problem recurring and making the car hard to drive.
Overall, despite a reduced grid, the opening round of season 4 had everything we have come to expect from A1GP – drama, unpredictability and tension. And I loved every minute of it.
Here’s hoping for a full grid of cars in Chengdu next month, where “my team”, Great Britain, enter the championship picture. I hope.
KMJ
