2008–09 A1GP of the Netherlands
Race Details
Race 1 of 7 in the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season
DateOctober 5, 2008
LocationCircuit Park Zandvoort
Zandvoort, Netherlands
WeatherWet, Heavy Rain 12°C
Sprint race
Qualifying
Pole Netherlands (J.Bleekemolen)
Time1'24.213
Podium
1st Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
2nd New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
3rd France (Loïc Duval)
Fastest Lap
FL France (Loïc Duval)
Time1'45.939, (Lap 6)
Feature race
Qualifying
Pole Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
Timenone
Podium
1st France (Loïc Duval)
2nd Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy)
3rd New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
Fastest Lap
FL USA (Charlie Kimball)
Time1'47.115, (Lap 30)
Official Classifications
PDF Booklet

The 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Netherlands was an A1 Grand Prix race, held at Circuit Park Zandvoort, Zandvoort, Netherlands. It was originally set to be the second race of the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season, but a delay in the build schedule of the new chassis forced the race at Mugello to be moved from the season opener. The same build delay meant that only seventeen of the twenty-three A1 teams participated in the race.

This was the first race for South Korea A1 Team Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo), Monaco A1 Team Monaco (Clivio Piccione), and the new "Powered by Ferrari" A1GP car.

Drivers and teams

On 26 September, an article on the official A1GP website, detailed that a full grid of cars would not be on track at Zandvoort for the race weekend, due to the build schedule delay.[1] It was subsequently confirmed that a maximum of eighteen teams will be racing – Canada Canada, Germany Germany (Michael Ammermüller), United Kingdom Great Britain (Danny Watts), India India (Narain Karthikeyan) and Mexico Mexico (Davíd Garza Pérez) will thus make their season debut at the second round in China.[2] Germany Germany (Michael Ammermüller) did not, in fact, debut until round 5 in South Africa, while Canada Canada did not appear all season.

Subsequently, Pakistan Team Pakistan revealed that technical issues with their car were compromising the safety of their driver, Adam Khan – and thus, they too delayed the start of their season, leaving 17 teams to race.[3] Like Canada Canada, Pakistan Pakistan did not appear all season.

As several teams were still arriving as of Saturday morning, and were unable to shake down their cars before the start of the planned sessions, rookie sessions were not held.[4]

Team Main Driver
Australia Australia John Martin[5]
Brazil Brazil Felipe Guimarães
Canada Canada Did Not Participate
China China Ho-Pin Tung
France France Loïc Duval
Germany Germany Did Not Participate
United Kingdom Great Britain Did Not Participate
India India Did Not Participate
Indonesia Indonesia Satrio Hermanto
Republic of Ireland Ireland Adam Carroll[6]
Italy Italy Fabio Onidi[7]
South Korea Korea Hwang Jin-Woo
Lebanon Lebanon Daniel Morad[8]
Malaysia Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy[9]
Mexico Mexico Did Not Participate
Monaco Monaco Clivio Piccione
Netherlands The Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand New Zealand Earl Bamber[10]
Pakistan Pakistan Did Not Participate
Portugal Portugal Filipe Albuquerque[11]
South Africa South Africa Adrian Zaugg[12]
Switzerland Switzerland Neel Jani[13]
United States USA Charlie Kimball

Qualifying

As some teams had only arrived on Saturday morning, the qualifying format was changed for Zandvoort. In place of the usual four fifteen-minute, single-lap sessions, teams were given a one-hour session in which they could complete as many laps as they wished. Those times would set the grid for the Sprint race, while the results from the Sprint race would determine the grid for the Feature race.[4]

The pole position time, set by Netherlands the Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen) was four seconds quicker than the fastest lap set the previous year in the Lola/Zytek cars.[14] Netherlands Bleekemolen lined up on pole, 0.316s ahead of New Zealand Earl Bamber and 0.338s ahead of Republic of Ireland Adam Carroll in third. Both Brazil Felipe Guimarães and China Ho-Pin Tung failed to set a time.

Sprint race qualifying
Pos Team Time Gap
1 Netherlands Netherlands 1'24.213 –
2 New Zealand New Zealand 1'24.529 +0.316
3 Republic of Ireland Ireland 1'24.551 +0.338
4 Malaysia Malaysia 1'24.720 +0.507
5 Monaco Monaco 1'25.118 +0.905
6 Switzerland Switzerland 1'25.524 +1.311
7 South Africa South Africa 1'25.928 +1.715
8 Italy Italy 1'25.982 +1.769
9 United States USA 1'26.039 +1.826
10 Lebanon Lebanon 1'26.061 +1.848
11 France France 1'26.433 +2.220
12 Australia Australia 1'26.560 +2.347
13 Portugal Portugal 1'31.582 +7.369
14 Indonesia Indonesia 1'31.781 +7.568
15 South Korea Korea 1'33.020 +8.807
16 Brazil Brazil no time –
17 China China no time –

Sprint Race

Owing to the treacherous conditions, the 12-lap Sprint Race was started behind the Safety Car. The newly introduced mandatory Sprint race pit-stop was removed for this race, to help the teams to conserve equipment.[4]

On Lap 2, the Safety Car pulled in, and the cars were released. On Lap 3, Republic of Ireland Adam Carroll spun at the final corner and was hit by Monaco Clivio Piccione, forcing both of their retirements. On Lap 3, Indonesia Satrio Hermanto also retired after a spin. On Lap 5, South Korea Hwang Jin-Woo retired, after colliding with Australia John Martin heading into the first corner. Martin managed to continue. On Lap 7, New Zealand Earl Bamber passed Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen for the lead, after a failed passing attempt led to Bleekemolen running wide and allowing Bamber to pass. On Lap 9, Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy passed New Zealand Bamber for the lead, and then began to build up a lead over the New Zealander. On Lap 11, China Ho-Pin Tung spun out of fifth place. On Lap 11, Brazil Felipe Guimarães also spun out.

The race was red-flagged on Lap 12, because of the treacherous conditions. Malaysia Fauzy won ahead of New Zealand Bamber, and France Loïc Duval. France Duval also set fastest lap.

Pos Team Driver Laps Time Points
1 Malaysia Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 12 19'44.533 10
2 New Zealand New Zealand Earl Bamber 12 +3.474 8
3 France France Loïc Duval 12 +6.270 6 +1
4 Netherlands The Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 12 +13.433 5
5 Switzerland Switzerland Neel Jani 12 +16.896 4
6 South Africa South Africa Adrian Zaugg 12 +20.925 3
7 Italy Italy Fabio Onidi 12 +22.214 2
8 United States USA Charlie Kimball 12 +24.150 1
9 Portugal Portugal Filipe Albuquerque 12 +29.427
10 Lebanon Lebanon Daniel Morad 12 +38.929
11 Australia Australia John Martin 12 +1'27.471
12 China China Ho-Pin Tung 11 Spin
13 Brazil Brazil Felipe Guimarães 11 Spin
Ret South Korea Korea Hwang Jin-Woo 3 Collision
Ret Indonesia Indonesia Satrio Hermanto 2 Spin
Ret Republic of Ireland Ireland Adam Carroll 2 Collision
Ret Monaco Monaco Clivio Piccione 1 Collision

Race stopped after 12 laps because of the terrible conditions

Feature Race

South Korea Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo) were sent to the back of the grid for attempting to overtake under a yellow flag, and causing an avoidable collision in the Sprint race.[15]

The second pit-stop window was set to be between Laps 24 and 32. As conditions hadn't improved since earlier, the race was started behind the Safety Car.

The Safety Car pulled in at the end of Lap 2, to get the race underway. On Lap 5, Switzerland Neel Jani pulled into the pits and retires, while Republic of Ireland Adam Carroll spun out at Turn 6. On Lap 6, Italy Fabio Onidi spun and collected South Africa Adrian Zaugg, putting both out of the race. After the first set of pit-stops, France France (Loïc Duval) led from New Zealand New Zealand (Earl Bamber) and Portugal Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque).

A lot of action took place on Laps 16–17: Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen pulled into the pits with a steering wheel problem; Indonesia Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto) crashed out; South Korea Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo) spun and rejoined; and Portugal Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque) spun and crashed in the final turn. The Safety Car was deployed while the wrecks were cleared. At this point, all remaining cars in the race were guaranteed points-finishes, which means Monaco Monaco (Clivio Piccione) and South Korea Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo) would score on their debut, and Lebanon Lebanon (Daniel Morad) would score their first ever points.

On Lap 24, Lebanon Daniel Morad did a 360-spin and continues, losing a place to Australia John Martin. Meanwhile, Netherlands Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen) were having gearshifting problems and lost a place to United States USA (Charlie Kimball). On Lap 31, United States Charlie Kimball retired after running off the track, but not before setting the fastest lap of the race. France France (Loïc Duval) still led after the second round of pit-stops.

On Lap 33, the Safety Car was deployed after Lebanon Morad lost control and spun into the back of China Ho-Pin Tung, sending both cars into the tyre wall at Tarzan corner. At this stage, the race had nearly reached the 69-minute time limit. Two laps later the time expired, and France France (Loïc Duval) took the chequered flag behind the safety car, ahead of Malaysia Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy), and New Zealand New Zealand (Earl Bamber).

Brazil Brazil (Felipe Guimarães) joined the race late on, after being unable to make the start, as they were unable to repair the damage from their accident in the Sprint race in time.

Pos Team Driver Laps Time Points
1 France France Loïc Duval 36 1:11'58.723 15
2 Malaysia Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 36 +2.288 12
3 New Zealand New Zealand Earl Bamber 36 +2.709 10
4 Australia Australia John Martin 36 +6.329 8
5 Netherlands Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 36 +8.273 6
6 Monaco Monaco Clivio Piccione 34 +2 laps 5
7 South Korea Korea Hwang Jin-Woo 33 +3 laps 4
8 Lebanon Lebanon Daniel Morad 32 Collision 3
9 China China Ho-Pin Tung 31 Collision 2
10 United States USA Charlie Kimball 30 Spin 1 +1
Ret Portugal Portugal Filipe Albuquerque 15 Accident
Ret Indonesia Indonesia Satrio Hermanto 12 Accident
Ret South Africa South Africa Adrian Zaugg 5 Collision
Ret Italy Italy Fabio Onidi 5 Collision
NC Brazil Brazil Felipe Guimarães 5 + 31 Laps
Ret Republic of Ireland Ireland Adam Carroll 4 Spin
Ret Switzerland Switzerland Neel Jani 4 Mechanical

Scheduled for 45 laps but stopped earlier because of time limit

After race

At the first practice session, South Korea Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo) was warned due to their political insistence which the team put on the car: Dokdo is a territory of Korea.[16] However, they kept running the car with same insistence written in not English but Korean (Hangul) during the race weekend.[17] As a result, the team received a penalty of fine after the race.[16]

Notes

References

  1. ↑ "A1GP looking forward to Zandvoort". a1gp.com. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  2. ↑ "A1 Teams given green light". a1gp.com. 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  3. ↑ "Pakistan delays 2008/09 debut". a1gp.com. 2008-10-04. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
  4. 1 2 3 "Sporting regulations revised". a1gp.com. 2008-10-03. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
  5. ↑ "Martin back for Australia". a1gp.com. 2008-09-11. Archived from the original on 2008-09-19. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  6. ↑ "Back for some more". a1gp.com. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  7. ↑ "Italy launches new car". a1gp.com. 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  8. ↑ "Morad to switch to A1 Team Lebanon". a1gp.com. 2008-09-18. Archived from the original on 2008-09-19. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  9. ↑ "Fauzy to race for Malaysia". a1gp.com. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  10. ↑ "Bamber to race for New Zealand". a1gp.com. 2008-09-28. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
  11. ↑ "Portugal names its man". a1gp.com. 2008-07-02. Archived from the original on September 16, 2020. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  12. ↑ "Zandvoort and Zaugg together again". a1gp.com. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  13. ↑ "The champions are back!". a1gp.com. 2008-10-03. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
  14. ↑ "Qualifying: as it happened". a1gp.com. 2008-10-04. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
  15. ↑ "Malaysia wins Sprint race". a1gp.com. 2008-10-05. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
  16. 1 2 "[A1그랑프리] 팀코리아 `독도.한글` 세계에 알렸다" (in Korean). Joins.com, Inc. 2008-10-05. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
  17. ↑ "A1GP 한국 대표에 재일교포 3세 이경우 발탁" (in Korean). Joins.com, Inc. 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
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