2008 A1GP

[Wido Rossen]

Round 8 : canceled due to outbreaks of swine flu

A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has been forced to cancel round eight of the 2008/09 season, A1GP Mexico City, Mexico on 22-24 May after the recent outbreaks of swine flu and the advisory from the UK Foreign Office to cancel non- essential travel to the country.

“To say we are disappointed to have to make this call is an understatement,” said A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira.

“When the news of the health problems broke last week we made sure we kept ourselves up to date with the latest information. It soon became obvious this was not an isolated health risk, and when the UK Foreign Office put out its advisory and the World Health Organization raised the level of influenza pandemic alert that was when we had to make our decision.

"We must have the safety of all members of the A1GP community as well as the thousands of loyal fans in Mexico City as our prime concern."

The cargo was due to be flown out to Mexico directly after the Brands Hatch race and so this was another factor in the decision.

“If we had flown our cars out and not been able to send the teams to run them it would have been a waste of time and money," added Teixeira. "However, this cancellation does not impact on the future of the series and once Brands Hatch is over we shall be concentrating on Season Five, for which plans are already well advanced."

Now, this weekend’s race A1GP Brands Hatch, Great Britain will be the final round of the championship.

Going into this race there are three teams A1Team Switzerland, A1 Team Ireland and A1 Team Portugal who can still win the coveted trophy.

This will mean the title race will go down to the wire as none of these teams can win the title in the Sprint race



( Source www.A1GP.com )

 

[Hans Sneep]

Brands will be the last race of this season Mexico is canceled because of the Flu.

So the Championship will be decided on Brands Hatsch.

Top 4:

1. 
   Zitserland 88 points
   2. Ireland 86 points
   3. Portugal 82 points
   4. Netherlands 66 points

One of the first three still making a change on the Championship and with lots of luck the Netherlands will make the podium.( I hope so)
Hans

 

[Mark Birney]

Hooray! This will be interesting. Thanks Hans

 

[Hans Sneep]

Do ,Wido beats me with almost 7 hour's,with this news.

Hans

 

[Nick Deeley]

I'll be there all weekend with my camera. Any requests for certain pics?

 

[Hans Sneep]

All of them of course,kidding but it would be nice to post some .

Hans

 

[Hans Sneep]

Bleekemolen Fast

Jeroen Bleekemolen fastest in Friday training:

Pos. Land Tijd Rnd
1. Nederland 1.12'700'" 15
2. Ierland + 0'503'" 25
3. India + 0'584'" 22
4. Monaco + 0'698'" 16
5. Verenigde Staten + 0'703'" 24
6. Portugal + 0'868'" 21
7. Frankrijk + 0'892'" 24
8. Nieuw-Zeeland + 1'192'" 26
9. Australië + 1'192'" 31
10. Zwitserland + 1'291'" 25
11. Groot-Brittannië + 1'346'" 30
12. China + 1'520'" 23
13. Libanon + 1'527'" 25
14. Duitsland + 1'580'" 29
15. Mexico + 1'631'" 26
16. Italië + 1'898'" 17
17. Zuid-Afrika + 2'061'" 30
18. Brazilië + 2'241'" 23
19. Indonesië + 2'475'" 30
20. Malaisië + 2'609'" 29

Hoping this will continue
Hans

 

[Wido Rossen]

Carroll takes double pole for Ireland

Adam Carroll completed a qualifying double for title-chasing Team Ireland with pole position for the feature race at Brands Hatch this weekend.

The Irish car was second to title rival Switzerland in the first part of feature race qualifying, as Neel Jani gambled on using new tyres and power boost earlier than his rivals.

However, when Carroll used his power boost in the final part of qualifying, he blitzed Jani's time, as well as that of Clivio Piccione, who had briefly put Monaco on pole.

"We had a difficult morning today, so we just had to have faith in the new tyres," said Carroll. "This is a great start to the weekend."

Piccione will start from the front row alongside Carroll, while Jeroen Bleekemolen couldn't repeat his practice form and had to settle for third place.

Jani, who ended his day in the gravel at Druids after an off at the start of his final flying lap, will start fourth, while France and New Zealand will share the third row.

Behind the top six, John Martin put Australia up to seventh with a late charge, while China took eighth with Franky Cheng, ahead of title outsider Filipe Albuquerque in the Portuguese car.

 

[Wido Rossen]

Ireland wins championship in style

A1 Team Ireland and Adam Carroll completed a dominant weekend with victory in this afternoon’s A1GP Brands Hatch Feature race to win the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport championship.

Ireland had been in control all weekend, claiming two pole positions yesterday which were both converted into wins today.

Carroll took the lead from the start to take a comfortable victory, eventually crossing the finish line 10-seconds ahead of the Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen. Neel Jani ended third, securing second the runner-up spot in this year’s championship.
Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque came home in fifth to give them third place in the final championship rankings.

Results sprint race

1 Ireland Adam Carroll 18 22'32.704
2 India Narain Karthikeyan 18 22'39.934 7.230
3 Mexico Salvador Durán 18 22'45.044 12.340
4 USA J.R. Hildebrand 18 22'45.393 12.689
5 Portugal Filipe Albuquerque 18 22'45.722 13.018
6 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 18 22'46.487 13.783
7 Australia John Martin 18 22'47.912 15.208
8 Switzerland Neel Jani 18 22'54.924 22.220
9 France Nicolas Prost 18 22'55.649 22.945
10 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi 18 22'59.766 27.062
11 Germany Michael Ammermüller 18 23'04.651 31.947
12 Indonesia Satrio Hermanto 18 23'05.863 33.159
13 Great Britain Dan Clarke 18 23'06.245 33.541
14 China Cheng Cong Fu 18 23'07.667 34.963
15 South Africa Alan van der Merwe 18 23'13.192 40.488
16 Malaysia Aaron Lim 18 23'14.232 41.528
17 Lebanon Daniel Morad 13 16'51.416 5 laps
18 New Zealand Earl Bamber 13 16'51.675 5 laps
19 Monaco Clivio Piccione 8 10'53.522 10 laps
- Brazil Felipe Guimarães 0

Results feature race

1 A. Carroll A1 Team Ierland 1:04:14.970
2 J. Bleekemolen A1 Team Nederland + 10.156
3 N. Jani A1 Team Zwitserland + 13.564
4 C. Piccione A1 Team Monaco + 14.293
5 F. Albuquerque A1 Team Portugal + 16.484
6 S. Duran A1 Team Mexico + 21.810
7 D. Clarke A1 Team Groot-Brittannië + 23.409
8 J. Martin A1 Team Australië + 24.493
9 V. Liuzzi A1 Team Italië + 46.004
10 N. Prost A1 Team Frankrijk + 49.094
11 A. van der Merwe A1 Team Zuid-Afrika + 1:13.905
12 D. Morad A1 Team Libanon + 1:16.257
13 S. Hermanto A1 Team Indonesië + 1 ronde(n)
14 J.R. Hildebrand A1 Team USA + 1 ronde(n)

Retired

15 A. Lim A1 Team Maleisië + 22 ronde(n)
16 M. Ammermuller A1 Team Duitsland + 23 ronde(n)
17 E. Bamber A1 Team Nieuw Zeeland + 43 ronde(n)
18 C. Cong Fu A1 Team China + 49 ronde(n)
19 N. Karthikeyan A1 Team India + 49 ronde(n)


This has been the final race.

New season and next race is Gold coast Surfers Paradise, Australia on Sunday, 25 Oct, 2009

See you all then.

 

[Ross Balfour]

IRELAND FTW!!!!


Watched the race just there on Sky Sports, Ireland were dominant the whole weekend and it was a deserved Championship for us


Adam Carroll really should be knocking on F1 doors IMO.

 

[Nick Deeley]

Was a great weekend, was there, and nearly got sunburnt. Ireland deserved the title, Adam Carroll drove brilliantly.

Photos - http://www.surrealillusions.co.uk/a1gp.php More to be uploaded as i go through them.



Although there was a couple of smashes in the support races. One of which where the lamborghini in the GT Cup hit the armco with considerable force to move the armco about 2-3 foot on impact, destroying the front end of the car. Thankfully the driver walked away, but the race had to be abandoned due to the repairs needed to the armco and there was another race afterwards.

 

[Roy Stevens]

I was there to..dont no about the sun burn tho..just thought i'd show some pic's ..not as good as nick's but..Thats me with pit girl hehe

 

[Mark Birney]

Woohoo! Great result, great race too. Mexico done great in the Sprint race

Can't wait for next season

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Great photo's guys, must have been great to be there, since it already looked awesome on tv!

Also congrats to Team Ireland fans for becoming a very well deserved champion!

 

[Nick Deeley]

Great photo's guys, must have been great to be there, since it already looked awesome on tv!

Yeah, was great. Those A1GP cars are very loud. Standing on the inside of Sheene curve out in the country with those cars flying past you is quite a sight.

 

[Hans Sneep]

Why Adam Carroll was Fast

Now I no why Adam Carroll was so Fast:



Because he now who was waiting in the Pits:



But when he arrived there, he was not the only one:



But it give him the Title

Hans

 

[Wido Rossen]

What`s she doing with Carrolls helmet under her shirt ?

 

[Hans Sneep]

Make that two:in-love:

Hans

 

[Ryan Callan]

I'd go pretty damn quick if she was waiting for me

 

[Resi Respati]

A1GP 2008/2009 End-of-Season quiz

http://www.a1gp.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?newsId=42761

Think you know everything about A1GP in 2008/09? Why not try our end-of-season quiz? Answers will be published in two weeks.

If you email your answers with your name to globalwebsite@a1gp.com by July 10, the top 20 will get their names printed on a 2008/09 A1GP.com quiz leaderboard... and who knows what kind of adulation the winner will get? Good luck!

The last time we ran a quiz only a few people scored the maximum 30/30. Will anyone achieve it this time? Remember that some questions aren't always what you think...