2005–06 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain

Report

Practice

There were eight red flags in practice due to incidents. In the first session, A1 Team India's Karun Chandhok crashed into Jos Verstappen at a hairpin, sending him airborne and damaging his car to such an extent that he was unable to set a time in the second session. Rain affected the second session, causing slower speeds and spins. Free Practice 3, held on Saturday, saw A1 Team France top the timesheets with a 1:15.421 courtesy of Alexandre Prémat. Matthew Halliday set the second quickest time for A1 Team New Zealand, which was good enough to see him nominated for qualifying.

Qualifying

Nelson Piquet, Jr. took A1GP's first ever pole position for A1 Team Brazil. Piquet set the fastest time over the entire session, with a 1:14.965 on his third run. Combined with the best first-lap time, he produced an aggregate time of 2:30.769, leading the results by over three tenths of a second ahead of Halliday. Brazil did not attempt a time in the final run, which was topped by Prémat, placing them third on the grid for the sprint race. Fourth position went to Will Power of A1 Team Australia, followed by the home team A1 Team Great Britain. The A1 Grand Prix rules allowed teams to use one driver for qualifying and another for the race, provided the race driver's best practice time is within 102% of the team's best qualifying lap – resulting in Lebanon's Basil Shaaban and China's Qinghua Ma replaced with Khalil Beschir and Tengyi Jiang respectively.

Sprint race

Scheduled for 18 laps or 30 minutes (whichever came first), the first ever A1GP sprint race began with a rolling start. Prémat got the best start of the front-runners, slipping inside Halliday to move into second place. Power retained his fourth position, slightly ahead of Robbie Kerr for A1 Team Great Britain. Piquet made it through the first turn with no trouble, and quickly began building a sizeable lead. Jos Verstappen in the Dutch car suffered damage to his car after a collision with Stephen Simpson of South Africa, forcing him to limp back to the pits and retire from the race. Simpson was also required to pit at the end of the first lap to repair damage from the collision. The field remained in almost the same order for the remainder of the race, as Piquet, Prémat and Halliday produced a gap back to Power, who pulled away from Kerr to secure fourth place. A1 Team USA's Scott Speed moved from 17th to 11th on the opening lap and held that position until the end of the race. A1 Team Mexico remained 6th, ahead of the Pakistani car in 7th – which spent most of the race holding up Portugal – Switzerland and Ireland behind him.

Main race

Piquet took the first position on the grid for the feature race, thanks to his comprehensive victory in the sprint race. Prémat suffered a battery problem between the two races which required some frantic work by the pit crew, resulting in Premat leaving the pit lane with 45 seconds to spare. This time the race started with a standing start, however Halliday stalled from third spot and had to start from the pits. Prémat stalled on the race start proper, putting him out of the race immediately. Piquet led from Power on the opening lap. Further back in the field, Michael Devaney of Ireland collided with Neel Jani of Switzerland, putting both cars out of the race. Beschir spun off the track, hitting a wall on the outside and then coming back across the track narrowly in front of four cars. The Lebanese driver was able to continue the race, which was not the case for A1 Team India's Karun Chandhok and A1 Team Indonesia's Ananda Mikola who both did not complete lap 1. Portugal soon joined the ever-growing list of retirees when Álvaro Parente retired with a battery problem on lap two. Having started in 16th, Enrico Toccacelo of Italy climbed to a surprising 5th after taking an early compulsory pitstop.

Piquet continued to lead and open and impressive gap back to Power, who was being hounded by Kerr for second. Several battles were emerging throughout the field, involving Pakistan and Italy for 4th place, Germany and Malaysia for 6th, as well as Canada and South Africa for 9th. Speed rejoined the race after having to pit for a new nose cone earlier in the race, now lying several laps behind the leaders. With Germany taking its compulsory pitstop, Verstappen moved into 7th having started last. Malaysia lost time in the pit cycle as the mechanics struggled to fit a wheel, a common occurrence in early A1GP races. Pakistan, who had been held up by A1 Team Austria while trying to lap them, also lost out to the Netherlands when both teams pitted.

On lap 13, Toccacelo and Beschir collided at Paddock Hill Bend, resulting in the Lebanese car barrel-rolling through the gravel. The top three pitted as the Safety Car came out for the first time, but Brazil also had problems changing tyres Great Britain and Australia past. The British car then suffered another battery failure under the safety car, forcing Kerr to retire and promoting Power to the lead. Power led Piquet and Salvador Durán of Mexico on the restart. Only a few laps later, A1 Team Russia driver Aleksey Vasilyev spun off the track and forced the safety car to come out again. On the second restart, Piquet passed Power and drove away to win by 11 seconds over Australia, followed by Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and Germany. Piquet's win finished a clean-sweep for Brazil, claiming pole position, both race wins and the bonus point for the fastest race lap of the weekend to give the team the maximum 21 points.

Results

Qualification

Qualification took place on Saturday, 24 September 2005. Lap times in blue (the two fastest times from a country) counted towards a countries' aggregate.

Sprint Race results

The Sprint Race took place on Sunday, 25 September 2005

Main Race results

The Main Race also took place on Sunday, 25 September 2005.

Points

;Event and Championship standings

• – A1 Team Brazil received a bonus point for setting the fastest race lap of the weekend.

References

References

1. "Chaotic Start to A1GP".
2. "Brazil takes pole at Brands Hatch".
3. "Piquet puts Brazil on top".
4. "Brazil completes Brands Hatch 'double'".
5. (12 September 2007). "A1GP Timing Results – BRANDS HATCH, GREAT BRITAIN, SEASON 2005-06 (Page 34)". Alkamel Systems.
6. (12 September 2007). "A1GP Timing Results – BRANDS HATCH, GREAT BRITAIN, SEASON 2005-06 (Page 42)". Alkamel Systems.
7. (12 September 2007). "A1GP Timing Results – BRANDS HATCH, GREAT BRITAIN, SEASON 2005-06 (Page 52)". Alkamel Systems.