Swiss take A1 series

South Africa achieved its goal of finishing the competition fifth out of the 22 competing nations in what was the most competitive and closely contested A1 season so far. There were 10 different winning nations in the 20 races, with South Africa taking two victories.

Great Britain (Robbie Kerr) won the Sprint race from pole position — a feat the team also achieved in the final round of last season — closely followed by USA (Jonathan Summerton) and Ireland (Adam Carroll). South Africa (Adrian Zaugg) was seventh after starting seventh.

India (Narain Karthikeyan) won the 70-minute Feature race from pole position with Great Britain second and new champions Switzerland third. Kerr came close to giving his nation the unique distinction of being the first to win both home races on the same day, when he led India after the first round of compulsory pit stops. However, Karthikeyan, an acknowledged Brands Hatch expert like Kerr, regained the lead with a great team performance in the second compulsory pit stop and went on to give India its second win of the season.

Zaugg, at the wheel of South Africa’s Vulindlela, again started seventh (a down-on-power engine hampered the team’s efforts in Saturday’s qualifying) and was up to third on the road when he made his first pit stop. A slick and quick pit stop was marred when a jack was left under the car and was dragged down the pit lane as Zaugg accelerated away. As a result, the team was given a ‘drive-through penalty’, which effectively dropped it out of contention.

Zaugg didn’t give up and pushed hard throughout the remainder of the race, moving up from 17th place after the ‘drive through’ to finish 11th, hard on the heels of Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto) and just out of the points.

“We’re delighted to have finished fifth overall in the championship,” said Mike Carroll, general manager of A1 Team South Africa. “This was our objective from the start of the season in September last year and the team has worked well together to achieve this good result. While this is a team effort, we have to acknowledge the performance of our driver.

“This season, for the first time, we had the same driver throughout and this clearly was an advantage. Adrian has developed into once of the top drivers in A1. Only Neel Jani of new champions Switzerland scored more pole positions (six to Adrian’s four) and only Switzerland and championship runners-up New Zealand (Jonny Reid) scored more wins (four each to South Africa’s two). We were one of only six countries to win more than one race.

“It is by far our best result in the three seasons of A1 so far — we were 17th in 2006 and 14th in 2007 — and what makes it particularly satisfying is that it comes in what was undoubtedly the most competitive and closely-contested season since A1 started. In addition, we beat last year’s champions, Germany,” Carroll added.

Next season, which starts at a new venue, Mugello in Italy, will feature a brand new A1 car powered by Ferrari and with a new chassis designed in collaboration with Ferrari.

“We have shown this season that we can compete with the best in the world in this unique competition that pits nation against nation in identical cars. We look forward to season four and the new Ferrari era, which will take A1 to a whole new level; and we will be aiming even higher.”

The first round of the fourth season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport will take place at Mugello, Italy from 19 to 21 September.

Final championship points after 10 rounds:
1 Switzerland 168;
2 New Zealand 127;
3 Great Britain 126;
4 France 118;
5 South Africa 96;
6 Ireland 94;
7 Netherlands 87;
8 Germany 83;
9 Canada 75;
10 India 61.