Results of the 2005/2006 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Sentul, Indonesia

Round 8

The Indonesian crowd were given a predicatable podium finish in the sprint race with positions one, two and three reminaing unchanged throughout the race and France again victorious, followed by Britain and and a surprise third for Team Mexico.

Several pit stops after lap one and further into the race spelt disaster for teams such as Canada - retiring after the initial collision that forced the stop. South Africa and Brazil also suffered retirements along with China.

Local Asian hero, Alex Yoong did well to finish in fourth ahead of Teams Switzerland and Ireland. Dutchman Jos Verstappan could only manage seventh after starting his victory in South Africa.

By contrast, the feature race produced an extraordinary result with Canada's Sean McIntosh driving from last to first place including an imposed pit drive through. A series of disastrously timed safety car sessions and timely pit stopping to take advantage of this, threw the race on its head for the underdogs and confined the usual leaders to the back. Alex Yoong managed a commendable second despite an earlier clash and it was also a great weekend for other under performing drivers, like Marcus Marshall of Team Australia and Christian Fittipaldi for Team Brazil who finished third and fourth respectively.

Competition front runner France collided with the Team Malaysia car costing them a lengthy pit stop, Team Swizterland made an illegal stop during a safety car deployment, forcing a pit drive through and the Netherland's Jos Verstappan lost out to a poorly timed pit stop, which cost him several positions.

By mid race, Britain's Robbie Kerr and South Africa's Stephen Simpson were leading, ahead of Portugal and Ireland but neither had made a pit stop at any time during the race, while almost all other contenders had at some point been forced to make unscheduled stops during which time refueling was done. Both eventually relinquished their positions, by which time the confusion has revealed Team Canada were now best placed to eventually take the lead, and they did!

The home fans had to suffer more disappointment on lap 13 after their team’s car collided with Malaysia. The Irish driver Ralph Firman was just one of many who visited the sand trap on this circuit, costing him a potential podium finish, though he did pick up a bonus point for the fatest lap; at 1.19.029, setting a new lap record for the Sentul circuit.

Full results of the A1 Sentul Sprint Race 2005

1. France
2. Great Britain
3. Mexico
4. Malaysia
5. Switzerland
6. Ireland
7. Netherlands
8. New Zealand
9. USA
10. Great Britain

Full results of the A1 Sentul Feature Race 2005

1. Canada
2. Malaysia
3. Australia
4. Brazil
5. Switzerland
6. Netherlands
7. New Zealand
8. France
9. USA
10. Great Britain

Fastest lap: Ireland

Standings after eight races