Results of the 2005 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Estoril, Portugal

So from Germany, the A1 teams moved to Portugal to race at the Estoril racing circuit. And it was team France's Alexandre Premat, who was the big winner of the weekend, ousting Brazil's Nelson Piquet from the podium by winning both the Sprint Race and Main Race. He also took home the fastest lap bonus for the weekend, giving team France the maximum number of points available for one race weekend, of 21 points! This puts France in first place, usurping Brazil's leading spot.

Premat of team France started from pole position and took the chequered flag easily. However, behind him there was complete mayhem. The Main Race was marred by no less than three safety car periods. Lap one brought on the first safety car period, when Piquet stalled his car on the grid, trapping Portugal's Alavaro Parente and other cars behind him, while his car was being pushed off the circuit. On lap 10, team Mexico was rammed by team Canada driver, Sean McIntosh, forcing the safety car to be deloyed, to remove team Mexico's car from the track. Another safety car period was brought on by Ex-F1 driver, Jos Verstappen driving for Netherlands, as his car became airborne after running into the back of team Germany's Adrian Sutil's car.In all, it was an action-packed weekend for A1, with the race in Portugal running its full-hour.

For team Portugal, it was an important home race and driver Alvaro Parente gave it his all in front of a home crowd. He battled valiantly with cars from team Italy and Australia and was able to finish in fifth place. He scored a total of 11 points for the weekend for his team.

France's win in Portugal puts them on top of the league tables, with 50 points, having now won four out of the six races to date. They toppled leading team Brazil, who now are in second place with 42 points. But the A1 teams are all pretty much head-to-head, with point differentials running at less than 8 points. New Zealand lost the title as the only team to have finished all races this season. Both, team USA and team Italy, score their first points of the season in Portugal. With Austria gaining 1 point this weekend, leaves no teams with nil points.

This puts the country point standing as follows, after the second race of the season (SR= Sprint Race; MR = Main Race; FL = Fastest lap bonus point):

  1. France 50 (SR=10, MR=10, FL=1)
  2. Brazil 42 points (SR=9, MR=3)
  3. Switzerland 34 (SR=8, MR=9)
  4. New Zealand 29 (SR=0, MR=0)
  5. Australia 21 (SR=0, MR=5)
  6. Canada 18 (SR=4, MR=0)
  7. Ireland 16 (SR=0, MR=8)
  8. Mexico 16 (SR=0, MR=0)
  9. Great Britain 15 (SR=0, MR=0)
  10. Netherlands 15 (SR=7, MR=0)
  11. Malaysia 14 (SR=3, MR=0)
  12. Portugal 14 (SR=5, MR=6)
  13. Czech Republic 8 (SR=6, MR=2)
  14. Germany 8 (SR=0, MR=0)
  15. USA 7 (SR=0, MR=7)
  16. Japan 6 (SR=0, MR=0)
  17. South Africa 6 (SR=1, MR=0)
  18. Indonesia 5 (SR=2, MR=0)
  19. Italy 4 (SR=0, MR=4)
  20. Pakistan 4 (SR=0, MR=0)
  21. Austria 1 (SR=0,MR=1)

Top 10 Main Race results from Portugal (2005)

  1. France
  2. Switzerland
  3. Ireland
  4. USA
  5. Portugal
  6. Australia
  7. Italy
  8. Brazil
  9. Czech Republic
  10. Austria

Fastest lap bonus went to France