PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog

A1 Team Indonesia completed the Sprint and Feature races at Sepang circuit, Kuala Lumpur in the fourth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today. Satrio Hermanto, driving for the team in Malaysia, finished 13^th in both the Sprint and the Feature races.

The weather for the Sprint race was hot, humid and sunny, resulting in challenging conditions for the field of A1GP drivers. The drama came before the race had even started with three cars ahead of Indonesia piling into each other. Satrio was lucky to escape the incident although he had to pick his way through the debris and was fortunate not to pick up a puncture from any carbon fibre shards. The race had to be stopped to clear the track and after a few minutes was restarted, although this time the safety car paced the cars for a lap before the cars were let free to race.

Satrio was quickly on the pace and pushing hard. The young Indonesian made up ground as the race progressed, maintaining a good pace and defending well from the attacks of Monaco behind him. The Indonesia team pitcrew gave him a great pitstop to keep Satrio in position. He crossed the finish line in 13^th place, a credit to all the team’s efforts.

“The sprint race was quite good, but we didn’t really make as much progress as I would have liked. We gained from other drivers’ misfortunes, but we kept it clean and reached the chequered flag, with the aim of a points finish in the Feature race,” said Satrio.

The period between the two races gave the team an opportunity to review the car setup and prepare for the Feature race. Satrio took part in the traditional A1GP drivers ceremony, and shortly after this was back in the car ready to take the standing start for the Feature race.

The frenetic start of the Feature race saw Satrio having to take evasive action of cars around him, but keeping his cool he was able to hold position. The Indonesian crew gave Satrio two clean pit stops and the team were able to retain their position as the race laps counted down. The Indonesian racked up miles in the new A1GP car, learning and making progress as he raced, although ultimately unable to make headway.

He said after the Feature race. “It was a tough race, I'm a bit disappointed because we missed our target to get a point. It was a good race, but not really good. the car was good in the middle of the race, getting better, after that I had a few understeer problems, which is why I slowed down a little bit and then after the second pitstop I pushed very hard to catch up with Lebanon. With lap times the same and the same PowerBoost, there was no point to be so aggressive because Mexico were just getting closer and closer. I'm just a bit disappointed.”

Bobby Issazadhe, Team Manager, A1 Team Indonesia added, “We’re pleased that Satrio completed the two race distances today, but we didn’t see the improvement in finish positions that we had hoped for. , It wasn’t that exciting, not much happened, the pitstops were not fantastic and the race was not fantastic. We qualified 14th and ended 13th. Everything has been 13 this week, even the garage number! Progress has been made and the guys have put together a reliable car and we've had absolutely no problems apart from the filter which was pretty much out of our control. Still, we’re making progress.

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport heads to Taupo circuit, New Zealand, early next year for the fourth round of the 10 event series. It will be the third visit to the Southern Hemisphere outpost for the A1GP Series and promises to deliver more exciting race action for the local motorsport fans and for the millions of TV viewers around the world.

sources: www.a1gp.com