PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog

Sunday, February 22, 2009
Flag Switzerland now leads the championship after scoring 15 points today.

Flag Second was Brazil, then Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, Lebanon, Great Britain, USA, Indonesia and Italy.

Flag Switzerland wins! Neel Jani matches Nico Hulkenberg's record of all time victories in A1GP with his ninth career victory.

Lap 40 Final lap. Switzerland are nearly there.

Lap 38 Three laps to go. Lebanon's Daniel Morad gets past Great Britain's Danny Watts for sixth.

Lap 37 There is just one second between Portugal and the Netherlands in the fight for fourth. Filipe Albuquerque has got to be thinking about the championship with Ireland already out of the race.

Lap 35 He does. It could give Malaysia a point after a nightmare race.

Lap 34 Australia currenly has the fastest lap, but Malaysia is back out on track and is using PowerBoost to try and get it.

Lap 33 India's Narain Karthikeyan dives down the inside of Italy's Edoardo Piscopo, but overcooks it and is immediately relapped.

Lap 31 India and Italy are battling for the final point in tenth place. India is not giving up.

Lap 30 Jani's lead is nearly 10 seconds. With Ireland out, it looks like Switzerland will move into the championship lead if they can stay in the lead of this race.

Lap 29 All the major runners have made their stops now. Switzerland, Brazil, Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, Great Britain, Lebanon is the order at the front.

Lap 28 Now the USA has set the fastest lap. Marco Andretti has had a poor weekend, looks like he's finally finding some speed at last.

Lap 28 China retire.

Lap 28 Danny Watts sets the fastest lap for Great Britain now. He's finally showing speed.

Lap 27 No. It retains third place.

Lap 26 Monaco comes in to make its stop. Can it beat Brazil back out?

Lap 26 Portugal makes its stop. Another good one.

Lap 26 Switzerland makes its stop - it's good and clean, and they will retain the lead.

Lap 25 India has a slow stop.

Lap 25 After taking second place, Brazil's Felipe Guimaraes pulls the car into the pits for its second mandatory pit stop. It's clean.

Lap 23 Brazil is gifted second place after pressuring Monaco's Clivio Piccione into a mistake.

Lap 22 Germany's Michael Ammermuller has gone off into the gravel, but manages to get back going.

Lap 22 China is going slowly all of a sudden.

Lap 21 The gap between them is 0.5 seconds. These two collided twice in Monaco - they can't seem to keep away from each other!

Lap 20 Monaco and Brazil are having a good battle for second.

Lap 19 As we get to half distance, the order is Switzerland, Monaco, Brazil, Netherlands, Great Britain, Portugal, Lebanon, Germany, Indonesia (in Zahir Ali's first race!).

Lap 18 Daniel Morad is having a great race in the Lebanese car. He passes Germany's Michael Ammermuller. He's up to seventh from 19th on the grid.

Lap 17 Oh no! You can almost hear the hearts brake as Adrain Zaugg slows in the South Africa car. He pulls into the pits into retirement.

Lap 16 Something now seems wrong with the USA. Marco Andretti has dropped from seventh to 11th in one lap with cars passing him around the track.

Lap 15 Malaysia are in the pits again. Something is broken with the team's car.

Lap 14 So the order is Switzerland, USA, Monaco, Brazil, Netherlands, Great Britain, Portugal.

Lap 12 Switzerland's Neel Jani uses PowerBoost to sweep past the USA on the start/finish straight.

Lap 12 Switzerland is losing time behind the USA car of Marco Andretti, who has yet to pit.

Lap 11 Monaco doesn't have a great stop, but it's a disaster for Australia. It's a good stop but then Martin stuggles to get past the car infront, and then the car stalls and can't going again. And it looked like they were in with a chance of getting a medal too.

Lap 10 People start coming in the pits.

Lap 9 Malaysia spins at Turn 4. It's not a good day for the yellow team.

Lap 8 Pit stop window is about to open.

Lap 6 Malaysia limps into the pits.

Lap 6 Monaco has a 2.8-second lead over Switzerland.

Lap 6 TV replays show Mexico and France collided, which is why they both retired.

Lap 6 Malaysia, New Zealand, Ireland, Mexico and France are under investigation. No surprise there they were going to look into all that!

Lap 6 Malaysia are coming into the pits.

Lap 5 Mexico are retiring and so are France. It's all happening in Kyalami!

Lap 4 Contact! Malasyia and New Zealand collide and Earl Bamber spins into the gravel. New Zealand retires, but Malaysia keeps going.

Lap 2 New Zealand and Malaysia are having a great battle for third place, Fairuz Fauzy is all over the back of Malaysia.

Lap 1 So the order is Monaco, Swtizerland, New Zealand, Malaysia, Australia, Brazil, Great Britain.

Lap 1 Ireland has spun! The championship leader's Feature race is already over with Adam Carroll beached in the gravel.

Lap 1 Switzerland has made a great start and is up to second!

Lap 1 Potugal has a terrible start and drops to the back.

Lap 1 Monaco makes a great start and takes the lead.

15:00 Here we go. The cars are on their formation lap ready for the feature race.

14:47 It's still really hot out there... but there are clouds in the distance. Is there rain in the air?

14:46 It's going to be very exciting this afternoon. With yesterday's qualifying, we've quite a different grid today for the Feature race. Expect drama!

14:45 Welcome back to a hot and steamy South Africa. We had a great Sprint race this morning, with A1 Team Netherlands taking its first win in 45 races.

source: www.a1gp.com