2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Netherlands

Drivers and teams

On 26 September, an article on the official A1GP website, detailed that a full grid of cars would not be on track at Zandvoort for the race weekend, due to the build schedule delay. It was subsequently confirmed that a maximum of eighteen teams will be racing – CAN Canada, GER Germany (Michael Ammermüller), GBR Great Britain (Danny Watts), IND India (Narain Karthikeyan) and MEX Mexico (Davíd Garza Pérez) will thus make their season debut at the second round in China. GER Germany (Michael Ammermüller) did not, in fact, debut until round 5 in South Africa, while CAN Canada did not appear all season.

Subsequently, PAK Team Pakistan revealed that technical issues with their car were compromising the safety of their driver, Adam Khan – and thus, they too delayed the start of their season, leaving 17 teams to race. Like CAN Canada, PAK Pakistan did not appear all season.

As several teams were still arriving as of Saturday morning, and were unable to shake down their cars before the start of the planned sessions, rookie sessions were not held.

Qualifying

As some teams had only arrived on Saturday morning, the qualifying format was changed for Zandvoort. In place of the usual four fifteen-minute, single-lap sessions, teams were given a one-hour session in which they could complete as many laps as they wished. Those times would set the grid for the Sprint race, while the results from the Sprint race would determine the grid for the Feature race.

The pole position time, set by NED the Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen) was four seconds quicker than the fastest lap set the previous year in the Lola/Zytek cars. NED Bleekemolen lined up on pole, 0.316s ahead of NZL Earl Bamber and 0.338s ahead of IRL Adam Carroll in third. Both BRA Felipe Guimarães and CHN Ho-Pin Tung failed to set a time.

Sprint Race

Owing to the treacherous conditions, the 12-lap Sprint Race was started behind the Safety Car. The newly introduced mandatory Sprint race pit-stop was removed for this race, to help the teams to conserve equipment.

On Lap 2, the Safety Car pulled in, and the cars were released. On Lap 3, IRE Adam Carroll spun at the final corner and was hit by MON Clivio Piccione, forcing both of their retirements. On Lap 3, IDN Satrio Hermanto also retired after a spin. On Lap 5, KOR Hwang Jin-Woo retired, after colliding with AUS John Martin heading into the first corner. Martin managed to continue. On Lap 7, NZL Earl Bamber passed NLD Jeroen Bleekemolen for the lead, after a failed passing attempt led to Bleekemolen running wide and allowing Bamber to pass. On Lap 9, MYS Fairuz Fauzy passed NZL Bamber for the lead, and then began to build up a lead over the New Zealander. On Lap 11, CHN Ho-Pin Tung spun out of fifth place. On Lap 11, BRA Felipe Guimarães also spun out.

The race was red-flagged on Lap 12, because of the treacherous conditions. MYS Fauzy won ahead of NZL Bamber, and FRA Loïc Duval. FRA Duval also set fastest lap.

Race stopped after 12 laps because of the terrible conditions

Feature Race

KOR Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo) were sent to the back of the grid for attempting to overtake under a yellow flag, and causing an avoidable collision in the Sprint race.

The second pit-stop window was set to be between Laps 24 and 32. As conditions hadn't improved since earlier, the race was started behind the Safety Car.

The Safety Car pulled in at the end of Lap 2, to get the race underway. On Lap 5, SUI Neel Jani pulled into the pits and retires, while IRL Adam Carroll spun out at Turn 6. On Lap 6, ITA Fabio Onidi spun and collected RSA Adrian Zaugg, putting both out of the race. After the first set of pit-stops, FRA France (Loïc Duval) led from NZL New Zealand (Earl Bamber) and POR Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque).

A lot of action took place on Laps 16–17: NLD Jeroen Bleekemolen pulled into the pits with a steering wheel problem; IDN Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto) crashed out; KOR Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo) spun and rejoined; and POR Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque) spun and crashed in the final turn. The Safety Car was deployed while the wrecks were cleared. At this point, all remaining cars in the race were guaranteed points-finishes, which means MON Monaco (Clivio Piccione) and KOR Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo) would score on their debut, and LIB Lebanon (Daniel Morad) would score their first ever points.

On Lap 24, LIB Daniel Morad did a 360-spin and continues, losing a place to AUS John Martin. Meanwhile, NLD Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen) were having gearshifting problems and lost a place to USA USA (Charlie Kimball). On Lap 31, USA Charlie Kimball retired after running off the track, but not before setting the fastest lap of the race. FRA France (Loïc Duval) still led after the second round of pit-stops.

On Lap 33, the Safety Car was deployed after LIB Morad lost control and spun into the back of CHN Ho-Pin Tung, sending both cars into the tyre wall at Tarzan corner. At this stage, the race had nearly reached the 69-minute time limit. Two laps later the time expired, and FRA France (Loïc Duval) took the chequered flag behind the safety car, ahead of MYS Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy), and NZL New Zealand (Earl Bamber).

BRA Brazil (Felipe Guimarães) joined the race late on, after being unable to make the start, as they were unable to repair the damage from their accident in the Sprint race in time.

Scheduled for 45 laps but stopped earlier because of time limit

After race

At the first practice session, KOR Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo) was warned due to their political insistence which the team put on the car: Dokdo is a territory of Korea. However, they kept running the car with same insistence written in not English but Korean (Hangul) during the race weekend. As a result, the team received a penalty of fine after the race.

Notes

• It was the 33rd race weekend (66 starts).
• It was the 3rd race in the Netherlands, and the 3rd race at Circuit Park Zandvoort.
• It was the first race weekend for KOR A1 Team Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo), and MON A1 Team Monaco (Clivio Piccione).
• It was the first race weekend as main driver for NZL Earl Bamber, BRA Felipe Guimarães, KOR Hwang Jin-Woo, USA Charlie Kimball, LIB Daniel Morad, ITA Fabio Onidi and MON Clivio Piccione.
• Records:
  • In the Sprint race, it was the first win for MYS Malaysia and Fairuz Fauzy.
  • LIB Lebanon (Daniel Morad) had participated in 33 rounds (63 starts) before scoring their first points.
  • KOR Korea (Hwang Jin-Woo), LIB Lebanon (Daniel Morad) and MON Monaco (Clivio Piccione) all scored their first ever points in the series, in the Feature race.

References

References

1. (2008-09-26). "A1GP looking forward to Zandvoort". a1gp.com.
2. (2008-10-02). "A1 Teams given green light". a1gp.com.
3. (2008-10-04). "Pakistan delays 2008/09 debut". a1gp.com.
4. (2008-10-03). "Sporting regulations revised". a1gp.com.
5. (2008-09-11). "Martin back for Australia". a1gp.com.
6. (2008-09-26). "Back for some more". a1gp.com.
7. (2008-10-02). "Italy launches new car". a1gp.com.
8. (2008-09-18). "Morad to switch to A1 Team Lebanon". a1gp.com.
9. (2008-09-24). "Fauzy to race for Malaysia". a1gp.com.
10. (2008-09-28). "Bamber to race for New Zealand". a1gp.com.
11. (2008-07-02). "Portugal names its man". a1gp.com.
12. (2008-09-26). "Zandvoort and Zaugg together again". a1gp.com.
13. (2008-10-03). "The champions are back!". a1gp.com.
14. (2008-10-04). "Qualifying: as it happened". a1gp.com.
15. (2008-10-05). "Malaysia wins Sprint race". a1gp.com.