Estoril-Race
まず、プレスリリース。
Date : Estoril,23 October
Title : A1GP hit downtown Cascais on Saturday eveningA1 Grand Prix hit downtown Cascais on Saturday evening when the drivers showed their competitive skills extended to bicycle racing around the streets of the coastal resort. It might have been a promotion for Sunday's races, but there was no way that they were going to hold back. Victory was kept from them, though, but there was no disgrace in that as the first rider to complete the 3.5 kilometre route was Sergei Nikitenko, a former world cycling champion. His bike was emblazoned with the livery of Itera, the sponsor brought to the show by the new seatholder of A1 Team Russia, Igor Makarov. In fact, it was a one-two for A1 Team Russia, as Makarov was next across the finish line in front of Cascais town hall. Third to the finish was Tomas Enge of A1 Team Czech Republic ahead of today's polesitter, A1 Team Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr. However, their lack of puffing alerted officials to the fact that they had used guile rather than leg power and taken a shortcut... So, the honour of being the first driver home went to A1 Team Ireland's Michael Devaney. He had gone off fast before being overtaken by Nicolas Lapierre, but the French driver had peaked too soon and was demoted before the end of the race. Perhaps the most impressive ride of all came from another seatholder, A1 Team Brazil's Emerson Fittipaldi who was sixth home, putting drivers more than 30 years younger than him to shame.自転車レースをしたみたいです。
んで、エマーソン・フィッティパルティも特別参加してたとの事。
Date : Estoril,23 October
Title : Driver nominations for Sprint and Feature racesNominated drivers for Sprint and Feature Races A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Circuito Estoril, Portugal - 23 October Australia Will Davidson Austria Mathias Lauda Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr Canada Sean McIntosh China Tengyi Jiang Czech Republic Tomas Enge France Alexandre Premat Germany Adrian Sutil Great Britain Robbie Kerr India Armaan Ebrahim Indonesia Ananda Mikola Ireland Ralph Firman Italy Enricco Toccacelo Lebanon Basil Shaaban Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy Mexico Salvador Duran Netherlands Jos Verstappen New Zealand Matt Halliday Pakistan Adam Khan Portugal Alvaro Parente Russia Mikhail Aleshin South Africa Tomas Schekter Switzerland Neel Jani USA Scott Speed The Sprint race will be contested over 50 miles lasting up to 30 minutes in duration. With a rolling start at 13:30 BST, tomorrow's race will be run over 18 laps at the Circuito Estoril near Lisbon, Portugal. The outcome of the race determines the grid position for the Feature race which will start at 15:00 BST with a standing start. The Feature race will be run over 100 miles (36 laps) lasting up to 60 minutes in duration.レースの出場ドライバーです。
次からはレース結果です。
Date : Estoril,23 October
Title : Sprint race resultsFrom the moment the cars crossed the start line it was a three way rush to the first corner with France on the inside, Brazil in the middle and Switzerland on the outside. France won this race and the one that saw Alexandre Premat's car take the chequered flag 18 laps later. A1 Team France's Alexandre Premat said: "It was a very good race, I used the PowerBoost quite a lot. In the first corner I passed Nelson, I went up the inside and braked very late, and the car was great. I hope to do just as well in the second race. The PowerBoost button is really good. If you are close to the car in front, it helps you overtake. It's a great idea. I hope to win both races today, as Nelson did at Brands Hatch and Nicolas did at EuroSpeedway.' It was a very short-lived race for Australia, Mexico and Pakistan as in the second turn an accident saw all three cars retire after going off into the gravel trap. While France was never challenged, there were some fine battles going on further down the field. Germany was the target for Great Britain with the two battling for 12th position. This battle came to an end when the Irish car clipped the rear of Great Britain and forced Robbie Kerr to pull off with a right-rear puncture. A1 Team Ireland was then forced to pit for over a minute for a new front wing so was out of contention for series points. However, A1 Team Germany's Adrian Sutil, in his first race of the Series was not allowed any breathing space as "We the People" representing the USA was soon on his tail and making every effort to overtake. Despite them swapping places at one point, it was the German car that crossed the line to claim 12th spot. Another driver having his first A1 Grand Prix race, Basil Shaaban for A1 Team Lebanon had a great tussle with A1 Team Austria in the closing laps but lost out and finished 18th. A1 Team Netherlands had their best finish to date as Jos Verstappen managed to take two positions going into the first corner and this gave the usual large contingent of Dutch fans something to shout about. (レース結果) Commenting on his race, A1 Team Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr said: "The start was quite messy to be honest, the pace car stayed in front for quite a long time, I didn't know what was happening. It moved at the last moment and Alex just came out from nowhere. I had to give him space as he braked really late into the corner, I have to say he had a very strong race. We have to go and improve now and make a few changes for the next race." Neel Jani of A1 Team Switzerland said: "That start wasn't too bad, I was alongside Nelson, and I passed him half way through the corner, but I had to stay on the outside as he was very close. We are in a good position for the second race, and I'm looking forward to it."Sprint Race
1 France / Alexandre Premat 18L 27:46.488 2 Brazil / Nelson Piquet Jr + 2.055 3 Switzerland / Neel Jani + 3.289 4 Netherlands / Jos Verstappen + 13.485 5 Czech Republic / Tomas Enge + 13.928 6 Portugal / Alvaro Parente + 18.661 7 Canada / Sean McIntosh + 21.297 8 Malaysia / Fairuz Fauzy + 32.153 9 Indonesia / Ananda Mikola + 37.367 10 South Africa / Tomas Scheckter + 39.722 11 Italy / Enrico Toccacelo + 40.093 12 Germany / Adrian Sutil + 41.826 13 USA / Scott Speed + 41.915 14 New Zealand / Matt Halliday + 43.178 15 Russia / Mikhail Aleshin + 51.668 16 Austria / Mathias Lauda + 1:06.727 17 India / Armaan Ebrahim + 1:08.814 18 Lebanon / Basil Shaaban + 1:16.122 19 Ireland / Ralph Firman 17L 20 Great Britain / Robbie Kerr 5L 21 China / Tengyi Jiang 1L 22 Australia / Will Davidson 0L 23 Mexico / Salvador Duran 0L 24 Pakistan / Adam Khan 0Lドイツのエイドリアン・スーティル、スコット・スピードをあれだけ抑えきったのは凄い事だと思う。あとはポイントだ!!
また、アナンダ・ミコラが入賞し、マレーシアのファウジーが入賞した。
ファウジーについては、かなり過小評価してました。ごめんなさい。
Date : Estoril,23 October
Title : Feature race resultsFrance were again ready for the start, this time from a standing position and made no mistake by being on the inside for corner one and coming out ahead of Portugal and the Czech Republic. However, behind them sitting on the grid, they had left the Netherlands, Brazil and Russia. This brought out the first safety car period while the cars were pushed off the grid and into the pit lane. The safety car stayed out for just the one lap and as it peeled off at the end of lap two was instantly followed by 10 of the competitors who chose to do their mandatory pit stop for tyres at this point. Again it was France leading the way, followed by Portugal and the Czech Republic. Italy had made a storming start from eleventh on the grid but unfortunately it was too good to last as they were subsequently given a drive through penalty which lost them their fourth place. Indonesia was having a great race and on lap 13 managed to overtake both Great Britain and South Africa, unfortunately it was a short-lived advantage as the car immediately spun off and retired. For A1 Team Mexico, the race came to an end on lap 10 when Canada ran into the back of their car which was seen by the millions of viewers worldwide via the on-board cameras. The safety car was deployed again to remove the stricken Mexican car, which was in turn one, and during this time the Portuguese car stalled during a pit stop and lost second place. The safety car lasted until the end of lap 16 and during this period, the South African car pulled off the track with a broken rear suspension, which had happened after contact with another car on the very first corner of the race. France made another great start when the safety car pulled off to keep the lead, however the safety car was soon out again as in a move that was described by A1 Team Netherlands' driver as "over ambitious" the car speared into that of A1 Team Germany and they both retired on the spot. The safety car was brought in at the end of lap 20 and again it was the car carrying the French Tricolore that led into the first corner, followed by Switzerland and Ireland who went on to take their first podium of the season. A1 Team Czech Republic moved up but fourth place was not destined to be theirs as a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane dropped them down to an eventual ninth place. It was obvious that Alvaro Parente wanted to do well in front of his home crowd and after an exciting battle with first A1 Team Italy and then A1 Team Australia, he moved up to fifth place. Due to the amount of time spent under the safety car, the race ran for its full hour and at that point, France was seven seconds in the lead and scored its fourth win out of the six A1 Grand Prix races to date and bought its points tally at the head of the series to 50 with Brazil second on 42 and Switzerland third on 34. (レース結果) The fastest lap of the Feature race was recorded by A1 Team France on the 23rd lap with a time of 1:31.106. Commenting on his performance, driver Alexandre Premat said: "The race was great, I had another good start - although the re-starts varied, some were good and some were bad, it was hard to keep Scott Speed and Nelson Piquet behind me. The car was great to drive again, I did the fastest laps and we are leading the series. I wish Nicolas Lapierre good luck for the next race." Second place finisher, A1 Team Switzerland's Neel Jani said: "I had a good start, but nearly got pushed into the wall and had to be careful not to crash. I suffered from oversteer in the beginning of the race but after the pit stop the car got better. I nearly took first place during a re-start - but again nearly got pushed into the wall and was lucky not to crash. I'm looking forward to winning a race, we seem to be getting better and better every race, we are definitely progressing." Recording Ireland's best race position, Ralph Firman said: "It has been a good weekend, despite having problems with the gearbox in Qualifying and I lost my front wing in the Sprint race. I went off the track trying to get past Canada, and thought my race was over, but I managed to get back on track and had a great pit stop which really helped a lot. I overtook Scott Speed during one of the re-starts, which was fantastic. The luck of the Irish seems to be working. I won't be driving in Australia, but I'm really looking forward to getting in the car in Malaysia." (国別ポイントランキング…明日参照) As usual, the results are provisional until the stewards of the meeting have had a chance to conduct their enquiries following various on-track incidents.Feature Race
1 France / Alexandre Premat 36L 1:01:05.054 2 Switzerland / Neel Jani + 7.917 3 Ireland / Ralph Firman + 16.333 4 USA / Scott Speed + 19.423 5 Portugal / Alvaro Parente + 27.720 6 Australia / Will Davidson + 35.174 7 Italy / Enrico Toccacelo + 36.029 8 Brazil / Nelson Piquet Jr + 36.665 9 Czech Republic / Tomas Enge + 38.130 10 Austria / Mathias Lauda + 51.780 11 Lebanon / Basil Shaaban + 59.133 12 Great Britain / Robbie Kerr + 1:02.347 13 India / Armaan Ebrahim + 1:05.944 14 China / Tengyi Jiang + 1:10.981 15 Pakistan / Adam Khan + 1:16.917 16 New Zealand / Matt Halliday 35L 17 Russia / Mikhail Aleshin 35L 18 Canada / Sean McIntosh 20L 19 Netherlands / Jos Verstappen 18L 20 Germany / Adrian Sutil 17L 21 Malaysia / Fairuz Fauzy 15L 22 South Africa / Tomas Scheckter 14L 23 Indonesia / Ananda Mikola 3L 24 Mexico / Salvador Duran 2Lいろいろと波乱があったみたいです。
