セパン決勝
決勝などの本日分のオフィシャルプレス。
Date : Sepang,20 November
Title : Sprint Race resultsA1 Grand Prix's Sprint race at the Sepang circuit produced a nail-biting climax after 15 laps of wheel-to-wheel racing. Although this was the 7th win of the season for A1 Team France, this weekend's driver Alexandre Premat worked from the start to the chequered flag and it was only on the final lap that he was able to take the lead. France first had to pass Great Britain with Robbie Kerr getting a better start and on lap one slotting into 2nd place behind A1 Team Switzerland, with the French car in 3rd. A1 Team Switzerland was given some breathing space as France and Great Britain battled in the early laps. It was a slight mistake while under breaking into the hairpin on lap 4 that allowed France to gain the advantage into the following corner and so pass Robbie Kerr. At the end of lap 5, Switzerland led France by 1.7 seconds but lap by lap, the gap came down and it was highly likely that France would manage the overtaking manoeuvre it had tried on several occasions when a gap at the start of the final lap was 0.170 seconds. Switzerland's Neel Jani didn't make it easy for France but after swapping positions it was finally in turn 4 where he had to accept the runner-up position. A1 Team France eventually won by 1.2 seconds. Commenting on his win, Alexandre Premat said: "I used my PowerBoost button to try and get past Robbie Kerr and in my mind was thinking everyone can make a mistake and hoped that those in front would do. Neel and I had a few corners very close and it was very hard. I hope to get a good start in the next race and get a good gap for the championship. That will be enough." When asked if he thought he was going to win the race Neel Jani commented: "No not really. Even at the start I felt a lot of oversteer and I knew that once Alex got past Robbie it would be very difficult. On the last lap I couldn't hold him any more and had to let him past. I hope we can change the set up for the next race, the team are trying to get the car ready." A1 Team Great Britain, who take 3rd place on the Feature race grid said: "The start was good, I went up the inside and pulled up alongside Neel Jani, but he closed the door and I had to pull back. I had to keep my head down and keep concentrating but eventually I had problems with the brakes and ran wide. The brakes had no feel and I had understeer into the corners." While the focus was on the leaders, there was tough competition all the way down the field particularly between Portugal and USA and India and Germany with the youngest driver in the Series, 16 year old Armaan Ebrahim driving with skill beyond his years and giving his team their best finish to date with 11th. 20 of the 24 teams completed the race with Australia pitting twice, first after losing bodywork in a clash on the 1st lap and then with a front left puncture after completing just 4 laps. Both Lebanon and Indonesia retired with mechanical problems although Ananda Mikola had to pit at the end of lap 1 after damaging his front wing in the scrabble to the 1st corner. The home driver, Fairuz Fauzy had double cause for celebration, setting a personal best finishing 8th for A1 Team Malaysia and also announcing his engagement.Sprint Race
1 France / Alexandre Premat 15L 29:21.541 2 Switzerland / Neel Jani + 1.231 3 Great Britain / Robbie Kerr + 5.065 4 Brazil / Nelson Piquet Jr + 6.793 5 Netherlands / Jos Verstappen + 7.973 6 New Zealand / Matt Halliday + 13.162 7 Ireland / Ralph Firman + 13.882 8 Malaysia / Fairuz Fauzy + 15.782 9 Portugal / Alvaro Parente + 20.391 10 USA / Bryan Herta + 20.845 11 India / Armaan Ebrahim + 21.394 12 Germany / Timo Scheider + 23.107 13 Pakistan / Adam Khan + 25.214 14 Japan / Hayanari Shimoda + 26.247 15 Canada / Sean McIntosh + 27.408 16 Czech Republic / Tomas Enge + 30.010 17 Italy / Enrico Toccacelo + 31.171 18 Austria / Mathias Lauda + 31.638 19 Mexico / Luis Diaz + 34.371 20 China / Tengyi Jiang + 37.081 21 Saouth Africa / Stephen Simpson 9L 22 Lebanon / Khalil Beschir 9L 23 Indonesia / Ananda Mikola 5L 24 Australia / Will Davison 4LA1GPセパンでのスプリントレースはハラハラする15周のレースであった。結局はフランスのアレクサンドレ・プリマがスタートからチェッカーまで頑張り、最後の周でトップ走行、見事7勝目を飾る事となった。
フランスはイギリスとともに良いスタートを切った。スイスがリードし、フランスは3位だった。スイスは少しずつ2台との差を離し始める。4周目、イギリスがヘアピンでミスしたのを見逃さず、フランスはオーバーテイク。5周目の終わりには、スイスとイギリスの差は1.7秒あった。が、少しずつラップごとに差は縮まっていく。0.170秒の差になり、フランスはスイスを追い詰めていく。4コーナーでスイスはフランスに抜かれた。そして、フランスはたった1.2秒の差で勝った。
1位(アレクサンドレ・プリマ)のコメント。訳はカット。
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3位(ロビー・カー)のコメント。訳はカット。
今まではトップの方を見てきたが、下位の力強い走りを見てみよう。ポルトガル、アメリカ、インド、ドイツは若いドライバーの争いとなった。若干16歳(!)のアーマン・イブラヒムはチーム最高の11位でフィニッシュした。
24台の内20台が完走したが、これはオーストラリアでのレースの2倍であり、最初のリタイアは4周目の左リアタイヤのパンクによるものだった。レバノンとインドネシアは故障によるリタイアで、アナンダ・ミコラは1周目の終わりにフロントウィングが壊れた。
今日、ホームグランプリのファイルス・ファウジーには2つの喜びがあった。まず、自己最高の8位でゴールできた事。そして、婚約を発表したことである。
ファウジー、おめでとう。これからもドライバー稼業、頑張ってください。
Date : Sepang,20 November
Title : Feature Race resultsEight has proved a lucky number in Malaysia for A1 Team France who won the Feature race after starting from pole position while A1 Team Switzerland again followed home in 2nd place. However, there was a newcomer to the podium with A1 Team Czech Republic finishing in 3rd, one place higher than their previous best. This time France made no mistake by getting away and into an early and unchallenged lead with A1 Team GBR taking second. It was Switzerland who pressured Britain's Robbie Kerr but was not able to overtake him until lap 12 after the two of them had been racing wheel to wheel for about 1/3 of a lap. Alexandre Premat, who amazingly only used one of his 8 PowerBoosts throughout the Feature race said: "I used the PowerBoost button once to pass Neel Jani and after that the race was quiet. After the start I was in front and was lucky because Neel was fighting with Robbie Kerr. The car was great to drive and I decided with my engineer that it was best to do a pit stop in the middle of the race, as the car was becoming difficult to drive. The team did a great pit stop. I know Neel was pushing really hard and it was the mechanics that did a good stop and got me out about 15 seconds in front of him. 10 laps before the end I was backing off and looking at the car." A1 Team Switzerland's Neel Jani commented: "I think we could have won easily. In the first race I was fighting the car but in the second race the car was fantastic and as soon as I passed Robbie I was able to catch Alex quickly, it was the opposite to the first race, we had a really good chance. But unfortunately the pit stop took about half a century! The car was so good that when I got out of the pit I was coming through the field really easily and passed about 3 cars on 1 lap. The PowerBoost button helped but with these cars you can follow quite easily the car in front and get close in the corners without losing any grip." Commenting on the team's 1st podium finish, A1 Team Czech Republic's Tomas Enge said: "We were very unlucky in the first race, due to a bad qualifying position. At the back of the field there is more chance of an accident and that is what happened to me. I also had a gearbox problem, so the car was awful. The mechanics did a great job, and got the car ready just in time to get out of the pit lane for the second race. It was perfect, a good pit stop, although we lost a few seconds to Italy, I was able to make this time up and finish second." It was again an action-packed race with the first casualty being A1 Team China when their A1 race car rolled several times after contact with Portugal on lap 2. Luckily Tengyi Jiang was soon out of the car that landed on its wheels and A1 Team Portugal was able to continue after visiting the pits for repairs. Soon after this it was India and Pakistan who collided with Armaan Ebrahim running into the back of the car driven by Adam Khan. India continued in the race although it was eventually excluded after receiving a push start from the marshals while Pakistan never made it back to the pits. Battles down the field were fast and furious with Mexico and Australia driving side by side on lap 8 while contesting 14th position. 2 teams who had an awful lot of hard work to do were A1 Teams Netherlands and Brazil who both failed to get away from the grid with the other cars. Nelson Piquet Jr was particularly lucky as cars swerved around him on the grid but he soon started to make his way up the field and scored a point for his team. Italy, USA, Canada and the Czech Republic were also doing battle and for several laps the 4 were only separated by 1.5 seconds. The pit stops came relatively late in the race with A1 Team France waiting until the end of lap 16. Until that point the order at the top had been France, Switzerland and Great Britain but of these three, only France managed a trouble-free pit stop. Theirs took just 40.5 seconds while for A1 Team GBR it was problems both getting the wheel off and putting the wheel nut on that kept them there for nearly 2 minutes. When the car lost all its drive a short while later it was all over for the British team. The Swiss stop at the end of lap 18 was 53.11 seconds. Mexico was the last of the teams to pit and therefore its top 3 position as the race drew to a close was unrepresentative. At the end of lap 28, they came in from 4th and dropped down to 16th. The other late stopper was A1 Team Netherlands with their stop at the end of lap 26 when lying in 11th place. A1 Team Canada was on for a top 6 finish but when Sean McIntosh decided to try an overtaking manoeuvre for 5th on lap 22 that was the of the end of his race as he clipped the rear of Enrico Toccacelo's Italian car and afterwards accepted total responsibility for an error in judgement. The local fans, the majority of whom were wearing A1 Team Malaysia T-shirts waved their flags enthusiastically every time Alex Yoong's bright yellow car passed them. For them, the last lap was particularly sweet as Alex came up behind A1 Team New Zealand and used all his experience to snatch 5th place, matching the team's highest finishing place so far. (レース結果) (ポイントランキング…明日参照) The 6th round of A1 Grand Prix, the World Cup of Motorsport will be held at the Dubai Autodrome on 9 - 11 December 2005.Feature Race
1 France / Alexandre Premat 30L 1:00:06.495 2 Switzerland / Neel Jani + 4.556 3 Czech Republic / Tomas Enge + 15.689 4 Italy / Enrico Toccacelo + 23.738 5 Malaysia / Alex Yoong + 31.641 6 New Zealand / Matt Halliday + 32.697 7 USA / Bryan Herta + 33.337 8 Germany / Timo Scheider + 35.381 9 Ireland / Ralph Firman + 35.745 10 Brazil / Nelson Piquet Jr + 39.388 11 Australia / Will Davison + 50.483 12 Saouth Africa / Stephen Simpson + 52.839 13 Japan / Hayanari Shimoda + 57.748 14 Indonesia / Ananda Mikola + 1:05.239 15 Mexico / Luis Diaz + 1:22.440 16 Netherlands / Jos Verstappen + 1:47.308 17 Lebanon / Khalil Beschir 29L 18 Portugal / Alvaro Parente 29L 19 Canada / Sean McIntosh 21L 20 Great Britain / Robbie Kerr 20L 21 Austria / Mathias Lauda 17L 22 India / Armaan Ebrahim 11L 23 Pakistan / Adam Khan 4L 24 China / Tengyi Jiang 1L8が幸運の数字であるマレーシアで、フランスはポールスタートで8勝目を挙げることができた。スイスはまたもや2位。そして、チェコが3位初表彰台を獲得、最高順位を更新した。
フランスはイギリスを少しずつ引き離し、スイスはイギリスと12周目まで2位を争っていた。彼らはコースの3分の1ほど、テール・トゥ・ノーズの接近戦を繰り広げた。
1位(アレクサンドレ・プリマ)コメント。訳はカット。
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3位(トーマス・エンゲ)コメント。訳はカット。
またもやアクションが入り混じったレースとなった。2周目、ポルトガルと接触した中国チームのマシンが横に数回転した。中国はリタイアしたものの、ポルトガルは再スタートし、ピットでマシンを修復した。その後すぐに、インドのマシンが後ろからパキスタンのマシンに衝突。インドはレースに復帰、パキスタンはピットへ。
8周目辺りからの14位争いのメキシコとオーストラリアの争いも白熱していた。順位が下がったブラジルやオランダも途中参加し、ブラジルは幸運にもポイントを獲得する事ができた。
イタリア、アメリカ、カナダ、チェコの4台は数周もの間バトルし、1.5秒しかその4台は離れなかった。ピットはフランスチームが16周の終わり頃に入り、フランス、スイス、イギリスのトップ3の内、フランスだけが無傷でコースに戻れた。フランスは40.5秒でコースに戻ったものの、イギリスはタイヤの着脱装置が故障、2分以上もピットに留まってしまった。スイスは18周の終わりにピットに入り、53.11秒もピットに留まった。
メキシコはトップ3に入れそうなポジションに居たが、28周目の終わりにピットイン、4位から16位に落ちた。オランダも26周目の終わりにピットイン、11位に落ちた。
カナダは6位に居たが、5位アップを目指してオーバーテイクに挑んだ。しかし、22周目の終わりにイタリアのリアにマシンが当たり、マシンのハンドリングなどが反応が悪くなって、リタイアした。
地元のファンたちはマレーシアチームのTシャツを着て応援し、アレックス・ユーンが操る黄色のマシンが通ったとき、旗が勢いよく振られていた。最終ラップにニュージーランドを抜かして5位になったが、マレーシアが優勝を目指すには、まだ遠い道のりが待っている。
A1の第6戦は、ドバイ・アウトドローモで12月9〜12日開催。
プリマは8回のブースト制限のうち、たった1回しか使用しなかったとのこと。驚きに値する。また、イギリスのドライバー、ロビー・カーはトラブル時、「半世紀もピットに居たみたいだ」と表現。(笑)
