2006-07 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Beijing, China

The 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, China was an A1 Grand Prix race, held on November 12, 2006 at Beijing International Streetcircuit, Beijing, China. It was the third race in the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season and the first ever meeting held at the circuit. __FORCETOC__

Report

Practice

The first day of practice was canceled because of safety concerns, specifically a very tight hairpin. A revised track layout was devised for extended Saturday practice session

Qualifying

The field was set by morning practice times, giving The Netherlands' driver Jeroen Bleekemolen pole position for the Sprint race.

Sprint race

The width of the track was also an issue in the Sprint race, as South Africa's Adrian Zaugg spun and stalled his car, blocking half of the track. The safety car was deployed, as a flatbed truck came to remove the stricken vehicle and blocked the entire track, halting the remaining cars.

With more than half the race under the safety car, Jeroen Bleekemolen won the race for The Netherlands, with Salvador Durán of Mexico and A1 Team Italy's Enrico Toccacelo in second and third.

Main race

Results

Qualification

Qualification was cancelled due to track problems. Accordingly, the grid was set from the times set in the 25 minutes of the morning practice session (Practice 3) before it was red-flagged, under article 144 of the Sporting Regulations.

0.490

0.849

1.010

1.182

1.213

1.268

1.311

1.462

1.618

2.717

2.759

2.823

2.906

3.182

4.153

5.804

5.945

5.963

6.296

9.569

10.170

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Quickest Time	Gap
1	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	16	1:00.093	--
2	Mexico	Salvador Durán	11	1:00.583	align="right"
3	Italy	Enrico Toccacelo	14	1:00.942	align="right"
4	Canada	James Hinchcliffe	11	1:01.103	align="right"
5	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	11	1:01.275	align="right"
6	Brazil	Raphael Matos	18	1:01.306	align="right"
7	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	11	1:01.361	align="right"
8	Great Britain	Oliver Jarvis	19	1:01.404	align="right"
9	Czech Republic	Tomáš Enge	21	1:01.555	align="right"
10	Switzerland	Neel Jani	11	1:01.711	align="right"
11	Ireland	Michael Devaney	12	1:02.810	align="right"
12	New Zealand	Matt Halliday	11	1:02.852	align="right"
13	USA	Philip Giebler	11	1:02.916	align="right"
14	Australia	Karl Reindler	10	1:02.999	align="right"
15	China	Congfu Chen	16	1:03.275	align="right"
16	Malaysia	Alex Yoong	8	1:04.246	align="right"
17	Singapore	Christian Murchison	6	1:05.897	align="right"
18	Indonesia	Ananda Mikola	9	1:06.038	align="right"
19	India	Armaan Ebrahim	14	1:06.056	align="right"
20	Lebanon	Basil Shaaban	14	1:06.389	align="right"
21	France	Nicolas Lapierre	3	1:09.662	align="right"
22	Pakistan	Nur B. Ali	13	1:10.263	align="right"

Sprint Race Results

The Sprint Race took place on Sunday, November 12, 2006.

1.464

2.311

3.375

3.943

4.400

7.377

8.397

8.849

9.265

10.422

11.920

13.216

17.027

18.479

20.659

20.802

22.253

22.783

23.247

47.541

13 laps

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	15	20'28.420	6
2	Mexico	Salvador Durán	15	align="right"
5
3	Italy	Enrico Toccacelo	15	align="right"
4
4	Canada	James Hinchcliffe	15	align="right"
3
5	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	15	align="right"
2
6	Brazil	Raphael Matos	15	align="right"
1
7	Great Britain	Oliver Jarvis	15	align="right"
8	Czech Republic	Tomáš Enge	15	align="right"
9	Switzerland	Neel Jani	15	align="right"
10	New Zealand	Matt Halliday	15	align="right"
11	USA	Philip Giebler	15	align="right"
12	Australia	Karl Reindler	15	align="right"
13	China	Congfu Cheng	15	align="right"
14	Malaysia	Alex Yoong	15	align="right"
15	Indonesia	Ananda Mikola	15	align="right"
16	Singapore	Christian Murchison	15	align="right"
17	France	Nicolas Lapierre	15	align="right"
18	India	Armaan Ebrahim	15	align="right"
19	Lebanon	Basil Shaaban	15	align="right"
20	Ireland	Michael Devaney	15	align="right"
21	Pakistan	Nur B. Ali	15	align="right"
22	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	2	align="right"

Feature Race Results

The Feature Race took place on Sunday, November 12, 2006

4.508

5.917

12.900

13.278

13.684

14.839

16.486

17.005

1 Lap

1 Lap

2 Laps

2 Laps

10 Laps

10 Laps

27 Laps

35 Laps

42 Laps

43 Laps

49 Laps

60 Laps

62 Laps

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Italy	Enrico Toccacelo	63	1.10.15.919	10
2	Great Britain	Oliver Jarvis	63	align="right"
9
3	Australia	Karl Reindler	63	align="right"
8
4	France	Nicolas Lapierre	63	align="right"
7
5	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	63	align="right"
6
6	Czech Republic	Tomáš Enge	63	align="right"
5
7	Brazil	Raphael Matos	63	align="right"
4
8	Singapore	Christian Murchison	63	align="right"
3
9	New Zealand	Matt Halliday	63	align="right"
2
10	Canada	James Hinchcliffe	62	align="right"
1
11	India	Armaan Ebrahim	62	align="right"
12	Malaysia	Alex Yoong	61	align="right"
13	Lebanon	Basil Shaaban	61	align="right"
14	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	53	align="right"
15	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	53	align="right"
16	Indonesia	Ananda Mikola	36	align="right"
17	China	Congfu Cheng	28	align="right"
18	USA	Philip Giebler	21	align="right"
19	Switzerland	Neel Jani	20	align="right"
20	Mexico	Salvador Durán	14	align="right"
21	Ireland	Michael Devaney	3	align="right"
22	Pakistan	Nur B. Ali	1	align="right"

A1GP Beijing

The first Chinese round of the 2006/07 A1GP took place on the streets of Beijing. However, due to various safety concerns, the circuit was shortened, races started behind the safety car, and the Sprint Race was run mostly behind the safety car, as noted above. These incidents led to questions about the management and organization of both the event and A1GP in general.

Similar problems in China

Similar problems have occurred before in China. The 2004 DTM race around the streets of Pudong in Shanghai was hampered by crashes due to manhole covers becoming undone; the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix on the Shanghai International Circuit was interrupted when the safety car had to be deployed when a water runoff drain became open. The same problem also occurred in the Australian V8 Supercars race on the same circuit a few months before.

References