25/09/2005 - Brazilian superstar Nelson Piquet Jr proved once and for all that A1 Grand Prix has arrived in style and is here to stay when he won the second race of the day at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit with a world-class performance.
With the world watching, Piquet Jr pulled off an astonishing move around the outside of Surtees corner to pass Australian Will Power. After that, the Brazilian ace flexed his muscles and completed a relentless series of fastest laps to pull out an unassailable lead. After three laps, he had a lead of five seconds and, by the end of the 38-lap race, it was an amazing 11.3 seconds.
If the world of motor racing, and in particular Formula 1, needed an example of the quality of driving that A1GP can produce, this was it. After getting stuck behind backmarker New Zealand and having a pit-stop that didn't quite go his way, Piquet was on a mission and it showed in his passing move.
"I was really frustrated after the pit-stop because one of the wheels didn't want to come off," explained Piquet Jr. "The team said to push hard and I caught Will. He locked up at Graham Hill Bend and I had a much better exit than him. I knew that I was catching him under braking at Surtees each lap but he went to the inside, so I took a risk and went outside. There was no-one behind me anyway, and I ended up ahead of him in the middle of the corner."
The move was just one of many exciting moments in the feature race as, while the earlier sprint race was rather uneventful, the tens of thousands of people that lined the famous Brands Hatch circuit were treated to a feature race overflowing with incident and excitement.
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The race had its first safety car period on lap 14 after a frightening incident at Paddock Hill Bend during which Italy's Enrico Toccacelo dived up the inside of Lebanese driver Khalil Beschir. The Team Lebanon man closed the door and the pair touched wheels, sending Beschir into a double barrel-roll which left him upside down in the gravel. Both drivers were alright, but it caused a five-lap safety car period during which leaders Brazil, Australia and Great Britain all pitted.
Team Great Britain squad Arden International did a fantastic job during the pit-stop, aided by Brazil's wheel drama, and got Robbie Kerr out in the lead of the race, to the obvious delight of the partisan crowd.
But, rejoining behind the safety car, disaster struck as Kerr pulled off the circuit, his battery dead. "I'm gutted for the guys because they did an awesome job in the pit stop," lamented a devastated Kerr. "I came out and we were in front. I was sitting behind the safety car getting ready for the restart and it wouldn't change gear. I lifted off the throttle and then everything had gone."
Before the pit stops, Kerr had been in a safe third place, hassling Power and looking the quicker of the two cars. He paid tribute to the 46,000 strong race day crowd that had come to support him and Team GBR. "The crowds were amazing today," he said. "Absolutely brilliant. Every time I went out I could hear the hooters around the track. They were there for us. The support was brilliant and they must be as gutted as I am. It's emotional but it's one of those things."
Kerr's demise left Power in the lead, and at the restart he signalled his intention by blasting away from the field, while the Brazilian car threaded its way past a backmarker. However, another safety car period for Russian Nikolay Vasiliev's second spin of the day at Westfield negated Power's lead.
At the second restart, the Aussie admitted that the writing was on the wall. "He was on new tyres and I was on old tyres, so I knew he would be able to catch me. I thought it was going to be hard to keep him behind for another 10 laps. I also had a lot of understeer in the race so, when he got a better exit and got alongside me, I let it be. I didn't want to brake as late as I could and put both of us in the gravel."
The final podium spot went to Team Mexico and Salvador Duran, who many would have said was punching above his weight at the start of the weekend. It was a superb result for the British Formula 3 National Class runner, who lost a bundle of time when he stalled during his pit stop.
"It was the first time in my life I had done a pit stop," he explained. "I think I got a bit too excited and misjudged the clutch and the car stopped. It was my mistake. After that, I just tried to do consistent lap times and keep the tyres cool for the last part of the race."
This was a sound strategy decision by Team Mexico, as Duran needed fresh tyres in the latter part of the race - stuck behind backmarkers Pakistan and Germany, Duran found himself backed into the chasing pack, which consisted of New Zealand, Malaysia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada.
Realising he would find it difficult to get past the two lapped cars ahead of him, Duran employed some tactics of his own, which proved similarly successful. "I started letting them get away a bit in the Indy part of the circuit so that I had some space to get away from [Team NZL driver] Matt in the second half of the lap."
New Zealand's Matt Halliday piled the pressure on, getting extremely close on occasion, but could not get past the young Mexican. Still, fourth was a fine result for the Kiwi, who had to start from the pit lane and dead last after stalling on the warm-up lap. Some stunningly quick laps from the back of the field in the first half of the race meant Halliday, who should have started third on the grid, was sixth following the pit stop period.
At the second restart, Halliday got past Malaysian Alex Yoong to get into fourth, but thereafter he also had to keep one eye on his mirrors, as the train of cars behind him grew. Sixth was another great result, this time for South Africa, which started from plum last on the grid after his last-place finish in race one.
Jos Verstappen, the only retiree from race one, made much more of an impact, also having to come from the back of the grid on his way to seventh. The old hand mixed it royally with the cars in the midfield, enjoying some great scraps.
The Dutch master was followed home by Japanese Ryo Fukuda (who also stalled in the pits) and Canadian Sean McIntosh, who both had eventful but solid runs amidst the mid-race chaos.
The lapped Team Germany car rounded out the top 10, Timo Scheider being handed a drive through penalty for having one too many team members over the white line during his pit stop. Before that, he was hounding the Malaysian car in seventh.
Mathias Lauda was 11th in the Team Austria car, although Niki Lauda's son already had a black mark against his name for holding up Team Pakistan driver Adam Khan, who at that point was trying to escape from Verstappen in a fine fourth.
Twelfth was a super result for Team China, whose young and inexperienced driver Jiang Teng Yi admits he does not have the speed or race craft of his rivals, but a consistent and steady run was rightly rewarded despite some problems in the pits, when his crew lowered his car before one of its wheels had been attached.
Team Pakistan also suffered very badly in the pits, Khan's car stuck in its pit box for what seemed an eternity when a wheel stuck. By the time he had emerged, all his hard work at the sharp end had been negated, and he was black-flagged for holding up Scheider.
Of several retirements, there were a few notable ones Portugal pulled up on lap two with mechanical problems, Switzerland and Ireland clashed heavily at Graham Hill Bend on the opening lap, Indonesia went off on the same lap at Paddock Hill Bend and Czech Republic spun out at Clearways. But Team USA had the worst luck of all. The nightmare that started during qualifying continued, with countless visits to the pits ending in retirement after 14 laps.
France, second on the grid, and India both stalled on the grid and did not start.
Feature race results
1 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 55m01.910s
2 Australia Will Power 55m13.240s
3 Mexico Salvador Duran 55m25.035s
4 New Zealand Matt Halliday 55m25.615s
5 Malaysia Alex Yoong 55m26.262s
6 South Africa Stephen Simpson 55m26.762s
7 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 55m27.540s
8 Japan Ryo Fukuda 55m28.129s
9 Canada Sean McIntosh 55m29.089s
10 Germany Timo Scheider 55m22.964s +1 lap
11 Austria Mathias Lauda 55m48.058s +1 lap
12 China Jiang Teng Yi 55m48.370s +1 lap
13 Pakistan Adam Khan 55m24.079s +3 laps
14 Czech Republic Jan Charouz 37m04.566s +14 laps
15 Russia Alexei Vasiliev 28m03.648s +20 laps
16 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 23m33.010s +21 laps
17 USA Scott Speed 42m49.840s +24 laps
18 Lebanon Khalil Beschir 18m03.599s +25 laps
19 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 18m03.801s +25 laps
20 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1m25.316s +37 laps
21 Switzerland Neel Jani 1m41.197s +37 laps
22 Ireland Michael Devaney +38 laps
23 Indonesia Ananda Mikola +38 laps
Not started
France Alex Premat
India Karun Chandhok
 Current Standings | | POS | Team | Points | | 1 | Brazil | 21 | | 2 | Austrailia | 16 | | 3 | New Zealand | 15 | | 4 | Mexico | 13 | | 5 | France | 9 | | 6 | Great Britain | 6 | | 7 | Malaysia | 6 | | 8 | South Africa | 5 | | 9 | Netherland | 4 | | 10 | Pakistan | 4 |
Pictures by: Gary Hawkins and Sky Sports
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