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

2006-07 A1GP of China
Race Details
Race 3 of 11 in the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season.
Date November 12, 2006
Location Beijing International Streetcircuit
Beijing, China
Weather Dry
Qualifying
Pole The Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
Time 1:00.093 (no pole time1, no pole time2)
Sprint Race
1st The Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
2nd Mexico (Salvador Durán)
3rd Italy (Enrico Toccacelo)
Main Race
1st Italy (Enrico Toccacelo)
2nd Great Britain (Oliver Jarvis)
3rd Australia (Karl Reindler)
Fast Lap
FL Canada (James Hinchcliffe)
Time 58.107, (Lap 39 of Feature Race)
Official Classifications

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.

Contents

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.[1]

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.

Pos Team Driver Laps Quickest Time Gap
1 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 16 1:00.093 --
2 Mexico Salvador Durán 11 1:00.583 + 0.490
3 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 14 1:00.942 + 0.849
4 Canada James Hinchcliffe 11 1:01.103 + 1.010
5 Germany Nico Hülkenberg 11 1:01.275 + 1.182
6 Brazil Raphael Matos 18 1:01.306 + 1.213
7 South Africa Adrian Zaugg 11 1:01.361 + 1.268
8 Great Britain Oliver Jarvis 19 1:01.404 + 1.311
9 Czech Republic Tomáš Enge 21 1:01.555 + 1.462
10 Switzerland Neel Jani 11 1:01.711 + 1.618
11 Ireland Michael Devaney 12 1:02.810 + 2.717
12 New Zealand Matt Halliday 11 1:02.852 + 2.759
13 USA Philip Giebler 11 1:02.916 + 2.823
14 Australia Karl Reindler 10 1:02.999 + 2.906
15 China Congfu Cheng 16 1:03.275 + 3.182
16 Malaysia Alex Yoong 8 1:04.246 + 4.153
17 Singapore Christian Murchison 6 1:05.897 + 5.804
18 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 9 1:06.038 + 5.945
19 India Armaan Ebrahim 14 1:06.056 + 5.963
20 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 14 1:06.389 + 6.296
21 France Nicolas Lapierre 3 1:09.662 + 9.569
22 Pakistan Nur B. Ali 13 1:10.263 + 10.170

Sprint Race Results

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

Pos Team Driver Laps Time Points
1 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 15 20'28.420 6
2 Mexico Salvador Durán 15 + 1.464 5
3 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 15 + 2.311 4
4 Canada James Hinchcliffe 15 + 3.375 3
5 Germany Nico Hülkenberg 15 + 3.943 2
6 Brazil Raphael Matos 15 + 4.400 1
7 Great Britain Oliver Jarvis 15 + 7.377
8 Czech Republic Tomáš Enge 15 + 8.397
9 Switzerland Neel Jani 15 + 8.849
10 New Zealand Matt Halliday 15 + 9.265
11 USA Philip Giebler 15 + 10.422
12 Australia Karl Reindler 15 + 11.920
13 China Congfu Cheng 15 + 13.216
14 Malaysia Alex Yoong 15 + 17.027
15 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 15 + 18.479
16 Singapore Christian Murchison 15 + 20.659
17 France Nicolas Lapierre 15 + 20.802
18 India Armaan Ebrahim 15 + 22.253
19 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 15 + 22.783
20 Ireland Michael Devaney 15 + 23.247
21 Pakistan Nur B. Ali 15 + 47.541
22 South Africa Adrian Zaugg 2 + 13 laps

Feature Race Results

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

Pos Team Driver Laps Time Points
1 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 63 1.10.15.919 10
2 Great Britain Oliver Jarvis 63 + 4.508 9
3 Australia Karl Reindler 63 + 5.917 8
4 France Nicolas Lapierre 63 + 12.900 7
5 South Africa Adrian Zaugg 63 + 13.278 6
6 Czech Republic Tomáš Enge 63 + 13.684 5
7 Brazil Raphael Matos 63 + 14.839 4
8 Singapore Christian Murchison 63 + 16.486 3
9 New Zealand Matt Halliday 63 + 17.005 2
10 Canada James Hinchcliffe 62 + 1 Lap 1
11 India Armaan Ebrahim 62 + 1 Lap
12 Malaysia Alex Yoong 61 + 2 Laps
13 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 61 + 2 Laps
14 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 53 + 10 Laps
15 Germany Nico Hülkenberg 53 + 10 Laps
16 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 36 + 27 Laps
17 China Congfu Cheng 28 + 35 Laps
18 USA Philip Giebler 21 + 42 Laps
19 Switzerland Neel Jani 20 + 43 Laps
20 Mexico Salvador Durán 14 + 49 Laps
21 Ireland Michael Devaney 3 + 60 Laps
22 Pakistan Nur B. Ali 1 + 62 Laps

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


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2006–07 A1GP, Czech Rep.
A1 Grand Prix
2006-07 season
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2006-07 A1GP, Malaysia