Brazil Wins First A1 GP Race
Nelson Piquet Jr dominated the maiden A1 Grand Prix sprint race at Brands Hatch for Team Brazil
Piquet Jr took the lead at the rolling start and was never headed, beating the French car of Alexandre Premat by 2.440 seconds.
Premat, who started third on the grid, moved on the inside of Matt Halliday's New Zealand car the first time through Paddock Hill Bend and was able to hold Halliday off throughout the 18 laps.
Premat did set the fastest lap of the race, however, and like Piquet takes 10 points away from the race for his country.
Halliday had an eight-second gap back to the fourth placed car of Team Australia, with Will Power beating Great Britain's Robbie Kerr to fourth.
The only major incident of the race came on the opening lap. Former Formula One driver Jos Verstappen finished last in the Dutch car after a first lap accident with the South African car of Stephen Simpson.
As the grid for this afternoon's feature race is decided by the finishing order of the sprint race, Verstappen will start last.
Verstappen said: "The first and second corners went ok, but in the third turn, somebody came into me and broke some of my rear. There was nothing you can do when somebody does that. I have to start at the back for the second race, so that race is gone as well."
CLASSIFIED: Pos Team Time 1. Brazil 23:15.682 2. France + 2.440 3. New Zealand + 2.899 4. Australia + 11.457 5. Great Britain + 12.797 6. Mexico + 17.273 7. Pakistan + 18.032 8. Portugal + 18.189 9. Switzerland + 20.851 10. Ireland + 21.056 11. Usa + 23.866 12. Japan + 25.192 13. Malaysia + 25.351 14. Germany + 25.905 15. India + 27.793 16. Italy + 35.521 17. Indonesia + 40.333 18. Czech Republic + 40.346 19. Canada + 42.621 20. Austria + 55.293 21. China + 58.194 22. Lebanon + 59.092 23. Russia + 1 Lap 24. South Africa + 1 Lap NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Team On Lap Netherlands 1 Fastest lap: France, 1:17.143 on lap 7
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| Series | General |
| Author | Tim Redmayne |
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