Carroll wins Taupo sprint race

Carroll pulled out an early gap, but was pegged back by Team Netherlands' Robert Doornbos as the race entered the pitstop window.

The Ireland team opted to stop first with Netherlands coming a lap later, and the combination of a quicker in-lap by Doornbos and some slick pitwork by the Netherlands crew could have resulted in a change in the lead.

But that was undone when Doornbos was delayed while exiting his pit bay, which not only allowed Carroll to retain his lead, but also gave Switzerland's Neel Jani the chance to jump up to second.

The Swiss team held the spot to the end, claiming its first podium in New Zealand, leaving the Netherlands to settle for third.

Team France's Loic Duval was fourth ahead of Team New Zealand's Chris van der Drift, who recovered well after a mistake on the first lap cost him a couple of places.

Filipe Albuquerque was sixth, another victim of delays in the tight pitlane after having run third in the opening stint, with Italy's Edoardo Piscopo and Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy completing the points.

For the first time, A1GP opted for a standing start for the Sprint race due to problems in previous years caused by the short run between the start line and the first corner.

The plan worked - everyone made it through the first turn in one piece - although Team Australia and Team Lebanon later dropped out of the race with suspension problems, while Team China's late spin into the gravel made Congfu Cheng the only other retirement.

Pos  Driver            Team           Time
 1.  Adam Carroll      Ireland        19:40.271
 2.  Neel Jani         Switzerland    +   1.488
 3.  Robert Doornbos   Netherlands    +   3.559
 4.  Loic Duval        France         +   8.594
 5.  C.van der Drift   New Zealand    +  11.666
 6.  F.Albuquerque     Portugal       +  12.665
 7.  Edoardo Piscopo   Italy          +  14.959
 8.  Fairuz Fauzy      Malaysia       +  15.797
 9.  N.Karthikeyan     India          +  20.973
10.  Adrian Zaugg      South Africa   +  22.030
11.  Clivio Piccione   Monaco         +  24.281
12.  Marco Andretti    USA            +  30.565
13.  Dan Clarke        Great Britain  +  31.005
14.  Satrio Hermanto   Indonesia      +  32.361
15.  Felipe Guimaraes  Brazil         +  33.134
16.  Salvador Duran    Mexico         +  40.601
17.  Cheng Cong Fu     China          +  4 Laps
18.  Daniel Morad      Lebanon        +  7 Laps
19.  John Martin       Australia      + 10 Laps

Fastest lap: Jani, 1'15.021 on lap 10