Mexico take the double in Laguna
Team Mexico doubled their A1 delight with victory in the feature race in Laguna Seca, just hours after taking their first ever A1 win in the sprint race
Salvador Duran got lucky when dominant race leader Nicolas Lapierre hit gearbox trouble in the dying laps, but once again it was a faultless performance from the 20-year-old Mexican.
Mexico and Brazil took a gamble at the start by bolting on slicks despite the damp track. This cost Duran at the start, and the French car sprinted into an early lead.
France brought their man in for his mandatory stop - and a switch to slicks - at the first opportunity, and when Duran made his stop two laps later, there was a race for the lead in the pits.
Lapierre emerged just ahead and went on to pull out a nine-second lead, while Duran battled with the none-stopping Team Lebanon car of Graham Rahal.
In the end, the young American spun, causing the inevitable safety car period, and Lapierre's lead evaporated. But he sprinted away at the restart and was coasting to his seventh A1 win when gearbox problems hit.
This handed victory to Duran, while second place went to Germany after a great pitstop by the Super Nova crew. Duran had to work hard for it, though, and was pushed all the way by Team Great Britain's Robbie Kerr.
Portugal took fourth, Canada fifth and Ireland sixth. Despite a quick spin, Max Papis took seventh for Italy, while Ryan Briscoe did well to avoid the spinning Tomas Enge on his way to a hard-fought eighth.
Team Austria and Team Malaysia took the final points positions in an exciting, action-filled race.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Salvador Duran Mexico 1h00:52.974 2. Timo Scheider Germany + 2.042 3. Robbie Kerr Great Britain + 3.117 4. Alvaro Parente Portugal + 10.420 5. Patrick Carpentier Canada + 14.183 6. Ralph Firman Ireland + 20.805 7. Max Papis Italy + 23.199 8. Ryan Briscoe Australia + 24.236 9. Mathias Lauda Austria + 29.229 10. Alex Yoong Malaysia + 30.072 11. Adam Khan Pakistan + 31.391 12. Matt Halliday New Zealand + 31.977 13. Giorgio Mondini Switzerland + 2 Laps 14. Nicolas Lapierre France + 3 Laps 15. Bryan Herta USA + 3 Laps 16. Tomas Enge Czech Republic + 6 Laps 17. Tengyi Jiang China + 7 Laps 18. Christian Fittipaldi Brazil + 11 Laps 19. Ananda Mikola Indonesia + 12 Laps 20. Graham Rahal Lebanon + 13 Laps 21. Jos Verstappen Netherlands + 23 Laps 22. Stephen Simpson South Africa + 37 Laps Fastest lap: Lapierre, 1:17.951, on lap 27 Championship standing: 1. France 163 (title secured) 2. Switzerland 121 3. Great Britain 88 4. Brazil 70 5. Netherlands 69 6. New Zealand 67 7. Portugal 66 8. Ireland 61 9. Canada 55 10. Malaysia 54 11. Mexico 48 12. Italy 44 13. Australia 41 14. Czech Republic 41 15. Germany 38 16. USA 22 17. South Africa 20 18. Austria 14 19. Indonesia 10 20. Japan 8 21. China 6 22. Pakistan 4
Share Or Save This Story
Ferrari is down on power "even to Ford", says Leclerc
Super Formula announces extra Fuji race as Autopolis replacement
How McLaren’s early years set the team on the path to success
Alonso: “I am the best, I don't need to prove anything”
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments