Lapierre extends France’s A1 GP lead

Nicolas Lapierre made it six out of six for France today with another double A1 Grand Prix win, at Eastern Creek in Australia.

France dominated the weekend yet again, with Lapierre starting from pole position in race one before notching up a fifth consecutive victory in easy fashion. Portugal’s Alvaro Parente was second with Nelson Piquet Jr third for Brazil.

Lapierre made that a round half dozen when he converted pole in race two into maximum points again, giving France a 19-point lead in the championship.

Ireland’s Michael Devaney suffered a second race to forget however, after a fine fourth place in the opening contest. He struggled to 14th place, out of the points.

Robbie Kerr finally gave Great Britain a result to cheer, claiming his best result in A1GP with second place in an eventful race two.

The ex-British Formula Three champion stood on the podium for just the second time this year after a superb pass on Piquet.

Kerr, whose was fifth in race one, said: “It was a good race. From the start we got a bit of a bad start and lost a couple of places.

“The guys did a fantastic pit-stop once again but unfortunately in the second part of the race the French car had a bit more pace than us.

“Overall it’s been a great event – we’ve moved up in the championship and it’s been great fun being in Australia and getting the support from the people here.”

Yet again the second race was disrupted with safety car periods.

The Japanese team, making their return after missing the Portuguese round due to financial problems, face a race against time to be ready for the Sepang race later this month after a terrifying accident for Hayanari Shimoda.

He crashed at turn one, rolling his car before it slammed into a concrete wall, tearing it in two. Although he was conscious, Shimoda was tended to by medics for several minutes and his condition was not immediately clear.

Switzerland’s Neel Jani completed the podium in race two, continuing a strong run of form for the future Red Bull Formula One tester.

Ex-grand prix driver Jos Verstappen was fourth for Holland, with former Minardi team-mate Alex Yoong fifth and local hero Will Davison sixth.

Results for A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Eastern Creek, Australia:

Leading Positions after Sprint Race (19laps): 1 France 30mins 32.582secs, 2 Portugal at 8.699secs, 3 Brazil at 9.095, 4 Ireland at 12.485, 5 Great Britain at 17.473, 6 Switzerland at 19.984, 7 Netherlands at 24.556, 8 Malaysia at 26.836, 9 Canada at 27.886, 10 Italy at 29.820, 11 Australia at 30.426, 12 Pakistan at 38.112, 13 Russia at 39.018, 14 New Zealand at 40.064, 15 USA at 49.910, 16 China at 51.119, 17 India at 52.753

Did not finish: 18 Japan at 1 lap, 19 Austria at 1 lap, 20 Lebanon at 8 laps, 21 South Africa at 11 laps, 22 Mexico at 16 laps, 23 Germany at 16 laps, 24 Czech Republic DNS

Leading Positions after Main Race (35laps): 1 France (Nicolas Lapierre) 1hr 54.068secs, 2 Great Britain (Robbie Kerr) 1:00:56.547, 3 Switzerland (Neel Jani) 1:00:57.086, 4 Netherlands (Jos Verstappen) 1:00:57.593, 5 Malaysia (Alex Yoong) 1:00:58.955, 6 Australia (Will Davison) 1:00:59.499, 7 Portugal (Alvaro Parente) 1:01:00.070, 8 New Zealand (Jony Reid) 1:01:02.989, 9 Brazil (Nelson Angelo Piquet) 1:01:03.108, 10 USA (Bryan Herta) 1:01:03.896, 11 Pakistan (Adam Khan) 1:01:05.010, 12 Lebanon (Basil Shaaban) 1:01:07.071, 13 India (Armaan Ebrahim) 1:01:08.343, 14 Ireland (Michael Devaney) 1:01:26.140,

Did not finish: 15 Canada (Sean McIntosh) 26 Laps completed, 16 Japan (Hayanari Shimoda) 25 laps completed, 17 China (Tengyi Jiang) 22 laps completed, 18 Austria (Mathias Lauda) 17 laps completed, 19 Czech Republic (Tomas Enge) 17 laps completed, 20 Russia (Roman Rusinov) 7 laps completed, 21 Mexico (Salvador Duran) 7 laps completed, 22 Germany (Adrian Sutil) 7 laps completed, 23 Italy (Enrico Toccacelo) 6 laps completed, 24 South Africa (Stephen Simpson) 1 lap completed

Championship Standings after rd4: 1 France 71pts, 2 Brazil 52, 3 Switzerland 47, 4 New Zealand 32, 5 Great Britain 30, 6 Portugal 27, 7 Australia 26, 8 Netherlands 26, 9 Ireland 23, 10 Malaysia 23, 11 Canada 20, 12 Mexico 16, 13 Czech Republic 8, 14 Germany 8, 15 USA 8, 16 Japan 6, 17 South Africa 6, 18 Indonesia 5, 19 Italy 5, 20 Pakistan 4, 21 Austria 1.