Jarvis grabs opening A1 win

Oliver Jarvis gave Great Britain a winning start to the A1GP season with victory in the feature race in Holland.

Jarvis quickly displaced South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg from the lead of the 45-lap race before pulling clear at Zandvoort.

By the time of the second pit stop Jarvis had extended his lead and a clean stop enabled him to finish almost six seconds clear of Zaugg by the end of the race, having slowed down considerably on the final lap.

A delighted Jarvis said: “That’s the start to the year I was anticipating before we came here. It was a fantastic race – though very tough physically and mentally.

“The team made all the right pit stop calls – we pitted as soon as the first pit stop window opened and then pushed hard to close the gap and try to jump South Africa which we achieved.”

Jarvis added: “It’s a special win for me with my whole family here, but for the team it’s a great start to the season.”

Zaugg, who had earlier won the sprint race as Jarvis could only finish seventh, leads the championship standings with 28 points.

Jarvis’ feature race win leaves his team second in the points standings on 19 points, one ahead of France.

Ireland lie seventh on eight points thanks to Ralph Firman’s eighth and sixth place finishes in the sprint and feature races respectively.

South Africa dominated the sprint race from start to finish, with Zaugg joined on the podium by France’s Loic Duval and Holland’s Jeroen Bleekemolen.

Zaugg pulled away for a comfortable win ahead of Duval who held off the late challenge from Bleekemolen who had passed both Switzerland’s Neel Jani and Mexico’s Salvador Duran to claim the final podium spot.

Jarvis claimed seventh spot from Firman but his bid to oust Germany’s Christian Vietoris from sixth proved in vain.