Eastern Creek: Team Germany race report

A1 Team Germany retains chances in title fight

As the title defender, Willi Weber's A1 Team Germany remains one of the five most promising candidates in the fight for the title in the 2007/2008 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport even after the difficult sixth race weekend in Australia. At the Eastern Creek circuit near Sydney driver Michael Ammermuller improved from two mid-field grid positions in the sprint race by three, and in the main race by five positions, thus collecting twelve valuable points.

In the sprint race the squad managed a good tactical and driving performance in extremely difficult conditions. Having started from seventh place, 21-year-old Michael Ammermuller from Pocking was in no way disconcerted by the rain that set in on the eighth of 14 race laps. Whereas several rivals went off the track and some decided to change to rain tyres, Ammermuller at the wheel of the 550-hp A1GP racing car did not bow to the pressure, stuck to slicks and finished in fourth place.

In the main race the team showed its strongest performance in the rain straight from the beginning: after starting from twelfth place, Ammermuller improved as early as on the first lap to seventh position. During the mandatory pit stop on lap ten the team lost a few seconds when a power wrench was dropped and an air hose came off. A jammed wheelnut during the second stop later cost the squad a few more seconds. In the end A1 Team Germany clinched seventh place, thus retaining its chances in the championship.

Behind the three front runners in the standings, who are separated by only three points, the nation teams from South Africa and Germany on places four and five, as the vanguard chasing the top, continue to have good title chances with four race weekends to go and a potential of scoring up to 32 points per event.

Michael Ammermuller:
"That was definitely not our best weekend. I'm happy that we still managed to collect quite a few points and were able to keep our position on the heels of the front runners. In the sprint race when the rain set in the team asked me by radio whether I wanted to continue running on slicks. I did, and it paid off although the conditions were pretty difficult. In the main race, which began very well for us with a nice start, we consistently used wets. Unfortunately, the team's two stops were not as efficient as usual. Our biggest mistake, no doubt, was choosing used wets instead of new tyres for the second tyre change. They were simply too slow and probably cost us some places as well. Up to fourth gear, I was struggling with spinning wheels. We'll take this as a lesson for the future."

Willi Weber:
"After two victorious weekends our expectations were high. All the more unfortunate is the fact that in Australia we forfeited many opportunities for good results as early as in qualifying. With his performances in the rain, Michael contained the damage. In terms of points and places, this was still our third-best of the six race weekends this season. Nevertheless, we could have achieved a lot more, as the favourites running in front of us in the standings had to settle for modest results in at least one race in Australia. So we could have clearly reduced our gap to the top this weekend, but didn't manage to do so. At least there are still four events to go in which we'll have to improve again. The championship is full of suspense, its outcome remains completely open."

-credit: team germany