A1GP

Lausitz: Sean McIntosh race report

McIntosh celebrates Thanksgiving with Team Canada Podium Lausitz, Germany (October 09, 2005) -- As Canada gears up to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, Vancouver's Sean McIntosh put in a barnstormer of a performance today at Germany's ...

Published: Oct 10, 2005, 3:07 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

McIntosh celebrates Thanksgiving with Team Canada Podium

Lausitz, Germany (October 09, 2005) -- As Canada gears up to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, Vancouver's Sean McIntosh put in a barnstormer of a performance today at Germany's EuroSpeedway to celebrate Team Canada's first podium finish in just the second round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix Series.

The 20-year-old's third place finish in today's hour-long feature race, together with his seventh place performance in the earlier sprint race, has launched Team Canada up to eighth overall in the point standings from a total of 25 countries competing in 'The World Cup of Motorsport'.

A top ten regular throughout Friday's practice sessions on the 4.53km EuroSpeedway in Lausitz, Sean's rapid education behind the wheel of Team Canada's 520bhp V8-powered Lola-Zytek was beginning to pay dividends. While unfortunate to miss out on a top ten starting slot through Saturday's aggregate qualifying sessions, 13th on the grid for today's 18-lap sprint race was a satisfactory outcome given both Sean and the team's last-minute entry into the A1 Grand Prix Series last month.

The sprint race's rolling start saw Sean caught mid-pack on the charge to the first turn but some mature driving from the Team Canada pilot ensured he stayed on-track while some of his rivals over-committed. Straight into the top ten Sean quickly picked up two more positions as Team USA's Scott Speed and Team Great Britain's Robbie Kerr clashed over the same piece of tarmac.

>From there Sean hooked up to the rear-wing of Alex Yoong in the Team Malaysia entry but the former F1 racer defended his line and position aggressively despite having the slower of the two cars. At the end of the sprint McIntosh took the checkered flag seventh overall collecting four more points to add to the two he scored on his A1 debut at Brands Hatch two weeks ago.

More importantly Sean's seventh place finish translated into a seventh place grid slot for this afternoon's hour-long feature race, complete with standing start and mandatory pit-stop.

An early pit-stop proved to be the key to Team Canada's feature success as Sean pitted just a handful of laps into the 35-lap run. Having dropped a couple of places at the start and faced with the danger of being held up, the pit-stop enabled Sean to get back out onto a clear race track and bang out some fast lap times with fresh rubber beneath him.

While the move initially dropped him down the running order, Sean picked off places as his rivals pitted later in the race. Before long he moved into the top ten and he gradually climbed his way to an impressive third overall.

A safety car period with 13-laps remaining bunched the field back up and when racing resumed Sean had to fend-off some serious podium advances from Jonny Reid driving for Team New Zealand. Belying his lack of experience in an A1 car, Sean simply soaked up the pressure in third despite Reid's constant challenge on a fresher set of tires.

At the head of the pack Team France's Nicholas Lapierre collected his second victory of the day following similar domination in the sprint race. Robbie Kerr took second place for Team Great Britain three seconds back with Sean sealing the third and final place on the podium, and the first for Team Canada, just over a second and a half behind the Englishman.

Reflecting on a successful day and his second appearance racing for Team Canada Sean remarked:

"I'm delighted to have scored Canada's first podium finish in A1 Grand Prix competition. We were aiming for another top ten in today's feature race so to come away with a top three finish is a great feeling. I have to say the team did a great job in the pits, the call to come in early was absolutely spot on and their pit work was phenomenal!

"No sooner had I come in then, 'boom', I was gone again! From there I was pretty much out on my own, enjoying the clean air and able to bang out some solid lap times. I used up my tires quite a bit which really allowed Team New Zealand to attack at the end as they pitted for rubber later in the race but I hung on for the podium. It's a great result, we're constantly learning and now we can take the confidence from Germany and build on it next time out in Portugal."

The Portuguese circuit of Estoril hosts the third round of the A1 Grand Prix Series in two weeks time, 21st-23rd October.

-www.seanmcintosh.com

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Lausitz: Sprint race report

Next article Lausitz: Team Malaysia race report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

2 h

Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction

William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

2 h

William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix

Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 3 h

Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring

Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

3 h

Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season

Subscribe and access Motorsport.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.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts