A1GP

Portimao: Robert Doornbos Sunday notes

Doornbos wins Algarve sprint race Robert Doornbos celebrates Algarve A1GP victory Robert Doornbos cruised to victory in the A1GP sprint race at the Algarve circuit. The Team Netherlands driver out-dragged polesitter Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:50 PM

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Doornbos wins Algarve sprint race

Robert Doornbos celebrates Algarve A1GP victory Robert Doornbos cruised to victory in the A1GP sprint race at the Algarve circuit.

The Team Netherlands driver out-dragged polesitter Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) into the first corner and was never seriously challenged after that.

Liuzzi could not match his qualifying pace in the race, and as he held up the chasing pack, Doornbos built up a lead that kept him comfortably ahead during the pitstop phase.

Both Ireland's Adam Carroll and Portuguese favourite Filipe Albuquerque jumped ahead of the Team Italy car during the stops, and they claimed the other podium slots. On a clear track and on fresh tyres, Carroll set the fastest lap to boost Team Ireland's title chances.

Liuzzi came home fourth, ahead of Team Monaco's Clivio Piccione and India's Narain Karthikeyan, who had an entertaining dice for fifth.

The race was cut short following a bizarre accident involving Team Brazil's Felipe Guimaraes and Adrian Zaugg's South Africa car.

Zaugg was running two laps down after suffering a technical problem at the start, and as Guimaraes, who was running seventh, was coming up to lap him the Brazilian appeared to misjudge the width of his car and sideswiped the South African, causing severe damage to both machines.

Neel Jani charged up to eighth from last on the grid, but the Swiss team did not get its point as Jani was adjudged to have stopped outside the pit window.

The race was red-flagged before he had taken his stop and go, so a time penalty was applied. This promoted Fairy Fauzy and Team Malaysia to eighth.

Jani wins spectacular feature race

Neel Jani celebrates Algarve A1GP victory Neel Jani claimed feature race honours for Team Switzerland in an action-packed A1GP outing at the Algarve circuit.

The defending champion benefited from polesitter Robert Doornbos's Team Netherlands car suffering from an electrical fire on the formation lap, and Team Ireland's Adam Carroll picking up a drive-through penalty for jumping the start.

But Jani still had to fend off a determined charge from Team Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque, passing the local hero during the second round of pitstops, while a fired-up Carroll made a race of it in the final laps closing to finish less than a car's length behind at the flag.

Carroll was able to get back to the front following two safety car periods and great pitwork by the Irish squad. He also set the fastest lap and will go into the next round at Brands Hatch at the head of the points.

Albuquerque faded to third after a slow final stop, while Fairuz Fauzy took fourth for Malaysia. Team Mexico led for a handful of laps during the stops and took fifth with Salvador Duran, ahead of Team France's Nicolas Prost and Team GB's Dan Clarke who both benefitted from several accidents during the race.

New Zealand's Earl Bamber and South Africa's Adrian Zaugg were battling on the fringes of the top six when Bamber locked up and clouted the back of Zaugg's car, putting both out of the race.

Shortly afterwards, Vitantonio Liuzzi, who was in the hunt for a podium finish for Italy, tangled with Team USA's Marco Andretti. Both were eliminated and Team Monaco's Clivio Piccione was also taken out in the incident.

Robert will arrive to Los Angeles on Tuesday to compete for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing in their 26th consecutive entry in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

-credit: nhlr

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