[Xoomie]

MALAYSIA SECURE DOUBLE VICTORY IN BRNO

A1 Team Malaysia secured a double victory today in Brno as Alex Yoong
added the Feature race spoils to his Sprint race win. A1 Team Czech
Republic’s Tomas Enge clinched second position, with Mexican Salvador
Duran completing the podium in third.

Malaysian Yoong started the race from pole position, however a lightning
start from A1 Team Canada dropped him back to second after the first
corner. Rookie James Hinchcliffe belied his relative lack of A1GP
experience as he pulled out a five second gap over the next 15 laps.
Yoong however kept in touch and was finally able to seize his chance on
lap 32 when Hinchcliffe ran slightly wide through turn eight. As
Hinchcliffe was pitched into a spin, Yoong powered up the inside to
snatch the lead. Yoong credited his Canadian rookie rival, “James
defended quite hard but he was fair. I had a four second gap to him after
the pit stop and I knew he was about two tenths of a second per lap
faster, so the most important thing was to keep in touch and see what
happened. When he ran wide I got through and took the lead. I’m really
happy with the weekend’s results, the team did a great job for both
races.”

Hinchcliffe was able to rejoin after his spin, but with dirty tyres he
was soon caught by the chasing cars of Czech Enge and Mexican Duran and
dropped to fourth. Germany’s Nico Hülkenberg similarly saw his
opportunity and squeezed past the Canadian into fourth. Hinchcliffe kept
his composure to hold fifth until the flag despite heavy pressure from A1
Team Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr and New Zealand’s Jonny Reid.

The 28,000 Czech fans that had crowded into the natural amphitheatre
surrounding the Brno circuit were delighted to see Tomas Enge secure the
Czech team’s first podium finish of the season. Thanks to a slick tyre
change on lap nine, the Czech was able to squeeze past Duran when the
Mexican pitted two laps later. Duran pushed Enge hard to regain position,
but the Brno specialist kept his line until the finish. “It was a strong
performance,” Enge said, “I had to get used to the car again after so
long away, I had to get used to a new engineer, but everyone did a great
job and I’m really happy with the result. I don’t know if I’ll celebrate
too much tonight though – it’s been a tough week!”

Duran enjoyed his battle with the Czech ace, “I followed Tomas all the
way, the team did a great pit stop and it was so close when I came out
the pit lane, but we were just a little too late and lost the position.
We had a strong weekend though, the car was very demanding but it was
awesome.”

A1 Team Germany retained their championship lead, thanks to 19-year-old
Hülkenberg’s charge up the field to fourth position from 16th on the
grid. The German rookie flew off the line to ninth after the first corner
and pushed ahead of Great Britain into eighth on lap 14. An error by A1
Team China’s Congfu Cheng on the following lap allowed both Germany and
Great Britain into fifth and sixth respectively and able to captialise on
Hinchcliffe’s misfortune in the latter stages of the race.

Great Britain, New Zealand and China completed the top eight, however a
notable absence from the top ten were defending 2005/06 A1GP champions
France whose challenging weekend continued when Nicolas Lapierre retired
on the first lap with engine troubles.

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport now takes a four-week break before
returning to action on a circuit around the streets of Beijing, China
from 10-12 November. Tickets for the Beijing race are now available on
www.a1gp.com.

A1 Grand Prix Media
08 Oct 2006

[Xoomie]

Congrats to Alex who did a marvelous job for A1 Team Malaysia.
He did a daring overtaking on James Hinchcliffe of Team Canada who ran
wide and eventually spun out after both of them touched !!!

This puts Team Malaysia 3rd in the standings.

[haikal1205]

good job....malaysia must target to win more..

[Connor]

Good, team Malaysia reaaly DID it. I knew it is going to happen some day.
Looks like Proton's decision to sponsor them did not go to waste.

[ashabmy]

Well done Alex & A1 Team M'sia!
Wish to hear more frequent "Negaraku" song on the podium

[Xoomie]

Hopefully Alex will do well in the coming Chinese A1GP