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Back to back wins for Yoong and Malaysia


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#1
khimfoh

Posted 09 October 2006 - 10:17 AM

khimfoh

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http://f1.racing-liv...008163141.shtml

Alex Yoong made it back to back victories today in Brno after a race-long
battle with Canadian James Hinchcliffe. Starting from the Pole Position,
Yoong was beaten off the line by Hinchcliffe and the Champ Car Atlantic
driver would lead until lap 32 of the 38 lap feature race.

Under pressure for the lead, Yoong made a very nice pass down the inside
into turn eight and with Hinchcliffe - never one to give away the lead
without a fight – tied to stick it out around the outside and contact was
made. It was a racing incident and Yoong took over the lead and cruised to
his second victory of the day and the third in A1GP. Hinchcliffe would get
back on track but with dirty tyres was powerless to fend off his rivals and
dropped down to fifth position.

Local hero Tomas Enge took full advantage of Hinchcliffe misfortune to take
the chequered flag in second position for the Czech Republic while Salvador
Duran was third for Mexico ahead of Germany and Canada. "James defended
quite hard but he was fair," said Yoong. "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."

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
Hulkenberg'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 capitalise 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.

Brno - Feature Race Results

1 Malaysia Alex Yoong 1:10:47.815 -
2 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1:10:55.151 +7.336
3 Mexico Salvador Duran 1:10:56.780 +8.965
4 Germany Nico Hülkenberg 1:10:57.657 +9.842