A1 Team Great Britain recovered from a tough start to his weekend to finish seventh in the Feature race at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport event in the Algarve, Portugal. Dan Clarke, representing his nation for the second time, had earlier taken 12th place in the Sprint race.
Clarke has been playing catch up all weekend following technical issues on Friday which left him with precious little running. Yesterday’s qualifying session had resulted in a 13th place start for the Sprint race and 16th position for the Feature race.
At the green flag for the Sprint race there was plenty of action, with Clarke making up one position by the end of the opening lap. An early safety car slowed the field, with the restart producing further drama, which Clarke avoided, but lost a place in the melee of action. He pitted as soon as the pit window opened and after all the nations had made their mandatory stops was lying 12th. A red flag for a multi-car accident halted the race early, with Clarke taking 12th place.
Clarke said after the Sprint race, “I didn’t capitalise on the start as much as I could have, but I managed to stay out of trouble and turn some consistent laps, learn more about the car and bring it home ready for the main Feature race.”
The drama at the start of the Feature race began on the warm up lap with Robert Doornbos in the Netherlands car pulling off track with an electrical fire. Clarke did not have the best of starts but had improved to 14th position by the end of the opening lap. Over the next few laps he kept moving forward and was in 11th place when the first pit window opened. The British team opted to stay out on track while the leaders pitted, taking his mandatory stop a few laps later and with a quick tyre change from his crew he maintained his position as the race reached half distance. In the second part of the race Clarke steadily moved forward, finally taking the chequered flag in seventh place.
The British driver concluded after the Feature race, “I’m pleased that we scored points today. If I’d been told on Friday that we’d finish seventh I wouldn’t have believed it, so we managed to turn it around today. All the changes we made kept improving the car and I was learning and using it as a test session as well as a race, so it’s been very productive. We’ve definitely made progress which will help towards the Brands Hatch event, which is at a circuit I know well. As a home race I want to do well in front of the fans and I think we now have a good foundation for this.”
The seventh round of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport takes place on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix track at the historic Kent race circuit, from 1-3 May.
