Sentul 2006: New Zealand hold on for double.

Sunday, 10th December 2006

Fresh from having scored New Zealand's first win in the sprint event, Jonny Reid doubled up at Sentul with victory in the feature race, albeit only after overcoming a sodden start, a drying track and a dramatic two-lap shootout in the final stages.

Previous Page

With the top ten now all within just a handful of seconds of each other, a three and a half minute sprint to the chequered flag followed with Reid getting the hammer down straight away to immediately set the fastest lap of the race as Hulkenberg attempted to hold onto the tail of the Kiwi car.

As it happens, Reid was able to hold off the German by just over a second for a famous double victory that rockets the team up the order from 12th to fifth place in the standings.

Hulkenberg's second place has helped Germany increase their lead in the standings over the hapless Great Britain, the team having opened up a formidable 12 point lead over their rivals.

Behind the top two, Lapierre was left behind somewhat, finding it difficult to find his way past the lapped Ryan Briscoe and unable to utilise the pace in the latter stages that saw him surge back through the order.

Still, even his comeback was overshadowed by a stunning drive through the field by Enrico Toccacelo for Italy, who had barely featured in the top fifteen over the first half of the race, only for his pit stop to seemingly revitalise his car and allow him to set several fastest laps on the way to fourth place, passing three cars in the two remaining laps at the end.

Despite disappointingly losing fourth on the final lap, Jeroen Bleekemolen was a solid fifth for Netherlands, just ahead of Alex Yoong for Malaysia who's sixth place will be a reward on what has been a tough weekend for the double Brno winners.

Finishing seventh was race one podium winner Mexico, while taking points on his debut in eight was Jaroslav Janis for Czech Republic, even if he had run as high as fifth in the closing stages before falling foul of a charging Italy, Malaysia and Mexico over the last couple of laps.

Still, he did manage to hold off Neel Jani for Switzerland throughout the whole race, the Sepang winner a disappointing ninth after a tough weekend, Giebler had to settle for an unsatisfying tenth.