Taupo 2007: Double delight for dominant Germany.

Sunday, 21st January 2007

Having proved a class apart in the sprint event, Niko Hulkenberg was again barely troubled on the way to victory in the A1 Grand Prix feature race at Taupo, a win that gives Germany an unprecedented lead in the championship standings.

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As it happens, Kerr would not get to the chequered flag when the British car slowed dramatically on lap 40 with a suspected gearbox problem, a failure that means the team go away empty-handed from a meeting for the first time, remarkably, since last season's Estoril round in October 2005.

Britain's demise lifted James Hinchcliffe into his second sixth place finish of the day, the Canadian enduring a lonely race, catching the group ahead of him in the latter stages but never getting close enough to make a difference.

He in turn was nine seconds up on perhaps the most endearing story of the day, that of Narain Karthikeyan finishing seventh and scoring India's first ever points in A1 GP, the former F1 driver keeping himself out of trouble to claim popular result and get the nation off the mark. Interestingly, he also scored the second fastest lap of the race, being the only driver other than Hulkenberg to dip below the 1min 15sec mark all day.

The final points paying positions were claimed by Italy, who ran sixth ahead of Great Britain early on but dropped back dramatically following a tardy pit stop, China, Ho-Pin Tung scoring his first points in the series, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, who marked his debut for USA with a single point for tenth.

The tussle for the final point had also proved to a highlight of the race, with Hunter-Reay, Ireland's Richard Lyons and later Alex Yoong battling away over the latter stages. Initially, Lyons held the position having fought his way back up the order from an off on the first lap, only to again suffer from yet more mechanical gremlins, this time a misfire, to soon slip back behind Hunter-Reay and then Yoong.

To compound the issue, Lyons' car finally cried enough on lap 45 when his suspension failed, spinning him off the circuit and ending a promising, but wholly unfulfilling, weekend.

Up at the front though, Hulkenberg was the clear winner, easing off in the final laps to bring the gap to Duval down to a still comprehensive 20 seconds margin.