“We got a podium in Malaysia but I wasn't on it; this time the team got to celebrate and taste the champagne, so it was a great experience. The whole team did a great job today. There is really only one passing opportunity out on-track, and the team did an outstanding job in the pits.”
Pole-sitter Duval ultimately took the chequered flag third, just over two seconds adrift of victory, but despite his double rostrum finish the Frenchman was not entirely happy with his weekend, having proved untouchable throughout practice.
“This race was there for us and we lost it,” the 25-year-old rued on failing to end his nation's victory drought that stretches back almost two full years. “Sometimes it can happen. We were too slow in the pits and we lost first position; it's really hard to pass here but I did the maximum I could.
“I was trying to push him (Christian Vietoris) into making a mistake because it was really difficult to overtake, but he didn't so it was really difficult for me to try anything. That's why we did one lap more than him before the pit-stop to try to get in front, but then we lost a bit of time in the pit-stop again, so we lost two positions. There is nothing else for me to say.”
Sprint race-winner and home hero Jonny Reid did an incredible job to fight his way back through the pack into fourth place, having slipped back seven places down to twelfth at the start. The Kiwi ended up just a second behind Duval after 50 laps of racing, and more significantly still his results from the weekend have vaulted New Zealand above France and Switzerland to the head of the championship standings.
Northern Irishman Adam Carroll similarly put in a superb performance to take fifth from 13th on the grid, managing to overcome an early collision that necessitated an additional pit-stop for the emerald green car. He was closely followed across the line by Brazil's Sergio Jimenez, who pulled off some impressive overtaking manoeuvres on his way to sixth place from the sixth row of the grid.
![Team Germany's Christian Vietoris celebrates his breakthrough A1GP success in the Taupo feature race [pic credit: A1GP Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/403133.jpg)
