Sepang 2007: Swiss don't miss to go clear at top.

Sunday, 25th November 2007

Even a pit lane faux pas cannot deny Switzerland their first A1 GP double triumph.

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It meant Brazil led for the first time as they came around to start the ninth lap of the race, with Switzerland second, Great Britain third after leapfrogging fourth place France, Germany fifth, Netherlands sixth, Ireland seventh – after being delayed by France also – and India eighth.

At the restart, Jimenez made no mistake and soared into a good lead while those behind battled over second place, with Jarvis briefly getting past Jani, only for the Champ Car World Series driver to pass him back straight away. Even worse for Jarvis, Duval took advantage again and put his French machine back into third place ahead of Great Britain.

Although Jimenez quickly posted the fastest lap of the race on new tyres and eked a good gap out of Jani initially, the Swiss driver slowly managed to peg back the advantage and within seven laps was just a tenth behind the former GP2 racer. Not that he could get past though, with Jimenez responding to everything that Jani was asking of him.

Having spent several laps battling to get back third, Jarvis slipped into the clutches of Germany's Michael Ammermuller, the two dicing for fourth position while Netherlands and Ireland looked on – at least the latter did until he spun down to tenth on lap 14.

However, having caused controversy in the first race by the way in which he muscled past Wickens for third, Ammermuller managed to produce an almost identical manoeuvre on Jarvis. However, whilst a completely identical move would have seen the German rub shoulders with Jarvis on the way through, this attempt merely saw him punt the Brit into a spin.

Prompting some furious reactions from the Great Britain crew, Jarvis recovered to sixth place, behind Bleekemolen and an also delayed Ammermuller. However, within a lap Ammermuller was being called in to serve a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident.

Promoted two positions, Bleekemolen quickly put the pressure on France for third, feigning several moves before making one stick, very impressively, around the turn eight hairpin on lap 22.