Alexandre Premat's storming double victory in the third round of the A1 Grand Prix Championship at the Estoril circuit in Portugal has given France a handy eight point lead in the standings and given all but a few competing nations a slim chance of overall honours.
France went four from six on Sunday thanks to a pair of faultless drives from Premat, who later said that while the opening 18 lap sprint race was tough, the main 36-lap feature went off without a hitch.
The third and final European stop on the inaugural A1 GP tour once again saw flashes of truly great single seater racing but also highlighted a few niggling problems once again.
Premat was a class above all day, matching Nicolas Lapierre's Lausitz double in fine fashion.
From third on the sprint race grid, Premat capitalised on a dreadfully slow, and potentially dangerous bunched start, to squeeze inside the pole-sitting Team Brazil machine of
Nelson Piquet Jr as France, Brazil and Neel Jani in the Swiss entry went three wide through the first turn.
Once ahead, the French car gradually drew away from the opposition, pulling out as much as a four second lead as the race wore on. With the second place battle between Brazil and Switzerland gaining momentum however, Piquet Jr and Jani cut that gap in half with five laps remaining.
Although Piquet Jr did his best to breach the gap in the final three laps, Premat was able to maintain a two second advantage to the chequered flag, claiming maximum points and pole position for the standing start feature race.
