A downcast Oliver Jarvis has acknowledged that Great Britain has now been all-but removed from contention for this season's A1GP World Cup of Motorsport laurels, after the nation's title chances were quite literally torpedoed in the Durban heat.
A strong performance throughout practice and qualifying saw Jarvis line up on the second row of the grid for both races, and an impressive run to ten points courtesy of the runner-up spot in the shorter sprint outing – ahead of championship leaders Switzerland – seemed to suggest a significant leap up the pecking order was in-store. That was not, however, how it would ultimately transpire…
Following a brilliant rolling start in the sprint to dart past both Switzerland and Brazil, the 24-year-old survived an involuntary early assault from Jonny Reid in the New Zealand entry heading into the tight and unforgiving first hairpin. Though his car sustained some sidepod damage, he was nevertheless able to hold Neel Jani off to the end of the race.
In the 70-minute feature event, Jarvis was again running well, up with the leading group of Switzerland, Canada and France, until Wickens – driving the wrong way down the track in his efforts to rejoin from a spin – smashed into the unsighted Cambridgeshire ace, breaking his front wing and leaving him down in eleventh position when the race was red-flagged not long afterwards.
“At the start [of the sprint race] I noticed everyone in front dive down the inside,” the newly-signed Audi DTM star recounted, “so I thought I'd try my luck on the racing line. At one point I thought I was going to get the lead as I saw New Zealand drive into Canada – which caused Robert Wickens to come out wide and clip me – but I still managed to get round before New Zealand drove into the side of me, damaging the car quite a bit.
“From then on, I didn't really challenge for the lead as I wasn't totally comfortable with the car – I'm not sure if it was due to the damage or set-up – but I was happy with second, and it was great to get a good result on the board.
![Oliver Jarvis - A1 Team Great Britain [pic credit: A1 GP Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/398961.jpg)
