It was difficult to know who was the happier at the end of the sprint race in the 2007/08 A1GP season finale at
Brands Hatch – Robbie Kerr for having triumphed again in front of his partisan home supporters, or Neel Jani for having finally sealed the series laurels for Switzerland.
Kerr's victory mirrored that which he had registered at Brands this time last year, and he will now doubtless be aiming to do the double, something Nico Hülkenberg denied him twelve months ago by a scant six tenths of a second. Jani, meanwhile, was afterwards left to reflect on a superb season in which the rightful champions had finally been crowned.
Pole-sitter Kerr got the jump at the rolling start, with Jonathan Summerton slotting in behind in second and Adam Carroll going all the way around the outside of Jani at Paddock Hill Bend for third place.
France's Franck Montagny and Michael Ammermüller both lost ground on the opening lap, with the pair going on to scrap enthusiastically over tenth position over the remainder of the race, whilst ahead of them Jonny Reid had got up to eighth place – though that was still seven spots lower than the Kiwi needed to be if he was to have any hopes of keeping New Zealand's slight championship hopes alive.
Up front, meanwhile, Kerr was already seven tenths of a second clear of Summerton at the end of lap one, a gap that would be pegged on lap two as the top three began to close up on one another. With four laps completed Kerr's advantage had been reduced to six tenths, with Carroll in third – the man to have used the most power boosts, and to good effect – pressing both of them very hard indeed.
Behind the leading trio, Jani was doing exactly what he needed to do by staying out of trouble in fourth, though Narain Karthikeyan was fast coming along to play behind. Reid was still stuck back in eighth, and setting the fastest middle sector of the race – as if he had suddenly received a wake-up call, but a day too late – was swiftly negated by running wide across the grass. What's more, the 24-year-old had at this point used all of his power boosts…
