Fastest lap for Cheng was immediately blown out of the water by a supreme effort from Karthikeyan, beginning to stretch his legs out front, whilst Jani had regained track position over Montagny. With just over a 21-second margin, the big question now was just where Cheng would feed back in again following his second stop. When he finally did come in, such was his enthusiasm the Chinese ace almost missed the pit entrance, and the former British F3 ace rejoined the fray fifth – between Switzerland and France – with ten laps remaining.
As things stood – with others' misfortunes having elevated New Zealand to eighth – Great Britain was set to again agonisingly miss out on the runner-up spot in the nations' standings, and Ammermuller losing third place with a left rear puncture plunging him into the Druids gravel trap on lap 40 only served to solidify that
status quo.
With eight laps to go, however, Kerr was suddenly all over the back of his quarry, after Karthikeyan made an error and ran slightly wide and off the track in Sheene Curve, whilst further back Filip Albuquerque attempted a supremely brave move around the outside of Reid at Hawthorns, not quite making it stick despite putting two wheels on the grass. The young Portguese ace did pull it off shortly afterwards – again around the outside – but with Kerr 1.8 seconds adrift of Karthikeyan with only two tours remaining, eighth place for Reid was still enough.
Cheng was also doing all he could to deprive new champion Jani of third place in the dying stages. Whilst Jani would hold on – to take third place behind Karthikeyan and Kerr and ahead of Cheng and Montagny in an ultimately lonely fifth – Albuquerque had now turned his attentions to Bleekemolen's sixth place, but despite a late charge the Dutchman held on by the narrowest of margins at the chequered flag.
![Narain Karthikeyan - A1 Team India [pic credit: A1 GP Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/398970.jpg)
