Round 9 - Mexico City

[lovebritF3]

now that was racing!!! well done ollie! great racing, cant wait till brands!

[Net-Ranger]

ok i'm coming from the autodrmo and all i can say is....waw!!!!, very good racing, don't know guys if tv show it, but the battles at the back were just awsome, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was the perfect fit for A1GP cars, i relly hope they decide to return!!!


Some pics from yesterday.
Enjoy!!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/synerg...sAIfGBpcG94DKe

i'm preparing the ones from today...

[Sev]

Yeah, it was a good race. Saw it all on TV.

Best racing was between Malaysia/NZ/Portugal. There was a good 15 lap battle going on there at the end.

I wouldn't say the race between Summerton and Jarvis was as close as you might think (or the commentators were trying to make out). Jarvis never looked likely to be put under too much pressure, although Summerton did keep him honest. To me it looked like they were both happy with their positions.

Lemon of the day goes to Mr. Vernay from France. He must have completed a whole 5 laps combined in both races, both times pitching himself off the track. But to be fair to him, he is comfortably the least experienced driver.

Top race tough.

[Knowlesy]

I managed to catch the final half hour after the NASCAR race. Wow, well done Oli!

I was bricking myself when USA were closing in, but Jarvis had it all under control. Fair play to him.

Robbie looked pleased at the end I note.

Who should drive for Team GBR? Well, I think I know.

[locco]

As usual great racing from A1, better than the champ cars on that track imo. Although I wanted to see how fast those cars would lap if they hadn't lost all the power from altitude. congrats to GBR, feel bad for Malayasia, what a terrible start. good stuff, can't wait for shanghai and brands hatch.

[Kebab]

I think if we're completely honest with ourselves, Malaysia's problems and the sprint race incidents totally handed the race to GBR ... several cars were faster than GBR but were so far back they couldn't get through the traffic.

Oh, and the fact that the Hulkster wasn't racing made life somewhat easier I am sure.

Both Kerr and Manning would've won that race just as comfortably, if not more so ...

[Knowlesy]

I'd be confident with manning.

As for Robbie, well, dunno really. He could well have won it himself, but it is just as likely he'd overdo it, have some cruel luck or break his car.

[Mystery]

Originally Posted by Kebab

I think if we're completely honest with ourselves, Malaysia's problems and the sprint race incidents totally handed the race to GBR ... several cars were faster than GBR but were so far back they couldn't get through the traffic.

Don't know about "several cars". Malaysia certainly and Germany possibly. USA were only faster towards the end.

Oh, and the fact that the Hulkster wasn't racing made life somewhat easier I am sure.

Yeah perhaps - but you can only beat the field you've got so you can't take anything away from Oli for that. If he'd have led Vietoris away at the start maybe the tactics would have been different and maybe not. What if.......etc

[Kebab]

I'm not taking anything away from Oli, even with 3 of the top 6 nations not having their 'first choice driver' (SUI, GER and FRA) and the 2 others having had incidents/technical probs (MAL and NZL) you still have to win the race.

You should also not forget how fast POR and MEX were in the Sprint race, but MEX had a problem and POR were stuck behind MAL.

The fact that a driver with a lot less A1 experience (Summerton - USA) than Jarvis was closing in at the end (he caught up 3-4 secs in 10 laps) puts Oli's speed or GBR's car setup in perspective, imho.

It would have been a total disaster with all the advantages GBR were handed if they hadn't won!!

[Knowlesy]

Maybe Oli was just pacing himself? It just looked a finely judged race to me, excellent stuff. Let's have more please.

The results Jarvis has obtained in his few races have been excellent. Classy drives.

[Last2LiftOff]

SPEEDTV's tape-delayed broadcast of the race is tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm mountain, 4 pm eastern so, the rest of us can maybe get caught-up.

Originally Posted by Net-Ranger

Some pics from yesterday.
Enjoy!!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/synerg...sAIfGBpcG94DKe

I'm preparing the ones from today...

Well?....still waiting Net-Ranger.

[nev]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Maybe Oli was just pacing himself? It just looked a finely judged race to me, excellent stuff. Let's have more please.

The results Jarvis has obtained in his few races have been excellent. Classy drives.

It would have been nice to see how well Jarvis could have done against the top runners of this years comp but i dont think you will get to see that this year. He will be away for the next race doing F3 and that doesn't show great commitment to the Team GBR cause so they will probalbly put Robbie back in the car. Also i think the team know how quick each driver is and they know Robbie or Manning would have eaten that field and spat out the remains. Team GBR knew who wasn't racing this last race and they needed to boost Jarvis into the public's eye for next season !! imho of course. You never know you may see Andy P in for Brands or Mike Conway !!!

[Kebab]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Maybe Oli was just pacing himself? It just looked a finely judged race to me, excellent stuff. Let's have more please.

The results Jarvis has obtained in his few races have been excellent. Classy drives.

I'm sorry, I just don't buy into that. In Beijing no less than 5 cars had to either break down, hit each other or throw it into the wall for him to get 2nd place. He wasn't even challenging anyone to overtake (which would have been impossible anyway) and was miles off the pace.

Mexico was a far better race, in that he was at least close to the pace, but again there was a massive amount of luck / coincidence involved in getting the win. A total rookie in the USA car which has only once been top three all year was his nearest competition. As I said before, 3 top 6 drivers had to be missing and 2 others had problems. I don't think people would be raving about Hamiton winning an F1 race if Kimi/Massa and Alonso hadn't shown up ... its more credible getting a 3rd place with them racing imo.

Call me old fashioned, but this is racing ... people should be fighting for position, over taking, driving on the limit, etc.. I don't believe in 'slow and steady wins the race' ... and certainly don't think its classy.

If I was Jarvis and a real racer, I'd be begging Team GB to let me race with a full-strength field 'cos he'll know in his heart he's not beaten the best guys in the series. It may be why they selected him for Mexico, we don't know.

[Knowlesy]

I don't think Jarvis will be in the least beat concerned. He has, after all, won GBR's only race. OK, there was no Nico there. But the talent pool was not massively different to normal.

As for the Beijing comments - he made the best of it. It was not an easy track and lots of people went off. The point is, Jarvis didn't. Of course, if he was a real racer he would have tried to overtake at the hairpin and retired from the race with colossal damage.

I think in the limited races he has had he has done great. If he had had the time Robbie has had in the car, we could expect even better.

[Kebab]

Sorry, not a massively different field?!

No Jani
No Hulkenburg
No Duval/Premat

So 50% of the no 1 drivers for the top 6 nations in the standings weren't there ...

Equally, there was no Bleekemolen and no Giebler ... so 50% of the no 1 drivers of the top *10* nations weren't there!

... and all of those that were there got themselves involved (or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time) in an incident in the Sprint race.

Since when was racing about driving carefully and hoping everyone in front falls off / has problems?

Am I all alone here? Or are we just so grateful for the win that we don't care how lucky we were? Wouldn't we prefer to dominate in the way France did last year or Germany has this year?

[Kiwi3]

Bleekemolen was there but they chose to put van der Zende in the car so the Netherlands were still giving their best effort.

No offense to Giebler but he isn't a star and it seems Team USA has made a concious effort to groom Summerton so you have to say they are giving their best effort also.

Besides there were ex and current F1 drivers there so it wasn't that weak a field!

France and Germany are the only two who spring to mind who didn't have full strength there in usual A1GP terms. It's a bit academic because if we really wanted to talk about full strength you'd be talking Button or Hamilton vs Montagny or Bourdais vs Hiedfeld or a Schumacher - A1GP is always getting the best available and willing to drive cheaply anyway. At the end of the day a win is a win.

On a slightly separate not Karthikeyan was a massive disappointment - what's going on there???

[nev]

As ive said before im glad in a way Robbie didn't race because people would say he only won due to there being such a weak field, whereas now that Jarvis has won hes the best thing since sliced bread.

Well anyway team GBR have thier win and they know who is quckest and best fit for the car not me.lol

[ISPL]

Whilst there is no doubt that the podium tells it's own story about the strength of the field in Mexico you can't do any more than beat the other drivers racing on the day.

Hopefully this first win for GBR will relieve some of the pressure and give them a platform to build on. I'm looking forward to seeing the team compete against a full strength field with renewed confidence.

[Last2LiftOff]

Top marks to both drivers, Kerr and Jarvis, for acknowledging publically the others' efforts in the win. A class act all around.