2005-06 A1GP of Great Britain | |
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Race Details | |
Race 1 of 11 in the 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix season | |
Date | 25 September 2005 |
Location |
Brands Hatch Kent, England |
Weather | Fine |
Qualifying | |
Pole | Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.) |
Time | 2'30.789 (1'15.824, 1'14.965) |
Sprint Race | |
1st | Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.) |
2nd | France (Alexandre Premat) |
3rd | New Zealand (Matt Halliday) |
Main Race | |
1st | Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.) |
2nd | Australia (Will Power) |
3rd | Mexico (Salvador Durán) |
Fast Lap | |
FL | Brazil (Nelson Piquet Jr.) |
Time | 1'16.547, (Lap 30 of Main Race) |
Official Classifications | |
Prac1 ·Prac2 ·Prac3 ·Qual ·SRace ·MRace |
The 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain was an A1 Grand Prix race, held on 25 September 2005 at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, England. This was the first in the 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix season, and the first race in the history of the A1 Grand Prix series.
The 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain at Brands Hatch had a rough start, even before it began. During the first two practice sessions, held on Friday 23 September, there were no less than eight red flags due to on track incidents. In the first session, A1 Team India's Karun Chandhok crashed into Jos Verstappen at a hairpin, sending him airborne damaging his car to such an extent that he was unable to set a time in the second session. Rain marred the second session, causing slower speeds and spins, but nothing as spectacular as in the first. Free practice 3, held on Saturday saw A1 Team France top the timesheets with a 1:15.421 courtesy of Alexandre Premat. Matt Halliday surprised for A1 Team New Zealand, setting the second quickest time, which was good enough to see him nominated for qualifying.
Nelson Piquet Jr. took A1GP's first ever pole position for A1 Team Brazil. Piquet set the fastest time over the entire session, with a 1:14.965 on his third run. Combined with the best first-lap time, he produced an aggregate time of 2:30.769, leading the results by over 0.3 of a second ahead of New Zealand's Matt Halliday. Brazil did not attempt a time in the final run, which was topped by French driver Alexandre Premat, placing them third on the grid for the sprint race. Fourth position went to A1 Team Australia, followed by the home team, A1 Team Great Britain. The A1 Grand Prix rules allow teams to use one driver for qualifying and another for the race, provided the race driver's best practice time is within 102% of the team's best qualifying lap. All teams elected to use the same qualifying driver in the race, apart from A1 Team Malaysia, who used Fairuz Fauzy in the sprint race and return to former Formula One driver Alex Yoong for the main event.