Durban, South Africa – February 24 2008. Hot on
the heels of his maiden GP2 Series victory in Sentul, Indonesia,
Fairuz Fauzy was back in action just one week later in
South Africa, racing for his country in the A1GP World
Cup of Motorsport. And Fairuz continued to impress for
A1 Team Malaysian netting eight points in total – more
than four times as many as they’ve scored so far
this season!
Conditions on the Durban street track were tough, particularly
as sweltering heat failed to be cooled by the breeze of
the Indian Ocean (situated just behind the start/finish
straight!) But Fairuz took his bright yellow Malaysian
machine into the points in the Sprint Race – a great
achievement as so many other drivers were unable to keep
their cars out of the wall.
After qualifying an impressive eighth for the Sprint Race,
Fairuz managed to avoid the mayhem at the first corner
of the race and squeezed through on the inside, missing
the incident between the New Zealand and Great Britain
cars - but unfortunately losing a couple of positions in
the process. But after just 11 laps of racing the race
was red-flagged following a last corner accident between
Netherlands and Germany. The latter was disqualified for
the incident so A1 Team Malaysian inherited ninth place
and two points.
It was Fairuz’s best result in A1GP since returning
to the championship at the last round in Sydney, Australia.
There he replaced Alex Yoong and in wet/dry conditions
could only manage a 17th and 20th place finish respectively.
But in Durban the Malaysia car was running much stronger
and Fairuz was set to improve on that position in the main
Feature Race.
Once again there was a crash at the first corner – and
once again Fairuz managed to avoid the carnage. Then after
the field was slowed by the safety car and released again,
there was yet another tangle! Here the 25-year-old’s
experience shone through as he came through unscathed.
After starting 12th, Fairuz had made up five places at
the time of his first mandatory pitstop, but overtaking
is tricky at the tight Durban track and Fairuz focused
on staying out of trouble. When France and Great Britain
had problems late in the race he then inherited a few more
places.
“You need to be intelligent for this type of track,
with so many incidents around you and the ever present
tyre wear but there is not a scratch on the car,” said
Fairuz.
“
For that reason it's been a good weekend, finishing both
races in the points and it was our goal to be in the top
ten – so a top five finish is a bonus. The team gave
me a great car, which gave me the confidence to push hard
and I'm very happy with the results."
A final incident brought out the red-flag and Fairuz was
awarded fifth place. Prior to Durban the A1 Team Malaysia
outfit had only scored one top ten finish in the 2007-08
season but two brilliant drives by Fairuz has launched
the team back into the competitive arena – with ten
points on the score board. The next A1GP race is in Mexico
City on March 16 – one week before Fairuz is in action
in front of his home crowd at Sepang for the next GP2 Asia
Series encounter, which will support the 2008 Formula 1
Malaysian Grand Prix.
Results
A1GP, Durban, Sprint Race
1 Robert Wickens, Canada, 11 laps in 15m 28.156s
2 Oliver Jarvis, Great Britain, +0.990s
3 Neel Jani, Switzerland, +1.742s
9 Fairuz Fauzy, Malaysia, +8.931s
A1GP, Durban, Feature Race:
1 Neel Jani, Switzerland, 41 laps in 1h 01m 55.330s
2 Loic Duval, France, +1.051s
3 Filipe Albuquerque, +1.934s
5 Fairuz Fauzy, Malaysia, +4.549s
Points
1 Switzerland 118
2 France 108
3 New Zealand 98
18 Malaysia 10
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