2006–07 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Beijing, China


The 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, China was an A1 Grand Prix race, held on November 12, 2006 at Beijing International Streetcircuit, Beijing, China. It was the third race in the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season and the first ever meeting held at the circuit.

Report

Practice

The first day of practice was canceled because of safety concerns, specifically a very tight hairpin. A revised track layout was devised for extended Saturday practice session.

Qualifying

The field was set by morning practice times, giving The Netherlands' driver Jeroen Bleekemolen pole position for the Sprint race.

Sprint race

The width of the track was also an issue in the Sprint race, as South Africa's Adrian Zaugg spun and stalled his car, blocking half of the track. The safety car was deployed, as a flatbed truck came to remove the stricken vehicle and blocked the entire track, halting the remaining cars.
With more than half the race under the safety car, Jeroen Bleekemolen won the race for The Netherlands, with Salvador Durán of Mexico and A1 Team Italy's Enrico Toccacelo in second and third.

Main race

Results

Qualification

Qualification was cancelled due to track problems. Accordingly, the grid was set from the times set in the 25 minutes of the morning practice session before it was red-flagged, under article 144 of the Sporting Regulations.
PosTeamDriverLapsQuickest TimeGap
1 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen161:00.093--
2 MexicoSalvador Durán111:00.583+ 0.490
3 ItalyEnrico Toccacelo141:00.942+ 0.849
4 CanadaJames Hinchcliffe111:01.103+ 1.010
5 GermanyNico Hülkenberg111:01.275+ 1.182
6 BrazilRaphael Matos181:01.306+ 1.213
7 South AfricaAdrian Zaugg111:01.361+ 1.268
8 Great BritainOliver Jarvis191:01.404+ 1.311
9 Czech RepublicTomáš Enge211:01.555+ 1.462
10 SwitzerlandNeel Jani111:01.711+ 1.618
11 IrelandMichael Devaney121:02.810+ 2.717
12 New ZealandMatt Halliday111:02.852+ 2.759
13 USAPhilip Giebler111:02.916+ 2.823
14 AustraliaKarl Reindler101:02.999+ 2.906
15 ChinaCongfu Cheng161:03.275+ 3.182
16 MalaysiaAlex Yoong81:04.246+ 4.153
17 SingaporeChristian Murchison61:05.897+ 5.804
18 IndonesiaAnanda Mikola91:06.038+ 5.945
19 IndiaArmaan Ebrahim141:06.056+ 5.963
20 LebanonBasil Shaaban141:06.389+ 6.296
21 FranceNicolas Lapierre31:09.662+ 9.569
22 PakistanNur B. Ali131:10.263+ 10.170

Sprint Race results

The Sprint Race took place on Sunday, November 12, 2006.
PosTeamDriverLapsTimePoints
1 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen1520'28.4206
2 MexicoSalvador Durán15+ 1.4645
3 ItalyEnrico Toccacelo15+ 2.3114
4 CanadaJames Hinchcliffe15+ 3.3753
5 GermanyNico Hülkenberg15+ 3.9432
6 BrazilRaphael Matos15+ 4.4001
7 Great BritainOliver Jarvis15+ 7.377
8 Czech RepublicTomáš Enge15+ 8.397
9 SwitzerlandNeel Jani15+ 8.849
10 New ZealandMatt Halliday15+ 9.265
11 USAPhilip Giebler15+ 10.422
12 AustraliaKarl Reindler15+ 11.920
13 ChinaCongfu Cheng15+ 13.216
14 MalaysiaAlex Yoong15+ 17.027
15 IndonesiaAnanda Mikola15+ 18.479
16 SingaporeChristian Murchison15+ 20.659
17 FranceNicolas Lapierre15+ 20.802
18 IndiaArmaan Ebrahim15+ 22.253
19 LebanonBasil Shaaban15+ 22.783
20 IrelandMichael Devaney15+ 23.247
21 PakistanNur B. Ali15+ 47.541
22 South AfricaAdrian Zaugg2+ 13 laps

Feature Race results

The Feature Race took place on Sunday, November 12, 2006
PosTeamDriverLapsTimePoints
1 ItalyEnrico Toccacelo631.10.15.91910
2 Great BritainOliver Jarvis63+ 4.5089
3 AustraliaKarl Reindler63+ 5.9178
4 FranceNicolas Lapierre63+ 12.9007
5 South AfricaAdrian Zaugg63+ 13.2786
6 Czech RepublicTomáš Enge63+ 13.6845
7 BrazilRaphael Matos63+ 14.8394
8 SingaporeChristian Murchison63+ 16.4863
9 New ZealandMatt Halliday63+ 17.0052
10 CanadaJames Hinchcliffe62+ 1 Lap1
11 IndiaArmaan Ebrahim62+ 1 Lap
12 MalaysiaAlex Yoong61+ 2 Laps
13 LebanonBasil Shaaban61+ 2 Laps
14 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen53+ 10 Laps
15 GermanyNico Hülkenberg53+ 10 Laps
16 IndonesiaAnanda Mikola36+ 27 Laps
17 ChinaCongfu Cheng28+ 35 Laps
18 USAPhilip Giebler21+ 42 Laps
19 SwitzerlandNeel Jani20+ 43 Laps
20 MexicoSalvador Durán14+ 49 Laps
21 IrelandMichael Devaney3+ 60 Laps
22 PakistanNur B. Ali1+ 62 Laps

A1GP Beijing

The first Chinese round of the 2006/07 A1GP took place on the streets of Beijing. However, due to various safety concerns, the circuit was shortened, races started behind the safety car, and the Sprint Race was run mostly behind the safety car, as noted above. These incidents led to questions about the management and organization of both the event and A1GP in general.

Similar problems in China

Similar problems have occurred before in China. The 2004 DTM race around the streets of Pudong in Shanghai was hampered by crashes due to manhole covers becoming undone; the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix on the Shanghai International Circuit was interrupted when the safety car had to be deployed when a water runoff drain became open. The same problem also occurred in the Australian V8 Supercars race on the same circuit a few months before.