Australia: "Medal place missed" In South Africa

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Sourced from www.a1gp.com

Australia: "Medal place missed"

“Gutted” was the word on the lips of every single member of A1 Team Australia after John Martin hit trouble when running in a very competitive third place going into the first round of pit stops in the Feature race at Kyalami – losing a shot at his first medal.
“I’m gutted,” seat holder Alan Jones told A1GP.com, “because that was a definite podium gone. John had the pace to press and was matching the lap times of [eventual winner] Neel Jani through the first stint.”

Where it all went wrong for Martin and Australia was at the first pit stops. Their stop was swift and smooth, but trouble hit came when Martin looked to pull out, as Germany arrived across its bows to pull in front of the next pit garage.

“Germany weren’t expected in that lap,” explained Jones, “as we’d made an agreement before the race. John had to brake in avoidance then the anti-stall failed as he swerved around the German car and the mechanics had to run down the pit lane after the car to try to restart it. Had the car not stalled, we would have lost say five seconds, but that wouldn’t have been the end of the world. As it was, the event turned into a complete waste of time.”

Martin tried hard to take the outcome on the chin, but was also gutted: “The car was awesome in the opening stint and I was able to pass Brazil easily on the front straight and then start taking time off Monaco. The problem after the car stalled is that these cars simply won’t bump start and that was that, which is even more of a shame as we have found good speed from the car.”

Team engineer Rob Arnott was massively disappointed: “We could have won that race. I reckon that John was the fastest out there. He survived a scary moment after the start at Turn 1 when he was left with no option but to take to the grass and that dropped him to fifth. He was soon back in third and was starting to catch Monaco. And then came the pit stop…”

[TheBigMan045]

Australia was fast i agree but spare a thought for us kiwis, for only 3 laps into the race Bamber was taken out by Team Malaysia after only 3 laps and also took out Championship leader Team Ireland on the opening lap and yet nothing was done about it