Bleekemolen dominates sprint race

Date published : 22 Feb 2009 - 09:36:12

Jeroen Bleekemolen scored a dominant victory for the Netherlands in the A1GP sprint race at Kyalami on Sunday morning.The Dutch driver blasted into a lead of more than four seconds in the first few laps before pitting as soon as the window opened at the end of lap four, and he then kept his head as Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque made some inroads into his lead in the closing stages.Albuquerque climbed ahead of Switzerland's Neel Jani in the pits, as the reigning champion struggled to get his car away from his stop.That left Bleekemolen with a lead of more than six seconds, and while Albuquerque managed to get a couple of those seconds back, he was unable to get close enough to challenge the leader.Jani, who had passed the Portuguese car at the start, held on to third, while Ireland's Adam Carroll snatched fourth from Monaco's Clivio Piccione on the final lap.Behind them, Narain Karthikeyan settled for sixth with India, after initially climbing as high as fourth at the start. However, he was unable to fend off the challenge of Piccione and Carroll before the pitstops.Home driver Adrian Zaugg scored points for South Africa with seventh place, while Earl Bamber (New Zealand) climbed from 11th to eighth during the stops to take the final point.Pos Driver Team Time 1. Jeroen Bleekemolen Netherlands 21:35.105 2. Filipe Albuquerque Portugal + 4.407 3. Neel Jani Switzerland + 10.600 4. Adam Carroll Ireland + 12.925 5. Clivio Piccione Monaco + 14.363 6. Narain Karthikeyan India + 18.474 7. Adrian Zaugg South Africa + 21.178 8. Earl Bamber New Zealand + 26.539 9. Fairuz Fauzy Malaysia + 26.92510. Nicolas Prost France + 28.10111. Edoardo Piscopo Italy + 32.08112. John Martin Australia + 34.47413. Ho-Pin Tung China + 37.80414. Michael Ammermuller Germany + 39.06815. Felipe Guimaraes Brazil + 39.71716. Salvador Duran Mexico + 45.00617. Marco Andretti USA + 55.63618. Zahir Ali Indonesia +1:17.724Retirements: Driver Team Laps Danny Watts Great Britain 9 Daniel Morad Lebanon 6