Jani wins Taupo feature race

Date published : 25 Jan 2009 - 04:53:17

Team Switzerland's Neel Jani took advantage of a Team Ireland pitlane mishap to win the feature race in this weekend's A1GP round at Taupo.After a brilliant start from fifth, Jani had been running second behind Ireland's Adam Carroll until the pair made the second and final of their compulsory stops.Both pitted on the same lap and the Irish crew was able to release Carroll into the lead, only for the car to suffer a problem with its anti-stall and stop momentarily in the pitroad.Ironically, it stopped right beside the Swiss pit crew, who were just completing their own stop, and by the time Carroll had got his car moving again Jani had already gone past.The Swiss team's position became even stronger when Jani was able to rejoin just ahead of a group of midfielders, leaving Carroll to find a way through the traffic before being able to attempt a chase.A late safety car period prompted by the beached Indonesia car gave Carroll some hope, but Jani was able to hold his lead at the restart and won by just over a second.Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque was third after capitalising on a bad start by Robert Doornbos in the Netherlands car, leaving the Dutchman back in sixth behind Australia's John Martin.France's Loic Duval and the USA's Marco Andretti completed the points, although the latter was fortunate to escape a penalty for crossing the white line on the pit exit following his second stop.Pos Driver Team Time 1. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:06:19.574 2. Adam Carroll Ireland + 1.047 3. F. Albuquerque Portugal + 2.379 4. John Martin Australia + 10.593 5. Robert Doornbos Netherlands + 14.402 6. Loic Duval France + 17.423 7. N. Karthikeyan India + 20.215 8. Marco Andretti USA + 20.799 9. Edoardo Piscopo Italy + 23.15610. Adrian Zaugg South Africa + 23.34711. Fairuz Fauzy Malaysia + 26.83212. Felipe Guimaraes Brazil + 1 lap13. Dan Clarke Great Britain + 1 lap14. C. van der Drift New Zealand + 1 lap15. Cheng Cong Fu China + 1 lap16. Salvador Duran Mexico + 7 laps17. Satrio Hermanto Indonesia + 8 laps18. Clivio Piccione Monaco + 17 laps19. Daniel Morad Lebanon + 49 laps