Malaysia defend Fauzy after tangles

Date published : 26 Feb 2009 - 12:25:29

The Malaysian A1GP team have hit back at the Irish squad's criticism of their driver Fairuz Fauzy after a collision in last weekend's Kyalami races.Ireland's Adam Carroll tangled with Fauzy on the opening lap of the feature race, forcing him to retire and causing Team Ireland to lose the championship lead to Switzerland.Both Carroll and team boss Mark Gallagher were vociferous in their criticism of Fauzy following the incident."Frankly I'm disgusted," said Gallagher. "We were on course to consolidate our points lead today but for a piece of poor driving. Team Malaysia is one of the very best in A1GP, but today their driver has cost us dearly."Team Malaysia have now responded with a statement defending Fauzy's driving."The incident was clearly a racing incident," the team said. "Video footage only showed that a collision took place, but given the manoeuvre that the Team Ireland driver carried out in attempting to overtake the A1 Team Malaysia car, there was a high risk of a collision unless Fairuz Fauzy pulled over and did not try and defend his position."Malaysia team boss Jack Cunningham added that he did not appreciate Gallagher's decision to publicly criticise Fauzy."It's understandable that A1 Team Ireland was feeling emotional and frustrated after this incident, considering also that they lost the lead in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport," said Cunningham."However, to blame Fairuz for the incident is unfair and we think the Irish team should stick to trying to win races rather than blaming others for their misfortune. A1 Team Ireland is a highly respected team, but on this occasion their comments are ill-judged."Fauzy later had a separate collision with New Zealand's Earl Bamber, who also pointed the finger at the Malaysian."Going into turn 12, he drilled us from behind and that was the end of our race," Bamber said.But after the race Fauzy was adamant that his two rivals should have given him more room."I clashed with the Irish car after he squeezed me and he then went off," said Fauzy. "The New Zealand car was ahead of me in the first part of the race, but was very slow and blocking me. I kept pushing him to challenge for position but when he crossed in front of me for a corner I had to brake hard and we touched."