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

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2006-07 A1GP of China
Race Details
Race 3 of 11 in the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season.
Date	November 12, 2006
Location	Beijing International Streetcircuit Beijing, China
Weather	Dry
Qualifying
Pole	The Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
Time	1:00.093 (no pole time1, no pole time2)
Sprint Race
1st	The Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen)
2nd	Mexico (Salvador Durán)
3rd	Italy (Enrico Toccacelo)
Main Race
1st	Italy (Enrico Toccacelo)
2nd	Great Britain (Oliver Jarvis)
3rd	Australia (Karl Reindler)
Fast Lap
FL	Canada (James Hinchcliffe)
Time	58.107, (Lap 39 of Feature Race Race)
Official Classifications

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.

1 Report
2 Results
3 A1GP Beijing
4 Similar problems in China
5 References
6 See also

When driver nominations were released it was announced that the Greek team would not be attending but will return for the next round.

The first day of practice was cancelled arising from issues relating to the new track. Drivers had found it impossible to negotiate a very tight hairpin and therefore the track became blocked leading to the sessions being red-flagged on three separate occasions. The organisers decided to cancel the remainder of the day's programme in order that alternative plans and revisions could be made. A revised track layout was devised for use in an extended Saturday practice session [1].

The field was set by morning practice times, giving The Netherlands' driver Jeroen Bleekemolen pole position for the 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. As it stopped to load the South African car, it actually blocked the full width of the track, leaving the safety car and the remaining 21 A1GP cars to come to a halt for nearly half a minute (this created a potentially lethal situation, involving engines overheating.

With more than half the race under the safety car, Jeroen Bleekemolen had an easy job to win the race for The Netherlands, with Salvador Durán of Mexico and A1 Team Italy's Enrico Toccacelo following him home.

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 (Practice 3) before it was red-flagged, under article 144 of the Sporting Regulations.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Quickest Time	Gap
1	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	16	1:00.093	--
2	Mexico	Salvador Durán	11	1:00.583	+ 0.490
3	Italy	Enrico Toccacelo	14	1:00.942	+ 0.849
4	Canada	James Hinchcliffe	11	1:01.103	+ 1.010
5	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	11	1:01.275	+ 1.182
6	Brazil	Raphael Matos	18	1:01.306	+ 1.213
7	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	11	1:01.361	+ 1.268
8	Great Britain	Oliver Jarvis	19	1:01.404	+ 1.311
9	Czech Republic	Tomas Enge	21	1:01.555	+ 1.462
10	Switzerland	Neel Jani	11	1:01.711	+ 1.618
11	Ireland	Michael Devaney	12	1:02.810	+ 2.717
12	New Zealand	Matt Halliday	11	1:02.852	+ 2.759
13	USA	Philip Giebler	11	1:02.916	+ 2.823
14	Australia	Karl Reindler	10	1:02.999	+ 2.906
15	China	Congfu Chen	16	1:03.275	+ 3.182
16	Malaysia	Alex Yoong	8	1:04.246	+ 4.153
17	Singapore	Christian Murchison	6	1:05.897	+ 5.804
18	Indonesia	Ananda Mikola	9	1:06.038	+ 5.945
19	India	Armaan Ebrahim	14	1:06.056	+ 5.963
20	Lebanon	Basil Shaaban	14	1:06.389	+ 6.296
21	France	Nicolas Lapierre	3	1:09.662	+ 9.569
22	Pakistan	Nur B. Ali	13	1:10.263	+ 10.170

The Sprint Race took place on Sunday, November 12, 2006.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	15	20'28.420	6
2	Mexico	Salvador Durán	15	+ 1.464	5
3	Italy	Enrico Toccacelo	15	+ 2.311	4
4	Canada	James Hinchcliffe	15	+ 3.375	3
5	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	15	+ 3.943	2
6	Brazil	Raphael Matos	15	+ 4.400	1
7	Great Britain	Oliver Jarvis	15	+ 7.377
8	Czech Republic	Tomas Enge	15	+ 8.397
9	Switzerland	Neel Jani	15	+ 8.849
10	New Zealand	Matt Halliday	15	+ 9.265
11	USA	Philip Giebler	15	+ 10.422
12	Australia	Karl Reindler	15	+ 11.920
13	China	Congfu Cheng	15	+ 13.216
14	Malaysia	Alex Yoong	15	+ 17.027
15	Indonesia	Ananda Mikola	15	+ 18.479
16	Singapore	Christian Murchison	15	+ 20.659
17	France	Nicolas Lapierre	15	+ 20.802
18	India	Armaan Ebrahim	15	+ 22.253
19	Lebanon	Basil Shaaban	15	+ 22.783
20	Ireland	Michael Devaney	15	+ 23.247
21	Pakistan	Nur B. Ali	15	+ 47.541
22	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	2	+ 13 laps

The Feature Race took place on Sunday, November 12, 2006

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Italy	Enrico Toccacelo	63	1.10.15.919	10
2	Great Britain	Oliver Jarvis	63	+ 4.508	9
3	Australia	Karl Reindler	63	+ 5.917	8
4	France	Nicolas Lapierre	63	+ 12.900	7
5	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	63	+ 13.278	6
6	Czech Republic	Tomas Enge	63	+ 13.684	5
7	Brazil	Raphael Matos	63	+ 14.839	4
8	Singapore	Christian Murchison	63	+ 16.486	3
9	New Zealand	Matt Halliday	63	+ 17.005	2
10	Canada	James Hinchcliffe	62	+ 1 Lap	1
11	India	Armaan Ebrahim	62	+ 1 Lap
12	Malaysia	Alex Yoong	61	+ 2 Laps
13	Lebanon	Basil Shaaban	61	+ 2 Laps
14	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	53	+ 10 Laps
15	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	53	+ 10 Laps
16	Indonesia	Ananda Mikola	36	+ 27 Laps
17	China	Congfu Cheng	28	+ 35 Laps
18	USA	Philip Giebler	21	+ 42 Laps
19	Switzerland	Neel Jani	20	+ 43 Laps
20	Mexico	Salvador Durán	14	+ 49 Laps
21	Ireland	Michael Devaney	3	+ 60 Laps
22	Pakistan	Nur B. Ali	1	+ 62 Laps

The first Chinese round of the 2006/07 A1GP took place on the streets of Beijing. However, the tight hairpin at the end of the backstraight was far too tight for the cars to negotiate safely, as there was literally, a 180 degree left turn. Cars were running wide and stopping mid corner, therefore the sessions were red flagged.

A shorter circuit was created, creating another less tighter hairpin halfway up the straight, bypassing most of the old straight. Again, this corner is still not perfect as drivers still run wide despite it being wider, and have to avoid the pitlane entry barrier. It would have to do, otherwise the racing would have to be cancelled.

However, another problem arose in qualiying, when manhole covers on the roads were coming undone due to the racing cars high downforce and low center of gravity. Grid positions were decided upon practice times. Some advertising banners also came loose around the circuit.

It was announced the races would start behind the safety car, as the first corner was also deemed unsafe.

Both races were uneventful, particularly the Sprint Race which took place almost entirely behind the safety car after course officials failed to remove a single spun car in a timely fashion.

These numerous incidents have lead to questions about the management and organisation of both the event and A1GP in general - for example the host and guest on the UK presentation of the event on the Sky Sports network were highly critical of the lack of spectacle at what was, prior to arrival of the media at the track, anticipated to be a landmark defining event for the series.

Similar problems with circuits has occurred in China before. The 2004 DTM race around the streets of Pudong in Shanghai proved a similar farce when several cars crashed out due to manholecovers becoming undone, causing damage to the race cars.

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 causing damage to Juan Pablo Montoya's McLaren Mercedes resulting in the Columbian having to retire. The exact same problem also occurred in the Australian V8 Supercars race on the same cirucit just a few months before.

A1 Grands Prix of Nations
2005-06 season	Great Britain • Germany • Portugal • Australia • Malaysia • United Arab Emirates • South Africa • Indonesia • Mexico • USA • China

2006-07 season	Netherlands • Czech Republic • Beijing, China • Malaysia • Indonesia • New Zealand • Australia • South Africa • Mexico • Shanghai, China • Great Britain