Switzerland closes in on title

A1 Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani put in a perfect performance during this morning’s Sprint race in Shanghai, dominating from pole position to seize his fourth win of the season.
 
Jani also set the fastest lap of the race to pick up maximum championship points and increase his nation’s lead over second-placed New Zealand to 31 after it failed to score.
 
New Zealand’s Jonny Reid and USA’s Jonathan Summerton, who started alongside each other on the third row, clashed during the rolling start, forcing Black Beauty into a spin and out of the action.
 
The Swiss team now needs to increase its lead by just two more points to secure the 2007/08 title honours this afternoon, with one round of the championship remaining at Brands Hatch in Great Britain (4 May).
 
Canada’s Robert Wickens, who is making his final A1GP appearance of the season this weekend, raced to an impressive second place to join the Swiss star on the podium, holding off Portuguese rookie Filipe Albuquerque, who was again on superb form to notch up his second podium finish at only his third A1GP event.
 
Once pole-sitter Switzerland’s Jani had made it to the first corner he was never under threat and by the third lap the 24-year-old had pulled out a two-second lead over Canada’s Wickens and Portugal’s Albuquerque. The Portuguese rookie started on the front row but made a mistake as Jani pulled away, allowing Wickens to sneak through from behind and take second. Albuquerque put pressure on the Canadian throughout the race but couldn’t make it past and the pair went on to cross the line in second and third position, a massive 4.6 seconds behind race winner Jani.
 
‘It is a great start to the day,’ Jani said. ‘I hope I can do it again in the second race and if we are lucky we can even get the Championship. I tried to quickly get some distance between me and the other guys behind me so I would have a calm race. I still had to push to try and get the quickest lap because Robert (Canada) had it once off me so I had to push again, and I had to fight a little bit with the car so we can still improve it and hopefully be even quicker.’
 
Malaysia’s Alex Yoong, who started seventh, shot up to fourth at the start and enjoyed a good, clean race to finish fourth ahead of India’s Narain Karthikeyan in fifth. The Indian driver managed to hold off Germany’s Michael Ammermuller, who crossed the line sixth and was closely followed by South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg and Italy’s Edoardo Piscopo in seventh and eighth place respectively.
 
China’s Congfu Cheng got a superb start from 15th on the grid, making up five places to take tenth from Ireland’s Adam Carroll, slotting in behind Great Britain’s Robbie Kerr. Cheng pushed hard throughout the ten-lap race and excited the local fans when he looked like he was going to make a move past the GBR car with two laps to go. The Chinese driver went on to cross the line tenth behind GBR’s Kerr and take the final championship point.