France clinch A1GP Championship
France were crowned A1 Grand Prix champions as Mexico won both the sprint and feature races at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California.
Nicolas Lapierre was second in the sprint race behind Salvador Duran to secure the first A1 Grand Prix series title for France.
“The team has been brilliant,” Lapierre told a1gp.com. “We have had a great season, with 13 wins and winning the series two races early.”
A relentless Lapierre was also leading the feature race when technical problems forced him to retire.
That allowed Mexico to became only the third team to win a double header over an A1 Grand Prix weekend.
Ireland’s Ralph Firman was fifth in the sprint race and sixth in the feature race, to climb to a respectable eight in the overall Championship standings.
Robbie Kerr took fourth place in the sprint race and third in the feature race to strengthen Britain’s hold on third place in the championship, behind Switzerland.
It was Kerr’s last drive of the season, and he said: “Generally the season has been brilliant. Hopefully I will be back next year.”
Results for Valencia, California, United States:
Sprint Race (16 laps):
1 Mexico 31mins 7.422secs
2 France 31:09.193
3 Portugal 31:15.462
4 Great Britain 31:20.213
5 Ireland 31:31.812
6 Canada 31:33.449
7 Germany 31:33.838
8 New Zealand 31:37.896
9 USA 31:38.456
10 Australia 31:42.069
11 South Africa 31:43.393
12 Austria 31:59.182
13 Brazil 32:01.622
14 Netherlands 32:02.688
15 Pakistan 32:05.098
16 Switzerland 32:07.900
17 China 32:20.430
18 Czech Republic at 1 laps
19 Italy at 1 laps
20 Indonesia at 4 laps
21 Lebanon at 7 laps
22 Malaysia at 9 laps
Feature race (40 laps):
1 Mexico 1hr 0mins 52.974secs
2 Germany 1:00:55.016
3 Great Britain 1:00:56.091
4 Portugal 1:01:03.394
5 Canada 1:01:07.157
6 Ireland 1:01:13.779
7 Italy 1:01:16.173
8 Australia 1:01:17.210
9 Austria 1:01:22.203
10 Malaysia 1:01:23.046
11 Pakistan 1:01:24.365
12 New Zealand 1:01:24.951
13 Switzerland at 2 laps
14 France at 3 laps
15 USA at 3 laps
16 Czech Republic at 6 laps
17 China at 7 laps
18 Brazil at 11 laps
19 Indonesia at 12 laps
20 Lebanon at 13 laps
21 Netherlands at 23 laps
22 South Africa at 37 laps
Championship standings:
1 France 163pts
2 Switzerland 121
3 Great Britain 88
4 Brazil 70
5 Netherlands 69
6 New Zealand 67
7 Portugal 66
8 Ireland 61
9 Canada 55
10 Malaysia 54
11 Mexico 48
12 Italy 44
13= Australia 41, Czech Republic 41
15 Germany 38
16 USA 22
17 South Africa 20
18 Austria 14
19 Indonesia 10
20 Japan 8
21 China 6
22 Pakistan 4.
