The 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia was an A1 Grand Prix race held at Sepang International Circuit, Sepang, Malaysia.
Pre-race Because Great Britain, India and Mexico had only joined the season at the Chinese round, they were permitted to take part in a special practice session on November 20. In the wet conditions, Narain Karthikeyan was the fastest driver just in front of Danny Watts. Davíd Garza Pérez was the slowest with 3 seconds.
Drivers TeamMain DriverRookie Driver Reserve Driver AustraliaJohn MartinAshley Walsh BrazilFelipe GuimarãesFelipe Guimarães CanadaDid not participate ChinaHo-Pin TungCongfu Cheng FranceLoïc DuvalNicolas Prost GermanyDid not participate Great BritainDanny Watts Danny Watts James Winslow IndiaNarain KarthikeyanArmaan Ebrahim IndonesiaSatrio HermantoZahir Ali IrelandAdam CarrollNiall Quinn ItalyEdoardo PiscopoStefano Coletti KoreaHwang Jin-WooHwang Jin-Woo LebanonDaniel Morad Daniel Morad Jimmy Auby MalaysiaFairuz FauzyAaron Lim MexicoDavíd Garza Pérez MonacoClivio Piccione The NetherlandsJeroen BleekemolenDennis Retera New ZealandEarl BamberEarl Bamber Chris van der Drift PakistanDid not participate PortugalFilipe AlbuquerqueArmando Parente sapo.pt South AfricaAdrian ZauggGavin Cronje SwitzerlandNeel JaniAlexandre Imperatori USAMarco AndrettiJ. R. Hildebrand
Qualifying The qualifying sessions were the first to utilise the new "joker" Qualifying lap rule – where the driver has PowerBoost available for use over an entire qualifying lap, to be used in any session at the team's discretion. Sprint race qualifyingPosTeamTimeGap1 Switzerland1'47.154 –2 France1'47.747 +0.5933 New Zealand1'47.779 +0.6254 Portugal1'48.930 +1.7765 Italy1'49.007 +1.8536 Great Britain1'49.076 +1.9227 Ireland1'49.197 +2.0438 Mexico1'49.293 +2.1399 Netherlands1'49.323 +2.16910 India1'49.350 +2.19611 South Africa1'49.528 +2.37412 USA1'49.650 +2.49613 Malaysia1'49.753 +2.59914 Brazil1'50.085 +2.93115 Monaco1'50.171 +3.01716 Australia (1)1'49.998 +2.84417 China1'50.274 +3.12018 Lebanon1'50.382 +3.22819 Indonesia1'51.423 +4.26920 Koreano time –Feature race qualifyingPosTeamTimeGap1 Ireland1'47.124 –2 Great Britain1'47.340 +0.2163 Lebanon1'47.645 +0.5214 Malaysia1'47.648 +0.5245 Portugal1'47.680 +0.5566 Netherlands1'47.825 +0.7017 India1'47.848 +0.7248 USA1'47.866 +0.7429 France1'47.993 +0.86910 China1'48.126 +1.00211 Monaco1'48.242 +1.11812 Brazil1'48.323 +1.19913 Australia1'48.586 +1.46214 Indonesia1'48.839 +1.71515 New Zealand1'48.866 +1.74216 Switzerland1'48.980 +1.85617 South Africa1'49.061 +1.93718 Mexico1'49.537 +2.41319 Italy1'49.885 +2.76120 Koreano time – (1) : Australia received a two-place grid penalty for the Sprint race for using a non-approved part in practice.
Sprint Race Following a major crash at the first start, involving USA, Brazil and India, and the pack slowed down after it seemed to have accelerated off, the race was delayed 30 minutes for track cleanup, and reduced to 11 laps.
This Sprint Race was the first this season to utilise the new Sprint Race pit-stop rule, the windows always set for Laps 4–8.
PosTeamDriverLapsTimePoints1 SwitzerlandNeel Jani1122'41.56710 +12 FranceLoïc Duval11+9.91283 New ZealandEarl Bamber11+11.81364 PortugalFilipe Albuquerque11+12.45355 IrelandAdam Carroll11+13.20546 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen11+15.39937 ItalyEdoardo Piscopo11+19.94728 AustraliaJohn Martin11+21.43719 South AfricaAdrian Zaugg11+27.67410 ChinaHo-Pin Tung11+29.49211 LebanonDaniel Morad11+32.04912 MonacoClivio Piccione11+32.40613 IndonesiaSatrio Hermanto11+38.95914 MexicoDavíd Garza Pérez11+55.05515 MalaysiaFairuz Fauzy10+1 lapRet Great BritainDanny Watts4GearboxRet BrazilFelipe Guimarães0AccidentRet IndiaNarain Karthikeyan0AccidentRet USAMarco Andretti0AccidentDNS KoreaHwang Jin-Woo –Did not start Race red-flagged after the start because of accident.
Feature Race The second pit stop window was set for Laps 20–28. Switzerland were sent to the back of the grid for having a brake cooler in too long before the start, and a pit crew violation during the Sprint Race pit-stop.
PosTeamDriverLapsTimePoints1 IrelandAdam Carroll341:05'52.20515 +12 PortugalFilipe Albuquerque34 +15.996123 USAMarco Andretti34 +47.637104 AustraliaJohn Martin34 +51.67985 South AfricaAdrian Zaugg34 +52.10666 New ZealandEarl Bamber34 +54.35457 BrazilFelipe Guimarães34 +57.36948 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen34 +57.49039 ChinaHo-Pin Tung34 +59.158210 MalaysiaFairuz Fauzy34 +1'03.888111 ItalyEdoardo Piscopo34 +1'06.14512 LebanonDaniel Morad34 +1'14.99013 IndonesiaSatrio Hermanto34 +1'15.76114 FranceLoïc Duval34 +1'16.46315 MexicoDavíd Garza Pérez34 +1'30.00116 Great BritainDanny Watts28 +6 lapsRet MonacoClivio Piccione2MechanicalRet IndiaNarain Karthikeyan0CollisionRet SwitzerlandNeel Jani0CollisionDNS KoreaHwang Jin-Woo –Did not start
Notes It was the 35th race weekend (70 starts). It was the 4th race in Malaysia, and the 4th at Sepang International Circuit. It was the first race weekend as rookie driver for Stefano Coletti, J. R. Hildebrand, Armando Parente and Ashley Walsh. Records Switzerland scored their 9th pole position as Neel Jani. Neel Jani scored their 7th fastest lap.
References
External links Switzerland's Sepang Sprint Sprint race: as it happened Sprint race results Feature Glory for Ireland Feature race results