The 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Great Britain was an A1 Grand Prix race at Brands Hatch, England. It was set to be the final round of the 2008-09 A1 Grand Prix season, but became the season finale, due to the cancellation of the Mexican round due to the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Ultimately, it would be the last race for A1GP as bankruptcy followed later in the year.
A1 Team Ireland became the fourth A1 Grand Prix champions, with a double pole position, and double victory, to take Ireland's first international motor racing championship.
Title Battle With the British round now becoming the season finale, this left the championship in a three-way battle for the title.
Switzerland lead going into the event with 88 points, with four points to drop; followed by Ireland with 86, and Portugal with 82. The Netherlands are currently too far behind to win the title with 66 points, as even though 27 points are on offer for maximum score, the team has to drop 6 points from their worst event.
Also, even if all the teams finish equal of points, the tie-breaker rules would come into play. Currently Switzerland would win the title with four wins, to Ireland's three, and Portugal's one.
Drivers TeamMain DriverRookie Driver(s)Reserve Driver AustraliaJohn Martin BrazilFelipe Guimarães CanadaDid Not Participate ChinaCongfu ChengHo-Pin Tung FranceNicolas ProstNicolas Prost GermanyMichael Ammermüller Great BritainDan ClarkeAaron Steele IndiaNarain KarthikeyanParthiva Sureshwaren IndonesiaSatrio Hermanto IrelandAdam CarrollNiall Quinn ItalyVitantonio Liuzzi KoreaDid Not Participate LebanonDaniel MoradJimmy Auby MalaysiaAaron Lim MexicoSalvador DuránJuan Pablo Garcia MonacoClivio PiccioneHubertus Bahlsen The NetherlandsJeroen BleekemolenDennis Retera New ZealandEarl Bamber PakistanDid Not Participate PortugalFilipe Albuquerque South AfricaAlan van der MerweCristiano Morgado SwitzerlandNeel JaniAlexandre Imperatori USAJ. R. Hildebrand
Qualifying Sprint race qualifyingPosTeamTimeGap1 Ireland1:11.615 -2 Mexico1:11.653† + 0.0383 Netherlands1:11.992 + 0.3774 USA1:11.994† + 0.3795 Portugal1:12.040† + 0.4256 New Zealand1:12.108† + 0.4937 India1:12.109† + 0.4948 Switzerland1:12.212 + 0.5979 Indonesia1:12.658† + 1.04310 Australia1:12.745 + 1.13011 Lebanon1:12.889† + 1.27412 France1:13.011 + 1.39613 Great Britain1:13.019 + 1.40414 Monaco1:13.260 + 1.64515 Germany1:13.329 + 1.71416 Italy1:13.549† + 1.93417 Brazil1:13.584 + 1.96918 Malaysia1:13.686† + 2.07119 South Africa1:13.854 + 2.23920 China1:13.861 + 2.246Feature race qualifyingPosTeamTimeGap1 Ireland1:10.902† -2 Monaco1:11.085† + 0.1833 Netherlands1:11.146† + 0.2444 Switzerland1:11.338† + 0.4365 France1:11.543† + 0.6416 New Zealand1:11.633 + 0.7317 Australia1:11.930† + 1.0288 China1:12.180† + 1.2789 Portugal1:12.270 + 1.36810 India1:12.397 + 1.49511 USA1:12.662 + 1.76012 South Africa1:12.730† + 1.82813 Mexico1:12.740 + 1.83814 Great Britain1:12.756† + 1.85415 Lebanon1:12.766 + 1.86416 Germany1:12.797† + 1.89517 Brazil1:13.048† + 2.14618 Italy1:13.131 + 2.22919 Indonesia1:13.560 + 2.65820 Malaysia1:14.203 + 3.301 † Team utilized Powerboost "joker" qualifying lap.
Sprint Race PosTeamDriverLapsTimePoints1 IrelandAdam Carroll1822:32.70410+12 IndiaNarain Karthikeyan18 + 7.23083 MexicoSalvador Durán18 + 12.34064 USAJ. R. Hildebrand18 + 12.68955 PortugalFilipe Albuquerque18 + 13.01846 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen18 + 13.78337 AustraliaJohn Martin18 + 15.20828 SwitzerlandNeel Jani18 + 22.22019 FranceNicolas Prost18 + 22.94510 ItalyVitantonio Liuzzi18 + 27.06211 GermanyMichael Ammermüller18 + 31.94712 IndonesiaSatrio Hermanto18 + 33.15913 Great BritainDan Clarke18 + 33.54114 ChinaCheng Congfu18 + 34.96315 South AfricaAlan van der Merwe18 + 40.48816 MalaysiaAaron Lim18 + 41.52817 LebanonDaniel Morad13 Spin18 New ZealandEarl Bamber13 Spin19 MonacoClivio Piccione8 Fire20 BrazilFelipe Guimarães Did Not Start
Feature Race PosTeamDriverLapsTimePoints1 IrelandAdam Carroll491:04:14.970152 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen49 + 10.156123 SwitzerlandNeel Jani49 + 13.564104 MonacoClivio Piccione49 + 14.29385 PortugalFilipe Albuquerque49 + 16.48466 MexicoSalvador Durán49 + 21.81057 Great BritainDan Clarke49 + 23.40948 AustraliaJohn Martin49 + 24.4933+19 ItalyVitantonio Liuzzi49 + 46.004210 FranceNicolas Prost49 + 49.094111 South AfricaAlan van der Merwe49 + 1:13.90512 LebanonDaniel Morad49 + 1:16.25713 IndonesiaSatrio Hermanto48 + 1 Lap14 USAJ. R. Hildebrand48 + 1 Lap15 MalaysiaAaron Lim27 Spin16 GermanyMichael Ammermüller26 Exhaust17 New ZealandEarl Bamber6 Spin18 IndiaNarain Karthikeyan0 Accident19 ChinaCheng Congfu0 Collision20 BrazilFelipe Guimarães Did Not Start
Notes It was the 39th race weekend (78 starts). It was the fourth race to be held in Great Britain at Brands Hatch, as well as the third time the track has hosted the season finale. It was the first race as main driver for J. R. Hildebrand and Aaron Lim. It was the first race as rookie driver for Aaron Steele. Ireland scored their second double pole-position of the season, and the only double win of the season.
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