2006–07 A1 Grand Prix Of Nations, Beijing, China
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The 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, China was an
A1 Grand Prix A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd. operated as A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themse ...
race, held on November 12, 2006 at
Beijing International Streetcircuit The Jingkai Street Circuit, also known as the Beijing International Street Circuit, was a street circuit in Yizhuang, a suburb 10 miles (15 km) to the south-east of central Beijing, China. It was first used on the weekend of 10–12 Novemb ...
,
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. It was the third race in the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season and the first and the only meeting held at the circuit. Due to various safety concerns, the circuit was shortened, and the races started behind the safety car, with the Sprint Race was run mostly behind the safety car. These incidents led to questions about the management and organization of both the event and A1GP in general, eventually leading to series' collapse in 2009. Following the incident and the track's lack of funding, the first Chinese race of the season was moved to
Zhuhai International Circuit Zhuhai International Circuit (ZIC) () is located at Jin Ding town in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China. Motorsport started in Zhuhai when it hosted a race on its Zhuhai Street Circuit, street circuit in 1993. Racing continued there until ...
for the 2007-08 season.


Report


Practice

The first day of practice was canceled because of safety concerns, as the hairpin at the end of the backstraight was too tight for the cars to negotiate safely due to a 180 degree left turn – resulting in cars were running wide and stopping mid-corner. A revised track layout was devised for an extended Saturday practice session, creating a wider hairpin halfway up the straight, bypassing most of the old straight.


Qualifying

More problems arose in qualifying, when
manhole A manhole (utility hole, maintenance hole, or sewer hole) is an opening to a confined space such as a shaft (civil engineering), shaft, utility vault, or large container, vessel. Manholes, typically protected by a manhole cover, are often used ...
covers on the roads were coming undone due to the racing cars' high downforce and low center of gravity. Grid positions were decided based on practice times, resulting in A1 Team Netherlands driver
Jeroen Bleekemolen Jeroen Pascal Bleekemolen (born 23 October 1981 in Heemstede) is a Dutch professional Auto racing, racing driver. In the Chrysler Viper GTS-R he drove in the FIA GT Championship, with great success. He competed in the German Formula Three Champi ...
taking pole position for the Sprint race. Some advertising banners also came loose around the circuit.


Races

Both races started behind the safety car as the first corner was deemed unsafe. More than half the race was held under the safety car, as
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
's
Adrian Zaugg Adrian Zaugg (born 4 November 1986 in Singapore) is a former South African race car driver of Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nati ...
spun and stalled his car and blocked half of the track. Bleekemolen won the race for the Netherlands, with
Salvador Durán Salvador Durán Sánchez (born 6 May 1985) is a Mexican race car driver who raced in the FIA Formula E Championship for the Amlin Aguri team. Durán has also previously competed in A1 Grand Prix, Formula Renault 3.5, and the NASCAR Toyota Ser ...
of
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
and
A1 Team Italy A1 Team Italy was the Italian team of A1 Grand Prix, an international racing series. Management ''A1 Team Italy'' owner was Piercarlo Ghinzani. History 2008–09 season ''Drivers: Edoardo Piscopo, Fabio Onidi'' For the 2008–09 seaso ...
's
Enrico Toccacelo Enrico Toccacelo (born 14 December 1978 in Rome) is an Italian former auto racer with karting, GT and Formula 3000 experience. He won three F3000 events and briefly led Vitantonio Liuzzi in the 2004 championship before Liuzzi went on to win the ...
in second and third. Toccacelo won the feature race, with
Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
's
Oliver Jarvis Oliver Richard Benjamin Jarvis (born 9 January 1984) is a British professional racing driver currently racing in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, 2023 European Le Mans Series, European Le Mans Series an ...
second and
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
's
Karl Reindler Karl William Reindler (born 18 April 1985) is an Australian racing driver, who has previously competed in the Supercars Championship. He currently shares duties with Bruno Correia as the Medical Car driver for Formula One. Biography Formula T ...
a surprise third after
James Hinchcliffe James Douglas Meredith Hinchcliffe (born December 5, 1986) is a Canadian race car driver currently competing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship driving the No. 9 Lamborghini for Pfaff Motorsports. He is also a commentator for Fox Sports, FOX Sp ...
crashed out on the final lap. The feature race was shortened from 67 laps to 63 due to time constraints.


Results


Qualification

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.


Sprint Race results

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


Feature Race results

The Feature Race took place on Sunday, November 12, 2006. The race was initially scheduled for 67 laps, but was shortened by five laps.


Similar problems in China

Similar problems have occurred before in China. The 2004
DTM DTM may refer to: Sport * Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, a motor-racing series staged annually in Germany since 2000 * Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, a motor-racing championship staged in Germany from 1984 to 1995 Computing * Data Transfer ...
race around the streets of
Pudong Pudong is a list of administrative divisions of Shanghai, district of Shanghai located east of the Huangpu River, Huangpu, the river which flows through central Shanghai. The name ''Pudong'' was originally applied to the Huangpu's east bank (g ...
in
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
was hampered by crashes due to manhole covers becoming undone; the
2005 Chinese Grand Prix The 2005 Chinese Grand Prix (officially the 2005 Formula 1 Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix) was the nineteenth and final Formula One motor race of the 2005 Formula One season which took place on 16 October 2005 at the Shanghai International Circuit. ...
on the
Shanghai International Circuit The Shanghai International Circuit (), also called the SAIC Shanghai International Circuit () for sponsorship purposes, is a motorsport race track, situated in the Jiading District, Shanghai, China. The circuit is best known as the venue for the ...
was interrupted when the safety car had to be deployed when a water runoff drain became open. The same problem also occurred in the Australian
V8 Supercars The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...
race on the same circuit a few months before.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2006-07 A1 Grand Prix Of Nations, Beijing, China
Beijing, China Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
A1 Grand Prix A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd. operated as A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themse ...
Auto racing controversies