After Jos Verstappen had to retire in the very first lap of the Sprint race, after being hit, he came back very strong in the Feature race. Starting 23rd and despite a drive through penalty Jos finished seventh for A1 Team Netherlands and took home four points.
The Sunday started reasonably well for the Dutch team with a sixth place in the warm up. In the opening moments of the Sprintrace Verstappen, who started tenth, immediately went to the top of the field after a terrific start. Unfortunately Pakistan hit the left rear wheel of the Dutchman, who could drive back to the pits with a broken left rear suspension, but had to retire.
In the Feature race Verstappen started from the pitlane, after some clutch problems on the grid. This did not stop Jos from driving a very strong race. An early pitstop, after only two laps, which was executed very fast by the well trained team saw A1 Team Netherland move further forward. The drive through penalty, for working with two people on one corner of the car, was a brief setback. From a 17th position though Verstappen was running seventh within a few laps, repeating his strong performance at Brands Hatch.
A safety car and deteriorating tyres made Jos progress come to a halt, despite the fanatic support from the big crowd of clearly visible and loud Dutch fans that could not be missed. With a seventh place A1 Team Netherlands takes another four points. With that the team has a total of 8 points after two A1 Grand Prix (4 races).
Jos Verstappen: "It is a shame if you're pushed off in the first race. Then you move 20 places backwards. We were fifth in the first corner and if we could have started from fifth then it would have been a completely different race. They hit me on the rear of the car. If I had let some more room there, maybe it wouldn't have happened, but you cannot see it. It's so fast going into the first corner with the rolling start. Everything happens a lot quicker and you cannot look all the way back left in your mirrors. There is also a lot happening in front of you. They came in with the two of them, just an unlucky coincidence. It happens. Off course then you are very happy if you finish seventh. We had a great stop, absolutely spot on. But then you get a drive through penalty because we had worked with two many people in one corner. With that you lose two or three places, but still finishing seventh. I think that we should just be very, very pleased. It's the same as Brands Hatch and it's so much fun doing this. Overtaking, pushing the others in front of you and then put the car next to them, yeah that is fun!"
When asked if the powerboost should have an extra 20 horsepower Jos replies; "Maybe then overtaking will become a little bit too easy. Sure, it does help. If you're behind someone and you push the button you close in and then you can brake late and overtake for sure. But here the problem lies in the last corner before the main straight. You need very good traction coming up the straight. Especially at the end of the race my tyres were completely gone. Everybody had that, but if someone is a car length in front of you, he can hit the throttle a bit earlier and that is enough. Then you just won't make it", said Verstappen who, together with the whole Dutch team thanked the loud singing and cheering Dutch fans."
Graham Taylor, Team Netherlands engineer: "The second race was obviously better then the first one. Jos seems reasonably competitive. We choose to do an early pitstop because of where we started and that would have cycled us well forward. Unfortunately we picked up a penalty for what they (A1-red.) claim to be two people working on one corner. It's not written and clarified in the rules but verbally they said that the wheel has to be from a stationary position and one wheel was not stationary. So we picked up a drive through, same as Brazil and another team. The pitstop was very good, everybody was calm considering we had all the problems on the grid, the car had to be pushed off the grid, guys running backwards and forwards. It was a clutch problem on the grid, we could not pull away, so they pushed us into the pitlane. The clutch cooled, we started it up, Jos drove to the end of pitlane and pulled away normally. They let him go quite quickly so I don't think we lost a lot of time with that. At the end of the first lap he was 19th. I said to myself, if he is 15th or higher I let him go, if he was lower than that we do an early stop and hope for a safety car. The cycle was going really well. He came in just behind Canada and had a very competitive race from then on. Seventh from the back of the grid is good, but we need to improve and I'm sure we will."
Sprint Race Result
Feature Race Result
EuroSpeedway Points
A1 Championship Standings
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