OCTOBER 24, 2005

France dominates A1 in Estoril

The French national team, run by DAMS and represented by Alexandre Premat won the two A1 Grand Prix races at Estoril at the weekend. Premat took the lead at the first corner in the sprint race, beating Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr. The pair finished the race in that order with Switzerland's Neel Jani in third place.

In the main race Premat was similarly dominant after Brazil, the Netherlands and Russia were left sitting on the grid at the start. This left Premat leading Portugal (Alvaro Parente) and the Czech Republic (Tomas Enge). Parente would lose ground later when he stalled during the pit stops and Switzerland (Jani) and Ireland (Ralph Firman Jr) ended up in second and third places by the end. USA's Scott Speed was fourth ahead of Parente and Australia's Will Davison.

France leads the series with 50 points, ahead of Brazil (42) and Switzerland (34). New Zealand is fourth with 29. The racing now moves to Australia where the A1 series will be in action at Eastern Creek on November 6.