The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Mexico gave A1 Team Malaysia its third win of the season today, with a dominant performance by the team in the Sprint race. A fifth place finish in the main Feature race added to the team's total points in the World Cup of Motorsport, and moved Malaysia up to fifth position in the overall championship standings.The Sprint race was a flag-to-flag victory for the Malaysian team.
From the rolling start Yoong kept the pack behind him in the run down to the first corner. The British car was behind, but Yoong was able to keep it at bay, with an unrivalled race pace that was untouchable. Malaysia gave a superlative performance to seal the win, with a comfortable two second lead, and a reward of six World Cup of Motorsport points.
Just before the start of the formation lap, on the grid for the Feature race, the team realised it had a problem with a damaged crash box after finding difficulties jacking the car. Despite the difficulties the team were able to take the start but Alex Yoong was very slow to pick up speed and dropped down to seventh place by the first corner. Yoong fought back to sixth and maintained position until the scheduled pit stop.
The pitstop was slower than normal, as the earlier grid problem created further issues with the jacking of the car to change the tyres. Returning to the track and after all the teams had pitted, the Malaysian team were lying fifth. The Portuguese and New Zealand cars were close behind and attacking hard, but lap after lap Yoong defended his position, determined to finish the race in the best position possible. He kept his concentration and wore down his pursuers and, after a tough 45 laps, was able to take the chequered flag in fifth.
Yoong said after the races, "For the Sprint race, it was great to be out in front and it's such an advantage, as we saw today, with the incidents happening behind me. We had new tyres left over from qualifying, so we were able to control the race from the front and it was fairly straight forward. However we knew we had a big understeer problem with the car, and we thought we might have a problem in the Feature race with a heavy fuel tank, and we did. We just didn't have the pace for it in the end. I had to defend hard, but there was no way I was going to let them through and I'm happy with the fifth. "As for the start, I don't know what happened, I was very easy on the clutch, but it just wouldn't go; it was a bit of a disaster. We also lost time in the pits after our grid problems, but overall it's been a good weekend, and taking fifth back in the championship is the right reward for the team.
"Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive, A1 Team Malaysia, commented, "It's been a great weekend for Team Malaysia and I'm delighted that all the hard work of the team has been repaid with a superb victory and a well-deserved fifth place. It's taken a few weekends of racing for us to regain our form, but we're back in the hunt now. We've been up there all weekend and showed that we're winners, and can battle for every point. I'd like to thank everyone in Team Malaysia for their efforts this weekend. It's our teamwork that gets us to the front and we never underestimate the role that everyone plays in reaching our goals. Alex has driven with great confidence and determination this weekend and I commend him on his performance, it's been first class."The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport heads to China in three weeks time, for the penultimate round of the 2006/07 season. The Series has travelled the globe since its first event in Zandvoort, Netherlands, visiting Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas over the course of seven months.
