The 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Beijing, China was an A1 Grand Prix race, held on November 12, 2006 at Beijing International Streetcircuit, Beijing, China. 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 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 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 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's Adrian Zaugg spun and stalled his car and blocked half of the track. Bleekemolen won the race for the Netherlands, with Salvador Durán of Mexico and A1 Team Italy's Enrico Toccacelo in second and third.

Toccacelo won the feature race, with Britain's Oliver Jarvis second and Australia's Karl Reindler a surprise third after James Hinchcliffe 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.

PosTeamDriverLapsQuickest TimeGap1 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen161:00.093--2 MexicoSalvador Durán111:00.583+ 0.4903 ItalyEnrico Toccacelo141:00.942+ 0.8494 CanadaJames Hinchcliffe111:01.103+ 1.0105 GermanyNico Hülkenberg111:01.275+ 1.1826 BrazilRaphael Matos181:01.306+ 1.2137 South AfricaAdrian Zaugg111:01.361+ 1.2688 Great BritainOliver Jarvis191:01.404+ 1.3119 Czech RepublicTomáš Enge211:01.555+ 1.46210 SwitzerlandNeel Jani111:01.711+ 1.61811 IrelandMichael Devaney121:02.810+ 2.71712 New ZealandMatt Halliday111:02.852+ 2.75913 USAPhilip Giebler111:02.916+ 2.82314 AustraliaKarl Reindler101:02.999+ 2.90615 ChinaCongfu Cheng161:03.275+ 3.18216 MalaysiaAlex Yoong81:04.246+ 4.15317 SingaporeChristian Murchison61:05.897+ 5.80418 IndonesiaAnanda Mikola91:06.038+ 5.94519 IndiaArmaan Ebrahim141:06.056+ 5.96320 LebanonBasil Shaaban141:06.389+ 6.29621 FranceNicolas Lapierre31:09.662+ 9.56922 PakistanNur B. Ali131:10.263+ 10.170

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

PosTeamDriverLapsTimePoints1 NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen1520'28.42062 MexicoSalvador Durán15+ 1.46453 ItalyEnrico Toccacelo15+ 2.31144 CanadaJames Hinchcliffe15+ 3.37535 GermanyNico Hülkenberg15+ 3.94326 BrazilRaphael Matos15+ 4.40017 Great BritainOliver Jarvis15+ 7.3778 Czech RepublicTomáš Enge15+ 8.3979 SwitzerlandNeel Jani15+ 8.84910 New ZealandMatt Halliday15+ 9.26511 USAPhilip Giebler15+ 10.42212 AustraliaKarl Reindler15+ 11.92013 ChinaCongfu Cheng15+ 13.21614 MalaysiaAlex Yoong15+ 17.02715 IndonesiaAnanda Mikola15+ 18.47916 SingaporeChristian Murchison15+ 20.65917 FranceNicolas Lapierre15+ 20.80218 IndiaArmaan Ebrahim15+ 22.25319 LebanonBasil Shaaban15+ 22.78320 IrelandMichael Devaney15+ 23.24721 PakistanNur B. Ali15+ 47.541DNF South AfricaAdrian Zaugg2+ 13 laps

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.

PosTeamDriverLapsTimePoints1 ItalyEnrico Toccacelo631.10.15.919102 Great BritainOliver Jarvis63+ 4.50893 AustraliaKarl Reindler63+ 5.91784 FranceNicolas Lapierre63+ 12.90075 South AfricaAdrian Zaugg63+ 13.27866 Czech RepublicTomáš Enge63+ 13.68457 BrazilRaphael Matos63+ 14.83948 SingaporeChristian Murchison63+ 16.48639 New ZealandMatt Halliday63+ 17.005210 CanadaJames Hinchcliffe62+ 1 Lap111 IndiaArmaan Ebrahim62+ 1 Lap12 MalaysiaAlex Yoong61+ 2 Laps13 LebanonBasil Shaaban61+ 2 LapsDNF NetherlandsJeroen Bleekemolen53+ 10 LapsDNF GermanyNico Hülkenberg53+ 10 LapsDNF IndonesiaAnanda Mikola36+ 27 LapsDNF ChinaCongfu Cheng28+ 35 LapsDNF USAPhilip Giebler21+ 42 LapsDNF SwitzerlandNeel Jani20+ 43 LapsDNF MexicoSalvador Durán14+ 49 LapsDNF IrelandMichael Devaney3+ 60 LapsDNF PakistanNur B. Ali1+ 62 Laps

Similar problems in China Similar problems have occurred before in China. The 2004 DTM race around the streets of Pudong in Shanghai was hampered by crashes due to manhole covers becoming undone; the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix on the Shanghai International Circuit 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 race on the same circuit a few months before.

References