2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia

The 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia was an A1 Grand Prix race held at Sepang International Circuit, Sepang, Malaysia.

2008–09 A1GP of Malaysia
Race Details
Race 3 of 7 in the 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix season
Date	November 23, 2008
Location	Sepang International Circuit Sepang, Malaysia
Weather	Dry
Sprint race
Qualifying
Pole	Switzerland (Neel Jani)
Time	1'47.154
Podium
1st	Switzerland (Neel Jani)
2nd	France (Loïc Duval)
3rd	New Zealand (Earl Bamber)
Fastest Lap
FL	Switzerland (Neel Jani)
Time	1'48.550, (Lap 8)
Feature race
Qualifying
Pole	Ireland (Adam Carroll)
Time	1'47.124
Podium
1st	Ireland (Adam Carroll)
2nd	Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque)
3rd	USA (Marco Andretti)
Fastest Lap
FL	Ireland (Adam Carroll)
Time	1'48.563, (Lap 25)
Official Classifications
PDF Booklet

Pre-race

Because Great Britain, India and Mexico had only joined the season at the Chinese round, they were permitted to take part in a special practice session on November 20.^[1] In the wet conditions, Narain Karthikeyan was the fastest driver just in front of Danny Watts. Davíd Garza Pérez was the slowest with 3 seconds.

Drivers

Team	Main Driver	Rookie Driver[2]	Reserve Driver
Australia	John Martin	Ashley Walsh[3]
Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	Felipe Guimarães
Canada	Did not participate
China	Ho-Pin Tung		Congfu Cheng
France	Loïc Duval[4]	Nicolas Prost
Germany	Did not participate
Great Britain	Danny Watts[4]	Danny Watts	James Winslow
India	Narain Karthikeyan	Armaan Ebrahim
Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	Zahir Ali
Ireland	Adam Carroll[4]	Niall Quinn
Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	Stefano Coletti
Korea	Hwang Jin-Woo	Hwang Jin-Woo
Lebanon	Daniel Morad	Daniel Morad	Jimmy Auby
Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy[5]	Aaron Lim[5]
Mexico	Davíd Garza Pérez
Monaco	Clivio Piccione
The Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen[4]	Dennis Retera
New Zealand	Earl Bamber[6]	Earl Bamber	Chris van der Drift
Pakistan	Did not participate
Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque[4]	Armando Parente[7]
South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	Gavin Cronje
Switzerland	Neel Jani	Alexandre Imperatori
USA	Marco Andretti[4]	J. R. Hildebrand

Qualifying

The qualifying sessions were the first to utilise the new "joker" Qualifying lap rule – where the driver has PowerBoost available for use over an entire qualifying lap, to be used in any session at the team's discretion.^[8]

Sprint race qualifying[9] Pos Team Time Gap 1 Switzerland 1'47.154 – 2 France 1'47.747 +0.593 3 New Zealand 1'47.779 +0.625 4 Portugal 1'48.930 +1.776 5 Italy 1'49.007 +1.853 6 Great Britain 1'49.076 +1.922 7 Ireland 1'49.197 +2.043 8 Mexico 1'49.293 +2.139 9 Netherlands 1'49.323 +2.169 10 India 1'49.350 +2.196 11 South Africa 1'49.528 +2.374 12 USA 1'49.650 +2.496 13 Malaysia 1'49.753 +2.599 14 Brazil 1'50.085 +2.931 15 Monaco 1'50.171 +3.017 16 Australia (1) 1'49.998 +2.844 17 China 1'50.274 +3.120 18 Lebanon 1'50.382 +3.228 19 Indonesia 1'51.423 +4.269 20 Korea no time –

Feature race qualifying[10] Pos Team Time Gap 1 Ireland 1'47.124 – 2 Great Britain 1'47.340 +0.216 3 Lebanon 1'47.645 +0.521 4 Malaysia 1'47.648 +0.524 5 Portugal 1'47.680 +0.556 6 Netherlands 1'47.825 +0.701 7 India 1'47.848 +0.724 8 USA 1'47.866 +0.742 9 France 1'47.993 +0.869 10 China 1'48.126 +1.002 11 Monaco 1'48.242 +1.118 12 Brazil 1'48.323 +1.199 13 Australia 1'48.586 +1.462 14 Indonesia 1'48.839 +1.715 15 New Zealand 1'48.866 +1.742 16 Switzerland 1'48.980 +1.856 17 South Africa 1'49.061 +1.937 18 Mexico 1'49.537 +2.413 19 Italy 1'49.885 +2.761 20 Korea no time –

• (1) : Australia received a two-place grid penalty for the Sprint race for using a non-approved part in practice.^[11]

Sprint Race

Following a major crash at the first start, involving USA, Brazil and India, and the pack slowed down after it seemed to have accelerated off, the race was delayed 30 minutes for track cleanup, and reduced to 11 laps.

This Sprint Race was the first this season to utilise the new Sprint Race pit-stop rule, the windows always set for Laps 4–8.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Switzerland	Neel Jani	11	22'41.567	10 +1
2	France	Loïc Duval	11	+9.912	8
3	New Zealand	Earl Bamber	11	+11.813	6
4	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	11	+12.453	5
5	Ireland	Adam Carroll	11	+13.205	4
6	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	11	+15.399	3
7	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	11	+19.947	2
8	Australia	John Martin	11	+21.437	1
9	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	11	+27.674
10	China	Ho-Pin Tung	11	+29.492
11	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	11	+32.049
12	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	11	+32.406
13	Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	11	+38.959
14	Mexico	Davíd Garza Pérez	11	+55.055
15	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	10	+1 lap
Ret	Great Britain	Danny Watts	4	Gearbox
Ret	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	0	Accident
Ret	India	Narain Karthikeyan	0	Accident
Ret	USA	Marco Andretti	0	Accident
DNS	Korea	Hwang Jin-Woo	–	Did not start

Race red-flagged after the start because of accident.

Feature Race

The second pit stop window was set for Laps 20–28. Switzerland were sent to the back of the grid for having a brake cooler in too long before the start, and a pit crew violation during the Sprint Race pit-stop.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Ireland	Adam Carroll	34	1:05'52.205	15 +1
2	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	34	+15.996	12
3	USA	Marco Andretti	34	+47.637	10
4	Australia	John Martin	34	+51.679	8
5	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	34	+52.106	6
6	New Zealand	Earl Bamber	34	+54.354	5
7	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	34	+57.369	4
8	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	34	+57.490	3
9	China	Ho-Pin Tung	34	+59.158	2
10	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	34	+1'03.888	1
11	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	34	+1'06.145
12	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	34	+1'14.990
13	Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	34	+1'15.761
14	France	Loïc Duval	34	+1'16.463
15	Mexico	Davíd Garza Pérez	34	+1'30.001
16	Great Britain	Danny Watts	28	+6 laps
Ret	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	2	Mechanical
Ret	India	Narain Karthikeyan	0	Collision
Ret	Switzerland	Neel Jani	0	Collision
DNS	Korea	Hwang Jin-Woo	–	Did not start

Notes

• It was the 35th race weekend (70 starts).
• It was the 4th race in Malaysia, and the 4th at Sepang International Circuit.
• It was the first race weekend as rookie driver for Stefano Coletti, J. R. Hildebrand, Armando Parente and Ashley Walsh.
• Records
  • Switzerland scored their 9th pole position as Neel Jani.
  • Neel Jani scored their 7th fastest lap.