Carpentier in the points on A1 Team Canada debut

Courtesy Stuart Morrison Public Relations

26th February 2006, Round 9 – A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Parque Fundidora, Monterrey, Mexico Qualified: 19th / Sprint Race Finish: 9th / Feature Race Finish: 15th / Series standing: 10th (44pts)

A1 Team Canada picked up two more points today in the ninth round of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations as Patrick Carpentier made his debut for the team in the inaugural ‘World Cup of Motorsport.’ The Québec-native, with four career starts at the 3.38km Parque Fundidora, raced his way to 9th place, and the points, in the Sprint race before pit problems in the Feature resulted in a 15th place finish.

Sprint Race, 18-laps (Winner – A1 Team France, Alexandre Premat)
A veteran of rolling starts, Patrick picked through the order as the Sprint race commenced. Up six places to 13th, the arrival of the safety car at the end of the first lap should have put paid to further progression but an incident under caution involving A1 Team Japan and A1 Team New Zealand placed Patrick 11th when racing resumed on lap 7. Breaking into the top-ten the Canadian then skillfully avoided the wheel-banging duo of Robbie Kerr and Christian Fittipaldi, in the British and Brazilian entries respectively, to move up to ninth place to score two points for A1 Team Canada while securing a top-ten starting slot for the hour-long Feature race.

Feature Race, 36-laps (Winner – A1 Team France, Alexandre Premat)
Another strong get away from Patrick, this time from a standing start, saw him move up to eighth on the first lap. The majority of the field opted to take their mandatory pit stop at the end of the second lap and A1 Team Canada duly followed suit but a stuck wheel nut on the right rear tire effectively ended Carpentier’s challenge. The team’s misfortunes were compounded even further when Patrick incurred a speeding violation as he accidentally selected his pass button instead of his pit limiter pulling away from the stop. Taking his drive-through penalty on the next tour, a lap was lost to the race leaders by the time Patrick was free to resume his charge. Despite this, the pace of the A1 Team Canada entry was encouraging with Patrick eventually taking the checkered flag in 15th.

Patrick Carpentier:
“The first race went really well, I benefited from the improvements made to the car over the weekend. I was getting used to the car each time, understanding you can’t be too aggressive behind the wheel! I was hoping for a strong finish in the second race but we lost over a minute in the pits then with the penalty we were down a lap. Overall though I’m really happy! The guys on the team did a great job and they stuck with me through the learning process. For Sean (McIntosh) to have won a race last time out proves he’s fast as this is a very competitive series. It was a good experience!”

Laguna Seca, California, USA hosts Round 10 of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, 10-12 March 2006.
Standings: 1st France (153), 2nd Switzerland (121), 3rd Great Britain (73), 4th Brazil (70), 5th Netherlands (69), 6th New Zealand (64), 7th Malaysia (53), 8th Portugal (51), 9th Ireland (50), 10th Canada (44)