A1GP news

Netherlands celebrates strong run to fourth

A very strong race has brought A1 Team Netherlands the fourth place and seven points. With this the team made up completely for the somewhat disappointing qualifying on Saturday. It was the debut for A1 Team Netherlands Rookie Renger van der Zande in an A1GP Feature race.

In the Sprintrace Van der Zande laid the foundation for points with a ninth place finish. From a fourteenth grid position Renger, who had a good start, immediately passed China and Italy and climbed more places after Canada and France retired.

From ninth on the grid Renger van der Zande was caught out a bit at the start after a battle with Malaysia of which Italy took advantage, but from that moment on the A1 Team Netherlands Rookie steadily moved towards the front of the field.

The start of the race was marked by multiple safety car situations after South Africa, Mexico and Malaysia went off. Because of the retirement and setback of some teams A1 Team Netherlands was able to make up more places. A super quick pitstop by the team brought A1 Team Netherlands even more spots forward. After USA Van der Zande was in fourth, right behind A1 Team Germany. At the restart of the race it became tense briefly because of Ireland, but Van der Zande kept his cool and brought the A1 Team Netherlands car across the finish in fourth.

Of course Renger van der Zande was very happy after the race; "This is great. With this result we more than made up for the qualifying. From P14 to P4 in two races, that is just super cool! I think that this was the maximum result for us. The changes to the car together with the team were superb, the race pace was there. When Italy went in I drove a couple more laps and that worked very well, tactically it was also perfect. I did push like mad, right until the last lap. Then you see that you are gaining places, also because of the pitstop. I think that the stop has never been this fast before, it felt I was only standing still for 9 seconds. The rest was staying out of trouble, grabbing the opportunities and setting fast lap times constantly".

Robert Hoevers, General Manager and again part of the pit crew; "We are very happy and also relieved, the whole weekend felt good, but that did not show during the qualifying, then you will see some doubts sneaking into the team. Fortunately Renger and the rest of the team kept working in a calm way and kept the faith. In the end the lap times in the Sprintrace, which were constantly around the 6th fastest time, gave a positive boost. In the Feature race Renger really got going and drove very consistent times which were around third of fourth fastest. The team also helped a hand with the fastest pitstop because of which we gained two places. Renger has shown that he is a true racer, very serious and determined, something we all already thought but now we know".

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