A1GP news
Disappointment for Ireland
29 April 2007In this morning's sprint race A1 Team Ireland started from the sixth row of the grid, and made up two places at the first corner with Richard Lyons effectively negotiating his way through the traffic. Lyons finished eighth.
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An good start to the feature race saw Lyons take up to sixth place early on, but progress was slowed when the safety car came out due to a heavy crash into the tyre wall for Team Australia. The race was resumed with Lyons attacking the front runners, just as the team were preparing for their pit stop on lap nine the safety car was deployed. As many of the leading runners had already pitted prior to the safety car period, the team were left leading the race but knowing they would lose this advantage when the pit stop came.
Richard Lyons commented, "I am very disappointed with the outcome of the race because we had so many supporters of A1 Team Ireland here with us today in Brands Hatch. The car was showing great promise from the first few laps of the race, and I felt that we could have hoped of achieving our goal for a podium finish if the pit timing had been right. Despite our difficulties today, I will look forward to racing for Team Ireland in the 07/08 season as I feel that I have unfinished business here."
Technical director Gary Anderson added, "We are all disappointed with this result as Richard was driving well despite the car still struggling with understeer. We were unfortunate with the timing of our pit stop as the safety car came out two and a half seconds before our intended pit time. We then had to wait until it went back in again, and made the decision for Richard to push the car until the end of the pit session to try and put as much time between us and the other drivers."
Team boss Mark Gallagher concluded, "The entire team did a fabulous job today and Richard drove very well to secure 8th position in the sprint race and moved straight to 6th at the start of the feature. It was the worst possible luck that the pit lane closed at precisely the time we were due to make our pit-stop and after that we had no alternative but to stay out. It was nice to see the car at the front for a few laps and that motivates us to see that again next season as we continue our battle to see Ireland win in the World Cup of Motorsport."
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