A1GP news

Hinchcliffe blames Janis for exit

A1 Team Canada's James Hinchcliffe has hit out at Czech Republic driver Erik Janis after the pair collided in this afternoon's Feature race at Zandvoort. Hinchcliffe had been fighting Janis for tenth position for several laps, when with just five laps to go, the pair touched at turn seven. The impact broke the suspension on the Canadian car, forcing Hinchcliffe's retirement.

However, Janis was able to continue and secure the final point for the Czech Republic on his debut. The incident was investigated by race stewards however, no penalty resulted for either team.

But Hinchcliffe was not happy about the incident and blamed the 20-year-old and his 'unsavoury driving'. 'We were behind him for the second stint,' said Hinchcliffe. 'We caught up to him but we couldn't get by him and then in the second pit stop we had a little bit of a problem changing the left front and came out right behind him.

'But we were a lot quicker than him. I twice got a run at the first corner and he did some pretty unsavoury driving. He put me right on the dirt on the inside and I really wasn't too pleased about it. I was surprised that the officials didn't do anything. 'We came round to corner seven and with about five laps to go he got a bit loose on entry. I was closer to him than I had been for the entire race at that point and I just kind of figured that I would try and slip it in there just like in the first corner.

'I don't know whether he doesn't look in his mirrors or he just doesn't care but he turned in. I tried to back out of it and my right-front hit his left-rear and it snapped my suspension.'

Hinchcliffe was disappointed to be as far down as tenth, his accident in free practice meaning his track time yesterday was limited. He added: 'If I hadn't of messed it up on Saturday morning and lost all that track time then I would have probably done a little bit better. But we know the car is quick and we know what we have to do to be up there.

'It was really unfortunate because we had a really quick car.'

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