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Reid: 'It was a racing incident'

A1 Team New Zealand's Jonny Reid believes the incident he had with Malaysia's Alex Yoong was a racing incident. It was the second contact between the teams in as many meetings, after the pair collided in the Feature race in Sepang, Malaysia last month.

Yoong spun into the barriers and retired as a result of the first-lap contact, but Reid kept going and eventually climbed up the order to finish second. Yoong was critical after the incident and planned to speak to Reid to get his version of events. However, the New Zealander said he has nothing to say on the matter.

'That's racing, I'm afraid,' Reid said. 'If you are going to hang around the outside and squeeze me, then my rear tyre touches the kerb, then he is going to get touched. If it gets that tight then things are going to happen like that. It's a long race and it is not won on the first corner as we showed today. Maybe that's a bit of advice for them.

'I haven't spoken with Alex yet, but I don't really have anything to say. Alex tried it on in Malaysia and he didn't give me an inch. I got a puncture as well, and that arguably knocked us off the podium, if not a race win.'

Reid however held his hands up for a clash with Canada's Robert Wickens in the Sprint race. 'I feel a little bit sorry for Canada,' Reid continued. 'I came off the previous corner and got a little high on the kerb and I went to brake and there were no brakes there. I quickly positioned the car out of his line, and he was braking on the correct line but I switched the car to the inside. I was sliding into the corner with the pedal to the floor, and he turned in and we touched.

'I carried on, and that was out of character for me and I put my hand up for that one. But at the end of the day I didn't know the pedal was going to go to the floor. Robert is a good guy and I'm sure he understands.'

Reid was elated with finishing second in the Feature race having qualified tenth. The team now moves on to its home event in Taupo, in five weeks time, lying third in the championship, just a point behind France in second. 'I'm ecstatic with the result,' he added. 'We are just a solid team and the results just repaid us for it. I can't wait to get home so hopefully the whole grandstands are full of New Zealand supporters dressed in black, and we can have a bit of a repeat performance here.

'If we can qualify well there we can certainly win there and I'm looking forward to turning it on for the home crowd.'

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