A1GP news

Ireland laments time penalty

A1 Team Ireland's championship chances took a knock on Sunday night after a 25-second penalty, imposed by race stewards, resulted in the loss of the championship lead. Team boss Mark Gallagher believes that the effective sanction of six points could have a lasting effect towards the deciding of season four's title.

Adam Carroll drove impressively on Sunday by storming through the field to second place, having jumped the start and been handed with another penalty as a consequence. Having fought from 15th to second, the Irish car was eventually classified as fifth after the addition of the 25 seconds, given for passing Australia's John Martin under safety car conditions at the second restart. The team now finds itself a couple of points behind reigning champions Switzerland in the battle for the title, as opposed to being ahead by four had the penalty not been imposed.

"Adam drove brilliantly in what was possibly one of the most perfect drives anyone has seen, to recover from the initial drive-through penalty," Gallagher said after hearing of the post-race punishment. The safety car restart was a mess, and we were penalised; the stewards have a hard job to do, so we accept their verdict even if we find the outcome extremely frustrating. We still aim to win this title."

"I knew the car had rolled a little on the grid, but I definitely did not start until the lights went out," Carroll explained. "After we got the drive-through penalty I just put my head down and we climbed back to second, so I am very disappointed we got a 25-second penalty.

"What happened at the second safety car restart was that everyone in front started to brake, slow and fan out. Australia pulled across suddenly, and slowed, and I did the safest thing which was to keep going - if we'd all hit the brakes there would have been a motorway-style accident. Not much of a choice."

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