Jos wins Durban!

Published on 30 January 2006 by Thorsten Hendriks

What a race! 'Overtaking is an Art' can be written in capitals again. Jos wins a very exciting race by overtaking in the last lap. It went wrong in the sprint race but now he showed everyone what he meant to do.

Jos's first reaction: "Absolutely fabulous, for me but also for the fans and the team. It still went through my head in that last lap. I could see the gap to overtake Switzerland but I also remembered what happened in the sprint race. I just had that feeling and I went for it. You should have seen the disappointment with the team after the sprint race and that made me decide to make the move on Team Switzerland. I pulled it off!"

A race with a terrific start of Jos. Czechia stalls on the grid. Jos can feel the adrenaline pumping. After the corner Jos has moved up 6 places to 10th.
Lebanon and Pakistan had to start from the pitlane. France mad a very early pitstop together with Switzerland and Portugal in the second lap.

The pitstop of France went wront and they had the bad luck that the crash between Australia and USA was a bit late. The safety car was deployed and both Great Britain and Netherlands went into the pits. Later this appeared to be the correct decision for Team Netherlands. Great Britain had bad luck and an air hose was stuck to the car which meant Robbie Kerr had to pit again.

Team Netherlands was eighth after the pitstops, which was a good position considering the first four drivers still had to go for a pitstop.

Canada lose their front wing after a collision and Jos moved up another position. Czechia retires and France gets a drive-through penaly. Jos moved further forward to fifth due to the pitstops of others during another safety car situation.

After the safety car goes back in we see lap after lap of decent racing with a many overtaking manouvres and almost collisions. A1GP shows that what is on offer also means a good race, even on a street circuit.

Jos has managed to overtake Portugal and is now fourth. The safety car is deployed, yet again. Only Lebanon and Brazil still need to go in for a pitstop. Lebanon actually goes in but the team has problem taking the right rear wheel of. Having a pitstop late in the race means that certain parts get very hot and are very hard to get off the car.

When the race is resumed, Jos is fourth and is right behind the German car of Timo Scheider. The German makes a mistake in lap 35 and eliminates himself from the race.

Brazil finally make their pitstop in lap 36 and Jos moves up to second place. Jos is ready for it and follows Switzerland. Then in the last lap he overtakes Neel Jani and grabs what he wanted a long time: first place!
Congratulations Jos!!!

1  NETHERLANDS      40   1:00:46.099
2  SWITZERLAND      40   1:00:47.873
3  PORTUGAL         40   1:00:48.064
4  NEW ZEALAND      40   1:00:50.451
5  SOUTH AFRICA     40   1:00:55.532
6  ITALY            40   1:00:56.834
7  AUSTRIA          40   1:01:16.222
8  FRANCE           40   1.01.23.316
9  BRAZIL           40   1:01:49.730
10 CANADA           36   55:37.009
11 GERMANY          35   54:03.452
12 CHINA            35   55:01.946
13 PAKISTAN         31   48:49.913
14 MEXICO           30   47:25.146
15 LEBANON          27   48:47.453
16 MALAYSIA         25   39:15.208
17 IRELAND          14   35:19.255
18 INDIA            10   16:35.111
19 INDONESIA        10   16:36.429
20 GREAT BRITAIN     9   15:11.900
21 CZECH REPUBLIC    7   13:38.191
22 AUSTRALIA         2   2:52.197
23 USA               2   2:52.446

Thorsten Hendriks