Sprint race: Mexico wins, Jos 14th
Published on 13 March 2006 by Thorsten Hendriks
By claiming 2nd place in the sprint race and the fact that Switzerland had a bad race meant that France has won the
championship.
"What is this? A race or water ballet?" that was the big question. Dense clouds of water behind the cars meant that
visibility was nearly zero. You could only see 3 cars at the start, the rest was hidden in a spray of rain.
It was a
miracle only one car spun during the first lap. So a safety car was deployed in the early stages.
France showed everyone that their car had the best setup by taking second place and safeguard the championship.
The remainder of the race only meant trying to keep your car on the track, which wasn't easy. It was the first race in the
rain, but although visibility was near zero drivers still managed to overtake. Not always successful but you can't blame them
for trying.
Lebanon didn't do too well by spinning behind the safety car and hit Germany and Australia.
For Jos Verstappen is was a matter of surviving. From 12th it is virtually impossible to try to get to the front without
damage. Jos tried to keep his position, that didn't work quite how he wanted it. In one of the corners he slipped and managed
to keep the car on track including a double donut. After that he hit Brasil's car. At the end of the race he ended up on
14th, which is not that bad considering the conditions.
Thorsten Hendriks
Team Laps Time 1 MEXICO 16 31:07.422 2 FRANCE 16 31:09.193 3 PORTUGAL 16 31:15.462 4 GREAT BRITAIN 16 31:20.213 5 IRELAND 16 31:31.812 6 CANADA 16 31:33.449 7 GERMANY 16 31:33.838 8 NEW ZEALAND 16 31:37.896 9 USA 16 31:38.456 10 AUSTRALIA 16 31:42.069 11 SOUTH AFRICA 16 31:43.393 12 AUSTRIA 16 31:59.182 13 BRAZIL 16 32:01.622 14 NETHERLANDS 16 32:02.688 15 PAKISTAN 16 32:05.098 16 SWITZERLAND 16 32:07.900 17 CHINA 16 32:20.430 18 CZECH REPUBLIC 15 29:48.402 19 ITALY 15 32:15.466 20 INDONESIA 12 24:56.280 21 LEBANON 9 18:07.595 22 MALAYSIA 7 13:57.083
