Ireland’ Ralf Firman took a podium finish in the A1 Grand Prix at Estoril today, while Alexandre Premat kept up France's winning run Nelson Piquet Jr threw away Brazil's championship lead.
France started the day just a point behind Brazil after Nicolas Lapierre won both races at the Lausitzring and Premat took up the mantle in front of a sparse crowd in Portugal. He won the sprint race from Piquet to bring France level with Brazil at the top of the standings.
But the French claimed a clear lead in race two when Piquet stalled at the start, losing a lap and leaving him at the back of the field. Premat held off the fast-starting Alavaro Parente, but the Portuguese driver saw his challenge for the win ended when he stalled in the pits.
The longer second race was badly disrupted by three safety car periods. The first came on lap two for no obvious reason while amateur marshalling – which included pushing a car across the pit lane exit into the path of another - halted the racing a second time.
Ex-Formula One driver Jos Verstappen's mistake after the second restart, which saw the Dutchman sent airborne after running into the back of Germany's Adrian Sutil, brought the safety car out once again. Once those disruptions were out of the way, Premat led from Switzerland's Neel Jani, stretching a comfortable lead at the front.
He went on to win France's fourth consecutive race to put them clear at the top while Jani took his second podium of the day. Piquet recovered to score points for eighth.
Behind Jani, ex-Formula One racer Ralph Firman scored Ireland's first podium of the season with a battling third place despite a lowly starting spot courtesy of his 19th place in race one.
Scott Speed took his best result of the A1 season with fourth place, helped by a drive-through penalty for Czech Republic's Tomas Enge.
Britain suffered a day to forget. Robbie Kerr had a puncture in race one which restricted him to 20th place while a gearbox problem in the second left him down in 12th.
