Karthikeyan wins race two for India
Narain Karthikeyan held off sustained pressure from local hero Robbie Kerr to give Team India their second A1GP victory in the series finale at Brands Hatch on Sunday
The former Formula One driver lost the lead to Kerr in the first round of pitstops, only to regain it when Team GBR produced a slow service that cost the Englishman three seconds, and the chance to take a precious double at his home circuit.
In the end, despite Karthikeyan making a number of unforced errors, Kerr simply could not find a way past the Indian, who added to his Zhuhai Feature Race win earlier in the season.
Newly-crowned champions Neel Jani and Switzerland took third place at the expense of rivals Team Ireland and Team Germany.
Early in the race, Adam Carroll's Irish car had looked feisty indeed and he could have emerged the race winner himself had he not clipped the back of India's car after the first pitstops on lap 15.
A couple of laps later and his front wing collapsed on the run down to Pilgrim's Drop, puncturing his front tyre and counting him out of contention.
Germany also suffered a puncture while running third late in the race, handing the final podium position to Jani.
In one of their most competitive showings to date, Congfu Cheng and China finished fourth, avoiding the chaos that ensued around them.
Franck Montagny took fifth position for France, while Holland's Jeroen Bleekemolen just managed to stay ahead of Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque to take sixth.
Team New Zealand managed to maintain their second place in the points standings by finishing eighth, having lost a place to Albuquerque late on in a spectacular pass around the outside at Hawthorns. Team GBR's second place puts them third in the final standings.
Italy finished ninth in the Feature Race with Edoardo Piscopo, while Indonesia's Satrio Hermanto was ecstatic to score Indonesia's first, and only, point of the season.
The Indonesian held off a four-car attack that included Filip Salaquarda (Czech Republic), Adrian Zaugg (South Africa), Team USA's Jonathan Summerton and the recovering Carroll.
None could find a way past even though Salaquarda caused some havoc by mounting the Indonesian car at Druids.
John Martin (Australia) and Adam Khan (Pakistan) were lucky to escape unscathed from a high speed collision at Pilgrim's Drop which saw both cars hit the barrier hard. The Pakistan machine even clipped the concrete wall support for the bridge as it went by.
Pos Driver Team Gap 1. Narain Karthikeyan India 1:07:24.691 2. Robbie Kerr Great Britain +1.078 3. Neel Jani Switzerland +8.725 4. Cheng Cong Fu China +9.132 5. Franck Montagny France +12.960 6. Jeroen Bleekemolen Netherlands +15.538 7. Filipe Albuquerque Portugal +15.714 8. Jonny Reid New Zealand +19.862 9. Edoardo Piscopo Italy +26.353 10. Satrio Hermanto Indonesia +49.268 11. Adrian Zaugg South Africa +49.661 12. Jonathan Summerton USA +50.032 13. Adam Carroll Ireland +50.247 14. Xandi Negrao Brazil +1:00.662 15. Filip Salaquarda Czech Republic +1 lap 16. David Martinez Mexico +1 lap 17. James Hinchcliffe Canada +1 lap 18. Khalil Beschir Lebanon +2 laps Not Classified Driver Team Laps Michael Ammermuller Germany 39 laps Fairuz Fauzy Malaysia 39 laps Adam Khan Pakistan 2 laps John Martin Australia 2 laps Fastest lap, Carroll 1:15.997
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