Ireland still in the lead

Starting from first place, Adam Carroll won in the first race of the Taupo meeting, in New Zealand. The Irishman is ahead of the Swiss Neel Jani, the Dutchman Robert Doornbos and the Frenchman Loïc duval finally.

Carroll maintained his advantage at the start and led at the start of the race, just ahead of a very threatening Doornbos. The latter was the first to refuel a little later, but he lost time by leaving his box and finally gave way to Jani. Despite all the Dutchman's efforts, he was unable to catch up with the Swiss and the ranking no longer changed.

“It was a great race! », enthused Carroll upon arrival. “I am very happy with myself and the behavior of the car, I will obviously try to reproduce that in the second race. »

Fourth place went to the Frenchman Loïc Duval who finished just ahead of the local Chris van der Drift, author of a good comeback, the Portuguese Filipe Albuquerque, the Italian Edoardo Piscopo and the Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy.

During the second round, Irishman Adam Carroll was in the lead, as he had been since the start of the weekend, after he once again started from pole position, when bad luck deprived him of a promised victory. . Neel Jani, for Switzerland, did not fail to seize the opportunity and win the race.

At the start, Adam Caroll immediately escaped into the lead, while behind Doornbos missed his start, zigzagging on the track and hindering the drivers pursuing him. This then benefited Jani who moved from fifth to second position, just behind Ireland, and ahead of Portugal, Australia, the Netherlands and France.

Later, a technical problem stopped Ireland for a few seconds in the pit line during their second refueling, long enough for Switzerland to take the lead. Traffic then prevented the two leaders from confronting each other and the Swiss driver easily retained his advantage, despite a period under safety regime after the accident of the Indonesian Satrio Hermanto, just five laps from the checkered flag.

In the end, Filipe Albuquerque finished third ahead of the Australian John Martin and Robert Doornbos. Loïc Duval is only sixth, he is narrowly ahead of Narain Karthikeyan, Marco Andretti, Edoardo Piscopo and Adrian Zaugg.

In the championship, Ireland maintains first position with 65 points, or 13 points more than Switzerland, 16 more than Portugal and 24 more than France.

Next meeting on February 22 in Gauteng, South Africa, on the Kyalami circuit.