In a great start to Sunday’s GO-GP.ORG A1GP Gauteng, South Africa, Netherlands won their first A1GP race in 45 starts in an exciting Sprint race at a packed Kyalami. Jeroen Bleekemolen drove an impeccable race from pole position in the distinctively liveried orange car and controlled matters from the front throughout the 14-lap race.

Second, from second on the starting grid, was Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque), 4,4s behind when the chequered flag came out. Consolation for the Portuguese team was a bonus championship point for fastest lap of the race, 1m 29,072s on lap five.

Third, a further 6,193s back, was Switzerland (Neel Jani), followed by championship leaders Ireland (Adam Carroll), Monaco (Clivio Piccione) and India (Narain Karthikeyan).

South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg was seventh after passing France’s Nicolas Prost at the start. The 22-year-old battled with India’s Karthikeyan for sixth place throughout the race and came close to moving up a place at the compulsory pit stop, when the pair exited the pits together after changing tyres.

“I had a good start. I managed to get past Nicolas (Prost) and started to close on Narain (Karthikeyan) as we approached the pit stop window,” said Zaugg. “The car was strong in the beginning, but was understeering towards the end and the tyres started going away. I have a problem in the slow corners and struggle to maintain the initial turn-in. As a result I am unable to attack the corner as I would like.”