A1GP names top-10 races

The dream of 80s music-loving headline writers worldwide, Salvador Duran was able to do the double in uncharacteristically terrible Californian conditions. Laguna Seca doesn’t normally go as far as to snow in March, yet the weekend A1GP came to town, the weather gave us everything. Salvador Duran didn’t mind however, driving the weekend of his life to overcome them all. Once he had won pole position he was simply a class above the rest in the Sprint race, leading all but the first lap as the rain came down. He went on to do the double in a slightly drier Feature race, and the wins remain Mexico’s only gold medals to this day.

In what was perhaps China’s greatest ever race to date, Ho-Pin Tung secured a superb bronze medal, which was made all the more impressive because it included one of the passing moves of the year. It was the first medal for a nation not famed for its motorsport heritage, but it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. Tung qualified sixth, and after achieving the same position in the Sprint, he was able to improve in the Feature driving round the outside of the Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen at the flat-out first turn. “I think it looked braver on TV than it did in reality," said a modest Tung.

Many great drives have come in appalling weather conditions, however, this drive was also worth applauding because Duval’s car experience was almost zero. Having only received its new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car just prior to the race weekend, A1 Team France had not been even able to apply its full livery before practice, let alone test it, when it hit the track for the final moments of Saturday. He climbed from 11th in qualifying to third in the Sprint race before commanding the Feature race from the ninth lap. He was then only headed during the two rounds of mandatory pit stops, in what was an immensely impressive victory.

The first meeting of a brand new series means a brand new car and a brand new race format, for everyone to learn and look what happens? One driver goes out and dominates. Nelson Piquet Jr took pole position and both race victories at Brands Hatch in A1GP’s inaugural meeting. Had Robbie Kerr’s battery not failed in the GBR machine then things could have been different, but Piquet’s Feature race pass around the outside of Will Power at Surtees was worthy of any great drive. Brazil has used eight other drivers since Piquet’s 14-race stint at the start of 2005/06, and only two have won medals, let alone come close to emulating Piquet’s Brands achievements.

For a day that ended in glory, race day hadn’t started well for Jonathan Summerton. An accident at the start with New Zealand’s Jonny Reid, ended his Sprint race before the lights had even gone out. But it wasn’t the repair of the car which worried officials, it was the damage to Summerton’s right hand in the impact. He chose to race in the later Feature however, aided by an anti-inflammatory dressing designed to reduce the bruising and swelling to a tendon. He then went on to deliver a virtuoso performance, pulling away from the rest to win by 9.7 seconds from Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque. “Who wants the lottery numbers now," joked Summerton afterwards, referring to an A1GP.com interview he gave a fortnight previously, predicting a maiden USA victory.

In what has become enshrined in folklore as the greatest last lap in A1GP history, France’s Alexandre Premat battled with Swiss young-gun Neel Jani to take the Sprint race victory. Premat had already won a fantastic battle with Great Britain's Robbie Kerr (below), but that was the just the starter before main course. Going into the last tour, Premat got a strong run out of the final turn and was inside Jani at the first corner. The pair then ran side-by-side for nearly a third of a lap, before Premat skillfully got his nose ahead and took the checkered flag. It was the highlight of a fantastic championship season for the French team.

Sometimes in sport, statistics mean nothing – but the sheer statistics in the 2006/07 Malaysia Feature race detail an awesome performance. The winning margin of 42.8 seconds remains the largest in A1GP history, and one of the largest for any single-make racing series in the world. Nico Hulkenberg, a man just starting to show just how much of a star he was, blitzed the field in absolutely treacherous tropical storm conditions. It could have been an even more sizable victory – one of the German mechanics dropped a wheel nut underneath his car during the mandatory stop and Nico also struggled when leaving. No matter, “I like wet weather and I have no problems with it," said Nico afterwards, slightly understating the enormity of what he had achieved.