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Sydney - In a dramatic Australian A1 Grand Prix South African driver Stephen Simpson crashed out of the race.
Simpson, who started the feature race towards the back after he finished 21st in the sprint race, went off the track after swerving to avoid A1 Team Italy on lap one and hit the barrier.
The feature and sprint races were won by A1 Team France, bringing their tally of victories up to six out of eight.
A1 Team Great Britain matched their previous highest place from EuroSpeedway Lausitz with a second in Australia and A1 Team Switzerland claimed the final podium position.
At the start of the Feature race, it was the Portuguese car from second on the grid that was away first leading into the turn one. A bad start from France meant that at the end of lap one they were lying second with Brazil third.
The teams started their obligatory pit stop sequence quite early with Ireland pitting first at the end of lap two, having dropped down from fourth on the grid to twelfth.
The order at the top of the pack stayed the same until A1 Team Portugal incurred a drive through penalty on lap eight for a false start, a mistake which cost them the lead as France took the opportunity to re-gain the top spot.
Turn two struck again on lap 8 when Mexico and Russia clashed and both went off. A1 Team Lebanon narrowly avoided them, going off the track but managing to continue the race.
The safety car was deployed and those who had not pitted at the start seized their chance. At the end of lap nine A1 Team?s France and Great Britain both went into the pits putting Lebanon in front. With no overtaking under the safety car, they withheld their position until the safety car peeled off at the end of lap 12 and then the team?s moment of glory was over as France and Great Britain overtook but they were still in the top three at the end of lap 13.
A1 Team Brazil were then the subject of a drive through penalty for a pit lane infringement, dropping them from eighth to tenth, but the safety car was due to be deployed yet again when the Austrian and Czech Republic cars collided on lap 18.
When racing resumed again at the end of lap 21, the Irish car was too quick off the mark starting to overtake before crossing the start finish line. For this the team received a 25 second penalty which was applied after the end of the race and dropped them down from eighth to fourteenth.
France was again able to increase its lead at the front of the field and was pulling away from A1 Team Great Britain when the Japanese car had its accident on lap 26. The safety crews worked as hard as they could to remove the damaged car but when the safety car pulled off at the end of lap 33, the one hour rule would only allow for two further laps which meant a 35 rather than a 40 lap race.
