Gentlemen, for the pride of your nations, start your engines!

[Cort Haus]

Tomorrow sees the opening of the second season of the A1 Grand Prix national motor-racing series, at Zandvoort, Holland.

Unfortunately the Dutch star Jos Verstappen has just pulled out in a money row, which is a shame, but nevertheless we can look forward to another season of close racing, plenty of overtaking, and spectacular prangs.

Your lead drivers are:

Australia : Ryan Briscoe
Canada : James Hinchcliffe
France : Nicholas Lapierre
Germany : Nico Hulkenberg
GB : Darren Manning
Greece : Vasilis Papaphilippoy
India : Armaan Ebrahim
Ireland : Michael Devanney
Italy : Pier Guido Alessandro
Netherlands : Jeroen Bleekemolen
New Zealand : Matt Halliday
South Africa : Stephen Simpson
Switzerland : Sebastien Buemi
USA : Phil Giebler

There are another 10 nations, but that should cover most of our posters whose nations are competing. Apologies for any ommissions.

If you get a chance to see it on TV or internet feed, I recommend it as the entertainment value was very high last year - far more enjoyable than the average Formula One race. The brightly coloured liveries are a joy to watch funneling into the first corner off the start, and the races are usually full of incident and overtaking.

Another great thing about the series is that despite the competitive nature of the contest, the cameraderie between the national teams on the pitlane is very high, proving that when different nations and cultures join together for a common cause, even a competition, barriers can be broken and people find what they have in common, rather than what sets them apart. This is a very healthy sign in our era of aggressive indentity politics, where differences, not things shared, are usually emphasised.

Long live A1 Grand Prix!

Official Website : http://www.a1gp.com/main.php
Good fansite for F1 and A1: http://www.pitpass.com (A1 news bottom right)

[atawa]

Jeroen Bleekemolen is pathetic.

[snoopy369]

Who the #$%#$ is Phil Giebler and why is he racing for the US, when we could have had Helio Castroneves or Gordon?

[Cort Haus]

Why do you want a Brazilian driving for the US, Snoopy?

Too bad Sam Hornish can't do road courses, eh?

[Pekka]

No Finns? This race is officially a joke.

[Cort Haus]

Well, I'm happy with Darren Manning for team GBR. He was only a phucked-up pitstop from winning in China last season, and is better than Robbie Kerr, who drove most of the races for us last time. Kerr is a bit lacking in the personality department too.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Pekka
No Finns? This race is officially a joke.

You can't argue with that Cort!!

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Pekka
No Finns? This race is officially a joke.

The race isn't a joke Pekka, but unfortunately Finland haven't entered.

The team I'd most like to see in A1 (after my own) is Finland, so yeah, it sucks.

[Cort Haus]

I think Nico Rosberg drove in it last year though. For, erm, Germany ....

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Who the #$%#$ is Phil Giebler?

Well, he didn't too badly in qualifying. 6th on the grid for the Sprint Race after Switzerland took a ten-spot penalty for a technical infingement.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by atawa
Jeroen Bleekemolen is pathetic.

He starts eighth on the grid - which isn't too bad. I think Jos hasn't been too stunning himself over his pay demands. Jan Lammers called him a Prima Donna.

Hopefully the fans will get behind the new man.

[Pekka]

Oh forget about Nico.. Kovalainen, the new F1 driver will blast Kimi soon.. give him 3 to 4 years and he will be at the top of the world.

[Cort Haus]

And I was wrong about Stephen Simpson driving for South Africa - it's the youngster Adrian Zaugg, who has take POLE, ahead of far more experienced drivers.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Pekka
Oh forget about Nico.. Kovalainen, the new F1 driver will blast Kimi soon.. give him 3 to 4 years and he will be at the top of the world.

Too early to say whether he's better than Kimi, but I'm looking forward to his Renault drive next year. Kimi will be World Champion next year in the Ferrari, but watch out for Lewis Hamilton!

[Pekka]

Well it's obvious who the champion will be next year, however, if Kovalainen can get a god car, he'll challenge everyone.. he will be better, he's quite phenomenal.