It was a sad end to Team India's outing in the A1 Grand Prix here on Sunday as Parthiva Sureshwaren was disqualified from the feature race, while he finished in 17th place in the sprint race.

The feature race saw him putting in some good laps – he even led before going in for his first pit stop – but he got a black flag for three pit lane violations, including one for speeding in the pit lane, and had to retire from the race with 17 laps to go. He was generally hovering around 12th or 13th place after starting last on the grid for both races. But under A1 GP rules, he was classified 17th in the feature race too.

Sureshwaren started both races for India as Narain Karthikeyan had not recovered from the hand injury he sustained on Saturday.

"I was gaining in confidence and the racing experience was good," Sureshwaren said. "The sprint race was good. I just stayed away from trouble. It was a learning experience."

Even if it was disappointment for India in the feature race, there was no dearth of excitement in the race, which Switzerland's Neel Jani won in one hour, one minute, 55.330 seconds. He collected 15 points. France's Loic Duval finished 1.051 seconds behind Jani, while Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque finished third and 1.934 seconds behind Jani.

The excitement started as soon as the feature race began. At the first corner, the last nine cars came to a grinding halt with China's car stopping and blocking the way. The safety car was out and several cars went in for minor repairs. No sooner did the safety car go back in and the race restarted, the same incident occurred at the same corner. This time, eight cars stopped. This enabled Sureshwaren to come up to 12th place.

Switzerland, New Zealand (Johny Reid), Brazil (Bruno Junqueira) and Great Britain (Oliver Jarvis) were in the lead at the time of the two incidents.

Intense competition

Later, NZ dropped back with a broken front section and Canada (Robert Wickens) took the second place with Switzerland first and Great Britain and France third and fourth respectively with 25 laps to go. With the competition getting intense, Canada and Great Britain were involved in some close racing.

But then, Canada's car spun and Wickens was trying to get the car back racing when Britain's Jarvis bumped into the Canadian car and both were out. Jarvis eventually got back into the race and finished 11th after repairs.
This promoted Portugal to third place. The Dutch car of Jeroen Bleekmolen crashed out after South Africa's Adrian Zaugg ran into the former's car. The safety car was back again out on track and this time the race was red flagged to signify the end of the race.

Wickens triumphs

Earlier, Canada's Robert Wickens, who had clinched the first pole position of the season for Canada, won the sprint race. The 18-year-old won the 19-minute race in a total time of 15 minutes, 28.156 seconds.

Great Britain and Switzerland finished second and third respectively and were 0.990 and 1.742 seconds behind the winner.

Germany's Michael Ammermuller was excluded from the sprint race for causing an 'avoidable' collision. The German crashed into the Dutch car of Bleekmolen.

Switzerland (118 points), France (108), New Zealand (98), South Africa (83), Germany (77), Great Britain (70), Netherlands (69) lead the points table in that order.

India remain in 12th place with 28 points.

Results (top five): Feature race: Switzerland (Neel Jani, 1::01:55.330) 1; France (Loic Duval, +1.051) 2; Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque, +1.934) 3; the Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekmolen, +3.378) 4; Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy, +4.549) 5.

Sprint race: Canada (Robert Wickens, 15:28.156) 1; Great Britain (Oliver Jarvis, +0.990 sec) 2; Switzerland (Neel Jani, +1.742) 3; China (Congfu Cheng, +2.248) 4; the Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekmolen, +3.477) 5.