A1GP: Seventh place in Indonesia - 10.12.2006

Jarek Janis finished seventh in the feature race at Sentul that was held under changing conditions and added valuable points to the Czech tally. The Czech Republic has 20 points and is 11th in the standings.

The race day brought thrilling action as is usual in the A1 Grand Prix and the Czech team had a reason for a small celebrations at the end of the day although things did not started well. Janis started his debut race from the 14th place on the grid but he controversially lost some positions during the start. He spent rest of the race fighting hard but the 16th place was not what the team wanted.

There was very hectic time before the start of the feature race. The organisers initially wanted to move the start forward to avoid a heavy rain but the weather forced them to do the opposite and delay the start. The wet conditions shook the order a bit and there were hard fights not only at the front but also deep in the field. Janis was progressively moving forward and the team once again performed faultlessly in the pits. The stop of the Czech team after lap 17 the quickest was the quickest of the day and Janis added a good drive that put him as high as to fifth place. The initial heavy rain eased during the race and during the pitstop window it was on the edge to put again wet tyres or change to slicks. The Czech team decided to stay with the wets and all looked good although the dries were quicker at the end of the race but the second stop would have cost time. However, all the advantage was negated when the Great Britain car spun and safety car was sent on the track. The race was restarted with gaps down to minimum and Janis lost three places. He crossed the line eighth but later moved to seventh after the Netherlands team was disqualified for not stopping during the mandatory window between laps 8 and 20.

Jarek Janis: “Generally speaking there were two different races. I was overtaken by a few cars before the red light went off and it was very difficult to recover. The feature race went much better and given our starting position seventh is not that bad. I struggled a bit on the first set of the wet tyres but the team adjusted pressures for the second one and the car was much better after the stop. There was not much to do just before the end, I was on the wets and the competitors on the dries and it was not possible to hold them back.”

Antonin Charouz, seat holder: “The result is probably better than the performance. We are lacking a bit in different areas and we must to improve overall if we want to fight constantly at the front. Jarek drove good race in the changing conditions and our strategy was again good but we lost our advantage when the safety car was deployed just before the end otherwise we would have been fifth. Maybe we could have switched to dry tyres during the stop but it was on the edge and it was all more complicated because the radio was not working.”