Piquet Jr. Wins Both A1 Grand Prix Races

LONGFIELD, England September 25, 2005; The AP reported that Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr. won both races Sunday in the opening round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix.

Piquet Jr., son of the three-time Formula One champion Nelson Piquet, led the 18-lap sprint event from start to finish at Brands Hatch and came from behind in the 38-lap feature race, which had a mandatory pitstop.

Piquet Jr. finished 2.4 seconds ahead of France's Alexandre Premat in the sprint. That gave him pole position for the main race. The Brazilian, who is racing in the GP2 Grand Prix support series this season, dropped to third during his pitstop for a new set of tires.

"I was very frustrated because I led the race going into the pits and came out in third place. We had a problem getting one of the wheels off," Piquet Jr. said.

Two safety car periods allowed him to close the gap on race leader Will Power of Australia, and he took the lead on lap 29 with a bold move around the outside on a left-handed bend.

Power dropped back quickly and was more than 11 seconds behind at the finish. Mexico's Salvador Duran was 22 seconds behind in third place.

The inaugural A1 GP series, which is billing itself as the World Cup of motorsport, resumes its 12-race series at the Eurospeedway Lausitz in Germany on Oct. 8-9.