A1 Team New Zealand raced to its third Sprint race victory of the season in this morning’s incident-packed race at Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in perfect weather conditions, moving up to second place in the championship.
Jonny Reid beat Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis by 2.6 seconds, while Switzerland's Neel Jani took the final podium position, increasing its title lead in a race when France failed to score any points.
The 22-car field was forced to reform on the grid for a second time after the scheduled start of the race was red-flagged, because eight teams were involved in collisions at the rolling start and many sustained damage to their cars.
Once the debris had been cleared from the track, the race finally got underway and the pack jostled for position heading into the first turn. Pole-sitter South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg held the lead while GBR’s Oliver Jarvis moved up two places to snatch third, slotting in behind New Zealand’s Jonny Reid and just ahead of Switzerland’s Neel Jani.
Reid started to hunt down Zaugg and by lap three Black Beauty had taken control, snatching the race lead from Zaugg on the main straight before he locked up and went straight on at turn one. This later transpired to be as a result of a slow puncture sustained thanks to a brush with the USA's Joanthan Summerton at the start of the race, and the incident put the South African car out of the race.
Filip Salaquarda spun the Czech Republic car on the fifth lap, which brought out the safety car, allowing the field to bunch up behind New Zealand. The action restarted on lap eight and Reid started to pull away from Jarvis in the British car, who was under pressure from Switzerland’s Jani.
The Kiwi went on the win the race ahead of GBR’s Jarvis in second, collecting crucial championship points and moving New Zealand to 15 points behind title leader Switzerland, who finished the race third.
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