KEY POINTS:
Pushing hard in wet conditions saved New Zealand's place at the top of the A1GP championship table today at Sydney's Eastern Creek.
Jonny Reid had a nightmare afternoon in the Australian round after being due to start from his first ever A1GP feature race pole position, but being forced to the back of the pack with technical issues.
Having pushed Black Beauty through to an impressive second place in the earlier 14-lap sprint race after starting fourth on the grid, Reid had high hopes for the main event.
But the Kiwi driver had to settle for a lacklustre ninth position after having to start from last place after the car stopped while leaving the pits before the grid formed.
New Zealand hopes looked dashed as Reid's car was returned to the closed pits. It was all but over when he got out of the car, but the engineers solved the problem and the 24-year-old was strapped in again.
Fortunately for the New Zealand team, main championship rival France also had a horror on the grid, stalling at the start of the formation lap and being demoted to second to last for the race start.
South African Adrian Zaugg won from Swiss driver Neel Jani and Great Britain's Robbie Kerr. Australia's John Martin drove impressively to his first points finish in fifth.
The result leaves New Zealand leading the championship from France, but even on 96 points at the head of the championship table, followed closely by Switzerland on 93.
Race running
Switzerland?s Neel Jani took the lead off the line, followed by the Great Britain?s Robbie Kerr.
Canada's Robert Wickens, who had a stormer in the sprint race, cutting through the field with reckless abandon repeated the approach, again with success.
Switzerland had already opened up a 1.5-second lead, with Kerr left battling South African Adrian Zaugg for second place.
By the third lap Reid had pushed through to 19th place, with Duval in 14th. Three laps later, the Frenchman was in the points, and Reid was in 14th.
On lap 10 Switzerland and Great Britain pitted, with Jani getting out marginally ahead of Kerr, who pushed hard.
Zaugg took the lead and managed to hold onto it after a very swift first pit stop.
Duval was fighting to get by Jonathan Summerton, when he hit the American on the 22nd lap and copped a drive through penalty for what the stewards described as ?causing an avoidable collision?.
By the 24th lap, Zaugg was proving his wet-weather superiority with a massive 11.1 second advantage shortly before the pit window reopened for the second round of stops.
China's Congfu Chen, who had laid down some promising lap times in qualifying spun on lap 28, dropping two place to 11th.
Two laps later Indonesian Straio Hermanto hit the wall on ultra high-speed turn one, at the end of Eastern Creek?s long front straight.
The following lap, it was Reid?s turn to run off course, but he kept his composure and lost time but avoided a spin.
France pitted immediately afterwards, but the car?s fried clutch wasn?t making the team?s chances of crash-starting it any easier. The team pushed the car the length of pit lane, but were unable to fire it up, leaving sprint race winner and New Zealand?s main points rival Loic Duval with a long walk back to the team garage.
As Canada passed Germany for sixth place, China was lining up Indian Narain Karthikeyan for 10th place, executing the pass on the next lap, leaving India and Pakistan battling for 11th.
By lap 37 the race had been declared a timed race, with roughly six minutes plus one lap remaining, putting further pressure on drivers like Reid, who were desperately trying to make up time. Zaugg was enjoying a whopping 13-second lead by this stage.
Australia was looking excellent with John Martin on track for his first ever points finish when he went off track. As the crowd collectively held its breath, Martin managed to collect the car and hold on to his place from the hard charging Canadian.
South Africa's Adrian Zaugg finished a well-deserved first with a 19.560-second lead from Neel Jani of Switzerland. Britain?s Robbie Kerr finished out the podium with Jonny Reid settling for ninth place.
