Round 5 of the A1GP 2008/09 season took place on Sunday at the Kyalami Circuit in Johannesburg, South Africa, with everything still to play for. Team Ireland led the standings coming into the event but Neel Jani and Team Switzerland were keeping them honest.

Heading into the sprint race Team India had managed to secure a solid starting position of 5th, placing themselves right in the mix with all the championship contenders for the first race of the day and things improved for Narain Karthikeyan off the start as he managed to slip through into fourth place before the first corner.

Upfront the team of the Netherlands and Switzerland battled it out for the lead hotly pursued by Felipe Albuquerque of team Portugal. Fourth place team India came under heavy pressure from Monaco and Championship leaders Ireland. Narain battled bravely to protect the fourth place but the onslaught of the two cars was too much to defend and he ended up losing places to both opposition drivers. The front six then stayed in order until the mandatory pit stops had to be performed. The main beneficiary of this was team Portugal who managed to jump up to second place after Neel Jani got blocked in the pit lane by Fairuz Fauzy of Malaysia.

Neel Jani managed to recover to third place and held off the charges of Adam Carroll of team Ireland in the last few laps, with Narain Karthikeyan bringing team India’s car home in the points in sixth place.

More of the same was to be expected in the second race of the day called the feature race, run over a longer distance split by two pit stops. However the race was filled with controversy surrounding a number of race incidents. At the first corner there was contact between Championship leaders Ireland and Malaysia. With Adam Carroll out of the race it was vital for Neel Jani to capitalize on the situation and he did, after making a good start he was soon in pursuit of the race leader Clivio Piccione from Monaco. Further back Narain was also making a charge through the order for team India after starting from 18th on the grid.

Monaco managed to withstand the pressure from team Switzerland until the first round of pit stops, when the crews and team strategies really played their part with Neel Jani gaining the upper hand, coming out in front of team Monaco and into the lead of the race.

Further back Narain Karthikeyan was still managing to pick his way through the carnage as cars spun off the track or into retirement with technical issues as he continued his climb up the leader board into a very respectable 11th place. With just six laps remaining Narain was all over the back of the team Italian car, but try as he might he was unable to force his way past Edoardo Piscopo without him battling straight back. As the final laps approached Narain suffered from some technical problems which curtailed his fight for the final points scoring place.

Out front there was no stopping team Switzerland as Neel Jani powered home to equal the all time record for wins in the A1GP series, tying with Nico Hulkenberg of Germany as he finished comfortably ahead of team Brazil and team Monaco.

Championship Standings:
1 Switzerland 73
2 Ireland 70
3 Portugal 64
4 Netherlands 56
5 France 41
6 New Zealand 36
7 Malaysia 32
8 Australia 30
9 Monaco 23
10 Great Britain 20
11 USA 19
12 South Africa 19
13 Brazil 16
14 Italy 10
15 India 8

images credited to A1GP