A1 Team Switzerland’s perfect pole position record at Sepang was broken today.
Driver Neel Jani had qualified on the top spot in all five consecutive attempts at the Malaysia circuit – until qualifying for the Feature race occurred this afternoon.

Having earlier secured his now customary pole position in Sprint race qualifying, Jani stunned the paddock by only securing 16th place on the grid for the Feature.

He blamed the end of his incredible run down to a small mistake in the final session, combined with the new PowerBoost rule, whereby a team gets to run a full boost lap on one of the four qualifying segments of its choice.

“I had a very good lap for the Sprint race, but not a good enough lap in the Feature,” he told A1GP.com. “I made a small mistake for the Feature, not huge, but I picked up dirt on my tyres and from then on I was gone.

“Everyone seemed to use their PowerBoost lap then and I got thrown back on the grid. I picked up some dirt. I thought many more people would use it for the Sprint. We were proved wrong but it doesn’t matter because we got the pole. In the Feature race qualifying I just got thrown back due to the rule and also having that little mistake.”

Jani chose to run his PowerBoost lap in Sprint qualifying, because he believes weather could play a factor in tomorrow’s Feature.

“I start 16th but I know I will have a bit more time to do things then, and there is a risk of rain. There is definitely no risk of rain in the Sprint so it is great to be starting up front for that race.”