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Jani: Cruised to the title

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Britain's Robbie Kerr won the sprint race at Brands Hatch on Sunday but it was Neel Jani of Switzerland who won the A1 Grand Prix title.

Jani finished fourth in the sprint to seal the title before coming third behind India's Narain Karthikeyan and Kerr in the feature race.

Kerr's performance helped GB leapfrog France into third in the final standings, a point behind second-placed New Zealand who finished with 127 points.

But the Swiss were in a class of their own as they took the title with a 41-point margin.

Starting from pole after a fine qualifying session yesterday, Kerr came home 1.126 seconds ahead of USA's Jonathan Summerton, with Ireland's Adam Carroll third in the sprint.

New Zealand needed to come second to have any chance of overhauling Switzerland but they could manage no better than eighth, with Jani bettering the seventh needed to seal the title.

As in the sprint, it was the pole-sitters who triumphed in the feature as Karthikeyan held off Kerr to claim his country's second win of the season.

Jonny Reid's second eighth-placed finish of the day for New Zealand was just enough to keep GB in third in the final championship standings as France slipped to fourth.

Pit stop

"It was a fantastic weekend for GB, it was just a shame we couldn't pull the second win off," Kerr said.

"Narain and I were so equal and after the first pit stop we thought we had done enough.

"Then unfortunately the second pit stop didn't quite go our way, but it's a team sport and we all worked hard. It's just one of those things."

Sprint Race
1. Britain, Robbie Kerr, 15 laps, 19 minutes, 19.143 seconds
2. United States, Jonathan Summerton, 15
3. Ireland, Adam Carroll, 15
4. Switzerland, Neel Jani, 15
5. India, Narain Karthikeyan, 15
6. Portugal, Filipe Albuquerque, 15
7. South Africa, Adrian Zaugg, 15
8. New Zealand, Jonny Reid, 15
9. Netherlands, Jeroen Bleekemolen, 15
10. France, Franck Montagny, 15

Feature Race
1. India, Narain Karthikeyan, 48 laps, 1 hour, 7 minutes, 24.691 seconds
2. Britain, Robbie Kerr, 48
3. Switzerland, Neel Jani, 48.
4. China, Cheng Cong Fu, 48
5. France, Franck Montagny, 48
6. Netherlands, Jeroen Bleekemolen, 48
7. Portugal, Filipe Albuquerque, 48
8. New Zealand, Jonny Reid, 48
9. Italy, Edoardo Piscopo, 48
10. Indonesia, Satrio Hermanto, 48

Final standings
1. Switzerland, 168 points.
2. New Zealand, 127.
3. Britain, 126.
4. France, 118.
5. South Africa, 96.
6. Ireland, 94.
7. Netherlands, 87.
8. Germany, 83.
9. Canada, 75.
10. India, 61.