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Chris van der Drift in Black Beauty - Source: Photosport -
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Switzerland's Neel Jani stormed to first place in the A1GP Feature race while NZ's race was over before it begun in Taupo on Sunday.
Jani took the lead from Ireland's Adam Carroll with 25 laps remaining and never surrendered the top spot to grab 10 championship points for the Swiss.
Carroll finished second to add to his first in the earlier Sprint Race, earning 18 points for top-of-the-table Ireland this weekend.
Filipe Albuquerque of Portugal came away with the bronze.
New Zealand's Chris van der Drift suffered from a crash on his first lap which saw him drop two laps behind, a gap too far to pull back.
Van der Drift finished 14th out of the 19 entries.
It capped an unsuccessful weekend for the home side which has seen them drop from fourth to sixth on the A1GP table.
Disastrous opening
Already way down at 10th on the grid, van der Drift made the worst possible start when an electrical fault slowed New Zealand off the line and dropped Black Beauty down to 17th at the first turn.
But it was to get even worse for van der Drift as he pushed hard to regain a placing.
Just half way through lap one of the 50 lap race, he effectively ended his race after clipping the side of Daniel Morad in the Lebanon car.
As van der Drift turned towards the inside of the track Morad had nowhere to go and made contact with New Zealand's left rear tyre.
Lebanon came out worse off with extensive damage, forcing them to pull out of the race.
Black Beauty limped around the track with a puncture and came out of the pits in last place by more than a lap.
Swiss push
It was easy money for Ireland's Carroll for the opening half of the race, holding first place for 25 laps.
But a power failure in the Ireland car allowed Switzerland's Jani to put his nose in front as the two exited pit lane.
It was the first time Carroll had been behind another car for the entire weekend.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's van der Drift was doing all he could to regain some pride in front of the home crowd.
Unfortunately the car wasn't responding to his desperation and he was never in with a genuine chance.
Van der Drift took the chequered flag in 14th position, with most of the cars behind him crippled from crashes while Jani held on to take maximum points for Switzerland.
