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Sprint Race - 18 Laps:
Brazil on Top of the World in First A1 Race

The Brazilian team has won the first ever A1 Grand Prix race at Brands Hatch circuit, leading from lights to flag in a demonstration of dominance. Team Brazil driver Nelson Piquet Jr got the timing of the rolling start just right and blasted away fro the rest of the pack and was never headed for the 18 laps, taking the chequered flag 2.4 seconds ahead of France.

French pilot Alex Premat also got the boot in at the perfect moment for the rolling start and nipped up the inside of New Zealand's Matt Halliday to snatch second at the first corner. Halliday kept the pressure on throughout the race but could not make a serious challenge for second, especially when Premat responded to the pressure by setting the fastest lap of the race.

Will Power took his Australian car to a safe and relatively lonely fourth place, ahead of hometown hero Robbie Kerr in the Team Great Britain machine. Mexico was sixth, another to make a great getaway from the rolling start and pass the main ahead of him, which was Switzerland's Neel Jani. Jani suffered a nightmare of a start, slipping all the way back to ninth as Pakistan's Adam Khan and Portugal's Alvaro Parente also got past.

Reigning British F3 champion Parente piled the pressure on young Khan, but the British-born driver's nerve held superbly and Parente was never able to get past, despite getting very close on several occasions. Jani was also pressured early on by Irish driver Michael Devaney, who was having his first race in England, making his achievement an amazing one already. He faded back from the Swiss car in the second half of the race as GP2 racer Jani's experience started to show.

Team USA's Scott Speed, having had a terrible qualifying session yesterday, moved up to 11th at the start, and kept that place throughout the 18-lap race, enjoying a good scrap with Japanese Ryo Fukuda, who was 12th. Behind them, another battle was raging behind Malaysia and Germany. Timo Scheider always looked like he was quicker than Alex Yoong's yellow Malaysian machine but the ex-DTM racer could not find a way past ex-F1 pilot Yoong.

Italian driver Enrico Toccacelo was probably the man most on the move, passing several cars on his way to 16th behind India. Canada, the Czech Republic and Indonesia were all on Toccacelo's hit list as he got to grips with a car he hardly even got to drive on Friday.

The only casualty from the opening A1GP race was one of the big hitters, as Dutchman Jos Verstappen retired on the first lap after a collision at Graham Hill Bend with South African Stephen Simpson. The South African car rejoined after having a new nose cone fitted, and he finished last.

Feature Race - 38 Laps:
Superb Piquet takes Brazil to Famous Double

Brazilian superstar Nelson Piquet Jr proved once and for all that A1 Grand Prix has arrived in style and is here to stay when he won the second race of the day at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit with a world-class performance. With the world watching, Piquet Jr pulled off an astonishing move around the outside of Surtees corner to pass Australian Will Power. After that, the Brazilian ace flexed his muscles and completed a relentless series of fastest laps to pull out an unassailable lead. After three laps, he had a lead of five seconds and, by the end of the 38-lap race, it was an amazing 11.3 seconds.

"I was really frustrated after the pit-stop because one of the wheels didn't want to come off," explained Piquet Jr. "The team said to push hard and I caught Will. He locked up at Graham Hill Bend and I had a much better exit than him. I knew that I was catching him under braking at Surtees each lap but he went to the inside, so I took a risk and went outside. There was no-one behind me anyway, and I ended up ahead of him in the middle of the corner."

The race had its first safety car period on lap 14 after a frightening incident at Paddock Hill Bend during which Italy's Enrico Toccacelo dived up the inside of Lebanese driver Khalil Beschir. The Team Lebanon man closed the door and the pair touched wheels, sending Beschir into a double barrel-roll which left him upside down in the gravel. Both drivers were alright, but it caused a five-lap safety car period during which leaders Brazil, Australia and Great Britain all pitted. Team Great Britain squad Arden International did a fantastic job during the pit-stop, aided by Brazil's wheel drama, and got Robbie Kerr out in the lead of the race, to the obvious delight of the partisan crowd.

But, rejoining behind the safety car, disaster struck as Kerr pulled off the circuit, his battery dead. "I'm gutted for the guys because they did an awesome job in the pit stop," lamented a devastated Kerr. "I came out and we were in front. I was sitting behind the safety car getting ready for the restart and it wouldn't change gear. I lifted off the throttle and then everything had gone."

Kerr's demise left Power in the lead, and at the restart he signalled his intention by blasting away from the field, while the Brazilian car threaded its way past a backmarker. However, another safety car period for Russian Nikolay Vasiliev's second spin of the day at Westfield negated Power's lead.

At the second restart, the Aussie admitted that the writing was on the wall. "He was on new tyres and I was on old tyres, so I knew he would be able to catch me. I thought it was going to be hard to keep him behind for another 10 laps. I also had a lot of understeer in the race so, when he got a better exit and got alongside me, I let it be. I didn't want to brake as late as I could and put both of us in the gravel."

The final podium spot went to Team Mexico and Salvador Duran, who many would have said was punching above his weight at the start of the weekend. It was a superb result for the British Formula 3 National Class runner, who lost a bundle of time when he stalled during his pit stop. "It was the first time in my life I had done a pit stop," he explained. "I think I got a bit too excited and misjudged the clutch and the car stopped. It was my mistake. After that, I just tried to do consistent lap times and keep the tyres cool for the last part of the race."

This was a sound strategy decision by Team Mexico, as Duran needed fresh tyres in the latter part of the race - stuck behind backmarkers Pakistan and Germany, Duran found himself backed into the chasing pack, which consisted of New Zealand, Malaysia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada. Realising he would find it difficult to get past the two lapped cars ahead of him, Duran employed some tactics of his own, which proved similarly successful. "I started letting them get away a bit in the Indy part of the circuit so that I had some space to get away from [Team NZL driver] Matt in the second half of the lap."

New Zealand's Matt Halliday piled the pressure on, getting extremely close on occasion, but could not get past the young Mexican. Still, fourth was a fine result for the Kiwi, who had to start from the pit lane and dead last after stalling on the warm-up lap. Some stunningly quick laps from the back of the field in the first half of the race meant Halliday, who should have started third on the grid, was sixth following the pit stop period.

At the second restart, Halliday got past Malaysian Alex Yoong to get into fourth, but thereafter he also had to keep one eye on his mirrors, as the train of cars behind him grew. Sixth was another great result, this time for South Africa, which started from plum last on the grid after his last-place finish in race one.

Jos Verstappen, the only retiree from race one, made much more of an impact, also having to come from the back of the grid on his way to seventh. The old hand mixed it royally with the cars in the midfield, enjoying some great scraps. The Dutch master was followed home by Japanese Ryo Fukuda (who also stalled in the pits) and Canadian Sean McIntosh, who both had eventful but solid runs amidst the mid-race chaos.

The lapped Team Germany car rounded out the top 10, Timo Scheider being handed a drive through penalty for having one too many team members over the white line during his pit stop. Before that, he was hounding the Malaysian car in seventh.

Mathias Lauda was 11th in the Team Austria car, although Niki Lauda's son already had a black mark against his name for holding up Team Pakistan driver Adam Khan, who at that point was trying to escape from Verstappen in a fine fourth.

Twelfth was a super result for Team China, whose young and inexperienced driver Jiang Teng Yi admits he does not have the speed or race craft of his rivals, but a consistent and steady run was rightly rewarded despite some problems in the pits, when his crew lowered his car before one of its wheels had been attached. Team Pakistan also suffered very badly in the pits, Khan's car stuck in its pit box for what seemed an eternity when a wheel stuck. By the time he had emerged, all his hard work at the sharp end had been negated, and he was black-flagged for holding up Scheider.

Of several retirements, there were a few notable ones Portugal pulled up on lap two with mechanical problems, Switzerland and Ireland clashed heavily at Graham Hill Bend on the opening lap, Indonesia went off on the same lap at Paddock Hill Bend and Czech Republic spun out at Clearways. But Team USA had the worst luck of all. The nightmare that started during qualifying continued, with countless visits to the pits ending in retirement after 14 laps. France, second on the grid, and India both stalled on the grid and did not start.