Brazil

A1 Team Brazil will begin tomorrow's Sprint race from the sixth row and the Feature row on the fifth row after Felipe Guimarães qualified in 12th and tenth places respectively at the Chengdu International Circuit in China for round two of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

The team got the day underway with one final hour of practice ahead of the afternoon qualifying sessions. Temperatures were cooler than yesterday and conditions were overcast, although there was no rain. Felipe completed a useful 33 laps of testing during the session, which aimed to correct a few set-up issues that were discovered yesterday and get prepared for qualifying. He consistently improved his times through the session and posted the seventh fastest time just after the half-way mark with a time of 1:16.607. Several red flags and other drivers spinning disrupted the second half of the practice, and Felipe finished up tenth fastest, six tenths of a second behind session leaders Netherlands, who had new driver Robert Doornbos at the wheel.

In qualifying for the sprint race, a tyre pressure problem meant the young Brazilian finished 12th fastest overall after the first segment. The team aimed to improve this in segment two, however this was cancelled after Italy's Edoardo Piscopo had an accident on his in lap, which caused a delay to the programme while the car was recovered.

Felipe put in a strong lap in segment one of Feature race qualifying, setting a time of 1:15.325, putting him in provisional seventh place. However, the team made a set-up change in the break before the final segment to try to cure some understeer, which unfortunately caused severe oversteer, and Felipe could not improve on his lap, qualifying overall in tenth place.

Felipe Guimarães: "This was the first time I've done one-lap qualifying and it is difficult as you have to have the set-up right and have a perfect lap. Unfortunately in the first sprint qualifying we had a problem with our tyre pressures, which were far too low, and there was no grip. Because the second was cancelled we didn't get the chance to improve our position for the sprint race. We fixed the tyre pressures for the first feature qualifying, immediately gained a second and the lap was quite good. We had a little bit of understeer on the high speed corner, which we tried to change for the final session but it caused bad oversteer so we lost the lap. If the car had been good I am confident we would have been P5 or P6. The track here is going to be difficult to overtake on so it's better to be starting at the front but we will see what we can do tomorrow."

France

Today, A1 Team France took part in qualifying for the second round of the 2008-09 World Cup of Motorsport Championship on the Chengdu circuit in China. Nicolas Prost was feeling confident after a good free practice session. The son of the 4-times F1 world champion looked on course to set pole when an unforeseen incident a few hundred metres from the finishing line dashed his hopes.

In the A1 GP Championship the first 2 qualifying segments determine the grid positions for the Short race, and next two establish the starting order for the Feature event. In the first segment A1 Team France adopted a cautious approach deciding not to use its new tyres until the following one. Unfortunately, this was cancelled and the team had to make do with sixth place.

In the third segment, Nicolas was held up by another car and could only set the tenth-fastest time. So his qualifying position depended on his final run. The Frenchman set off with the bit between his te eth and set the quickest time in the first and second sectors on his flying lap with a marvellous display of controlled aggression. He looked set to take pole with a few tenths in hand until he came upon a car crawling along in the final corner. It was the second time he'd been baulked in the two sessions and once again his hopes were dashed.

Tomorrow, A1 Team France will start from sixth and twelfth places. Once the team had got over its initial disappointment they were delighted with Nicolas's performances, and know they can count on a highly-skilled second driver.

Olivier Panis, sporting director: "Nicolas was bitterly disappointed when he got out of the car a few minutes ago. We have to see the positive side of his performance. Since first getting behind the wheel he's amazed the whole team and has been consistently among the front-runners. The performance he looked set to achieve in the fourth segment was incredible, and pole position was well within his grasp. We've now got to put this disappointment behind us and tackle the race in a calm frame of mind. We can score points, and the championship is so closely-fought that every position gained will count at the end of the season."

Nicolas Prost: "I would so much have liked to start from pole in my first race with A1 Team France. I was bitterly disappointed after qualifying but we've now got to concentrate on the two races tomorrow. Today, I showed that we have the speed to fight at the front. My aim will be to try and overtake on this twisty circuit in the Short race and use an aggressive strategy for the Feature event. Overall, I'm satisfied with my performance so far. Things would have been different but for that last-corner incident. But that's motor racing!"

Great Britain

On his debut for A1 Team GBR, Danny Watts has secured pole position for tomorrow's Feature race in Chengdu, China, round two of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.