Team Brazil will begin tomorrow's 18-lap Eurospeedway sprint race from third place, on the second row of the grid, following today's qualifying session.

The day kicked off with a one-hour free practice session, giving teams the chance to optimise their car set-ups for this afternoon's qualifying. After suffering from an oil leak and battery problems yesterday, this session was invaluable to Team Brazil. Nelson Piquet Jr completed 19 laps for the team and, after leading the pack for forty minutes, eventually ended the session fourth fastest.

Nelson was immediately on the pace in first qualifying, recording the fastest time after venturing out late into the session. Two fastest session laps from Team France, with Nicolas Lapierre at the wheel, in second and third qualifying saw Team Brazil slip to second overall with just one session to run. Nelson put in a great performance on his final outing, recording very fast times in the final two sectors, but had his lap spoiled near the start when he got stuck behind the Team New Zealand entry, and had to overtake, losing around two tenths of a second. In the meantime, a good lap from Scott Speed saw Team USA move up to second position, with Team Brazil having to settle for third.

The 18-lap sprint race will begin at 13.30hrs tomorrow, with the 36-lap feature race taking place at 15.00hrs. The grid for the feature race will be determined by the result of the sprint race.

Nelson Piquet Jr: "This is a real track. Brands Hatch is a bit small really for the A1 cars and the pitlane was a bit tight there but here we have a bigger circuit and a better structure to receive A1. It's not an easy circuit but if you already have a good car it's easy to adapt. The car isn't bad, we've changed it a bit and will work to keep on improving. I could have been a bit quicker today on the last lap and I lost a couple of tenths when I got stuck in traffic behind the New Zealand car, which wasn't on a fast lap. I am happy with where we are though and we are improving. Just because we won the races at Brands Hatch, it doesn't mean we will win every time. We have to keep improving at every session."

Emerson Fittipaldi: "Nelsinho has made a great start to the season and did a fantastic job at Brands Hatch. I must say well done to France and the USA for the good job they did today in qualifying. Nelsinho was a bit unlucky as he got stuck in some traffic in the first sector and should have been higher up as he was very quick in the middle and final sectors. The fact is, though, that this is racing and that's how it goes sometimes. We are still in a very good position for tomorrow and are not too disappointed with third."