A1 Team Brasil will this weekend compete in the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Dubai, which marks the half-way point of the series, and is the final race in 2005. Following the races in Dubai, the home of A1GP founder Sheikh Maktoum, the series will recommence in one month's time in Sentul, Indonesia, for the second half of the season.

Nelson Piquet Jr will once again lead the charge for A1 Team Brasil, and is determined to try to break A1 Team France's recent domination of the series, and regain the winning form that saw the team win the competition's first two races at Brands Hatch. The team's reserve driver will once more be Christiano ‘Tuka' Rocha.

Both drivers have been busy since the last round at Malaysia, with Nelson taking part in the annual Race of Champions in Paris alongside the likes of David Coulthard, Jeff Gordon, Sebastien Loeb and Jean Alesi, and Tuka competing in another knock-out style race at the Bologna Motorshow, in which he finished third.

The schedule for this weekend, as at the third round in Estoril, Portugal, will feature two extra 20-minute free practice sessions on Friday morning. This will be followed by the normal two one-hour sessions in the afternoon, with the four-part qualifying session taking place on Saturday. The 30-minutes Sprint race and one-hour Feature race will both take place on Sunday afternoon.

Nelson Piquet Jr: "I am looking forward to this weekend. We have had a bit of a longer break since Malaysia, and although I have been testing and taking part in other things, it was a good chance for the whole team to recharge its batteries ready for this last race of the year. I had a look at the track this morning [Thursday] for the first time. It looks quite dirty at the moment, which could make it slippery in the practice sessions tomorrow. It is an interesting circuit with banking, which most circuits don't have, and there are some quick corners. There is also a big straight at the back. It's very hot here like Malaysia, so it's not going to be easy to save the tyres, we have to make sure the car has a good set-up to cope with that."