Brazil

A1 Team Brasil will begin tomorrow's 15-lap sprint race from the second row of the grid after Nelson Piquet Jr qualified fourth for the team today.

Team Brasil's Saturday began with a final one-hour free practice. This proved invaluable for the team, who overnight discovered an engine problem which had been the cause of the slow lap times in yesterday's practices. Nelson completed a further 21 laps of practice on old tyres, with a fastest time of 1:46.206, putting him eighth in the practice standings.

Qualifying turned out to be a nail-biting affair, with no margin for error. Six minutes prior to the end of the first session, the Team Mexico entry crashed badly, and the debris was not removed before the chequered flag. This meant that 20 cars, including the Team Brasil entry, were not able to complete a flying lap, leaving the order to be decided by the fastest two sessions from the three remaining, rather than four, for the majority of the pack.

In the second session, Nelson was immediately on the pace, posting the second fastest individual lap time just behind Team Switzerland's Neel Jani. After his second flying lap in the third session, he consolidated his place as second overall. However, an extremely competitive final session saw him finally end up in fourth overall, finishing just 0.001s behind Team Ireland's Ralph Firman.

Nelson Piquet Jr: "I am happy and disappointed at the same time. We could easily have been second today, and maybe even pole. But at least we have sorted out the problems we had yesterday, we did a lot of big changes and we found a big difference. If we put our best sectors together we would have been pole. I did a silly mistake at the end, which lost us two places and we should have been second. There are two long races tomorrow and I will do my best. We can do two podiums easily, but I am fighting for wins. It's been too long since Brands Hatch now."

Emerson Fittipaldi: "It's a shame because Nelson lost out on the last lap. He lost a bit of time on the last sector, I think the Pakistan car slowed him down but we should have been second. The car was consistent so at least we are back in business again. Tomorrow should be good."

Pakistan

A1 Team Pakistan's Adam Khan qualified in 20th position after an unsettling qualifying session at the Dubai Autodrome Grand Prix of Nations. The first qualifying session was cut short by the early exit off the track by Team Mexico's Salvador Duran. Although the car was badly damaged the driver was unhurt but as a result only four teams could register qualifying times.

Duran came off again in session three due to a mechanical failure and at the end of the fourth and final session pole position was held by A1 Team Switzerland followed by the A1 Teams from France and Ireland taking the second and third positions.

Reacting to the result, Team Pakistan's Adam Khan said: "Of course I am disappointed not to be in the top ten where we were all confident that I could be and had shown that I could be. One of the knee pads came loose next to my leg and it ended up at my feet, interfering with my control of the car. I had no option but to back off the throttle. Having missed one of the qualifying sessions restricted my ability to put in a fast enough time."

"However, I am determined that this will not be the end of the weekend and that we will progress through the positions in both races tomorrow and regain the form when it really matters – in the Sprint and Finish – to the delight of the huge support we have had so far from the Pakistani community in Dubai".

Asim Husain, Operations Director of A1 Team Pakistan: "Having finished yesterday's practice session in 7th position we were hoping for a higher position on the grid for tomorrow. The problems inside the car could not be foreseen and is disappointing when we have had such pace. However, we know that the set up of the car is good and that the team are working towards the best finish possible."

Netherlands

For A1 Team Netherlands there is a lot of work to be done tomorrow to get a good result in both races of the A1 Grand Prix in Dubai. After a promising third fastest time in this mornings final free practice session, the team did not reach higher then a nineteenth grid position in qualifying. In the qualifying, which started chaotic when the first session was stopped with a code red after a heavy crash of Team Mexico, Jos Verstappen set an aggregate time of 3'35.074 (1:47.559 & 1:47.516) in the remaining three sessions.

A1 Team Netherlands driver Jos Verstappen had to admit it just did not go at all. Off course Verstappen was disappointed, but also surprised about the difference with the free practice in the morning.

Jos Verstappen; "It's a big disappointment. In the last session I got understeer in the last sector and this made me go wide. With that I lost about half a second. Otherwise we could possibly have ended up around the 12th place. The starting position for the races off course is not good. Also you are right in the middle of the rumble, so the chance of something happening is obviously very present. But this is racing, off course we will go all out to make the best of it and race as hard as possible".