Ireland

A1 Team Ireland scored points with a 4th placed finish in the Sprint Race at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Durban South African today, although the team's hopes of a podium finish in the Feature Race ended with a rear suspension failure. Ralph Fiman achieved a strong 4th place in the Sprint Race setting the fastest lap 1m19.164 which underlined the speed of the A1 Team Ireland car following its dominance of practice and warm up. The Irish team held fourth at the start of the race, moving briefly into second place when France and Switzerland pitted during the first Safety Car period. Firman then pitted only for the car to develop a severe handling problem caused by a broken anti-roll bar.

Ralph Firman: "The car felt fantastic in the sprint race, easily the quickest car on the track and the best it has been all year. Having finished fourth in the Sprint Race we had a real chance of a podium in the Feature event but the suspension problem ended that hope. I cannot believe our luck, but the results will come – we just have to keep pushing hard."

Andy Miller, Technical Director: "We had the pace again this weekend and showed that on several occasions. What we didn't have was any luck in final qualifying with those red flags and getting badly blocked, and the suspension problem in the Feature Race ended our chances today. We will be looking at what caused that problem in more detail."

Mark Gallagher, Team Principal: "Fastest in practice, warm-up and the sprint race shows once again that at A1 Team Ireland we are definitely among the pace setters but that we don't yet have the deserved result. This weekend we did not get the results when it mattered most, qualifying and the Feature Race, but we go away confident that we are now fastest enough to win an A1 Grand Prix of Nations event this season. That was and remains the goal."

Austria

A1 Team Austria picked up three points in today's A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Durban, South Africa, when Mathias Lauda finished eighth in the feature race, the team's second best result of the season.

Starting from 21st on the grid after a disappointing qualifying session yesterday, Mathias Lauda worked his way up to 16th on the first lap after the rolling start of the 20-lap sprint race. After driving a careful race and avoiding any trouble, Mathias was able to bring the Team Austria car home in 15th, securing an eighth row grid position for the feature race.

Mathias began the 40-lap feature race from 15th, and made his mandatory pitstop under the safety car on lap 2. After a long race full of incidents, Mathias stayed safe but pushed hard, finishing the race in eighth position, Team Austria's second best result of the season. The team picked up three points in the championship.

Mathias Lauda: "It's been a hard weekend. Qualifying was my fault because I went off, and so we started at the back of the grid in the first race. We finished the race and got a better grid position for the second race. That was tough. Most people went out, and I did touch other cars a few times and then I lost five positions trying to overtake the Lebanon. We did a good early pitstop though and we finished the race which I am happy about. We got some points, but I think we could have been higher."

New Zealand

The New Zealand A1 Grand Prix team is celebrating a successful weekend at the 7th Round of the World Cup of Motorsport in South Africa.

Matt Halliday drove superbly on the tight Durban beachfront street circuit to steer Black Beauty to 6th place in the Sprint Race and 4th place in the Feature Race. Halliday's haul of 12 points was the third best of the weekend and has allowed New Zealand to gain ground on 3rd placed Brazil and 4th placed Great Britain.

Switzerland dipped out to the Netherlands in the final lap of a thrilling Feature Race, but had two podium finishes to tally a weekend-high 17 points. France won the Sprint Race and finished 7th in the Feature Race to score 14 points and maintain a substantial championship lead.

France tops the championship table with 120 points, followed by Switzerland (92), Brazil (63), Great Britain (58) and New Zealand (54).

A1 Team.NZL chief executive Bob McMurray is delighted with the team's showing and praised Halliday's driving effort.

"This was a tough course with disaster lurking at every turn," McMurray said. "Less than half the field finished the Feature Race and with such an attrition rate Matt's effort was simply brilliant.

"You walk a fine line between staying out of trouble and being aggressive enough to haul in cars in front. On this occasion Matt judged his two drives to perfection and we couldn't be happier. It was a great way to start the New Year."

McMurray says the team's engineers and pit crew were in great form, too, particularly given the changeable weather.

"They had to finetune a new engine and set up the car for a demanding circuit that was subjected to weather extremes, both wet and dry. They were on top of their game all weekend."