Brazil

Raphael Matos (right) got A1 Team Brasil's season off to a start in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport today after putting in two strong performances at the Jingkai street circuit in Beijing, the third round of the 2006/07 championship. In a processional sprint race, he finished in sixth position, collecting the final point and, in a feature race that was largely decided on strategy due to several safety car periods, he crossed the line in seventh, securing a total of five points for the team over the course of the day.

Raphael began this morning's 20-minute sprint race in sixth position began the pace car. As usual, it began with a rolling start, but due to safety concerns, the cars proceeded in single file. Unfortunately, combined with a safety car period which lasted almost half the race distance, this limited opportunities for overtaking. The top six points scoring positions were unchanged from the start and therefore Team Brasil's sixth place finish netted the final point available.

This afternoon's 70-minute feature race proved rather more eventful, with countries dicing for position both on the difficult track, and in the pitstops. In a race that was guaranteed to have thrills and spills, Raphael began from sixth and on lap 13 took advantage of a problem with the Team Mexico car to move up to fifth. The pitstop window opened on lap 20, with Brasil's plan to come in for an early stop. However, the safety car was deployed for the second of the four outings it had in the race on lap 22, and Brasil lost out to the teams that had managed to squeeze in their stop before that time. It was frustrating for the squad, who had fielded a fast car, and for Raphael, who performed well throughout the whole race and who, with a little bit of luck, could have finished on the podium today.

After the pitstop window closed on lap 50, Team Brasil was sitting in the points in tenth place. It was all action towards the end of the race though, with several incidents seeing teams retire. Raphael was able to capitalise on this, moving up position after position, eventually crossing the finish line in seventh place.

Raphael Matos: "Today was so much about luck with the pitstops. We thought the time we picked to come in would be a good idea, but it didn't work out this time. We also lost a bit of time in the stop with a little problem on the left rear, but that's part of racing and we just have to get over it. I'm very pleased for the team and we've made a lot of progress through the weekend. I really want to thank Emerson for giving me this chance and now I definitely feel we can be at the top for the next races."

Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "On the first yellow flag inside the pitstop window we were going to come in for the stop but then they closed the pits and we lost the segment from the race, which really put us down around ten positions. Raphael did a fantastic job, overtook a few guys, and got the second fastest lap of the race. The team also did a great job. The results are improving and we have some points now, so there are a lot of positives to take from this weekend."

Canada

A1 Team Canada's James Hinchcliffe (left) endured a fast but frustrating third round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in Beijing, China Sunday as the 19-year-old from Toronto added to the team's points tally with fourth and tenth place finishes in the Sprint and Feature races with the fastest race lap, and bonus point, also going to the Canadian charger.

With the grid for Sunday morning's 20-minute Sprint race based on Saturday's limited practice session, following vital track modifications to the Beijing street circuit, Hinchcliffe found himself taking the start in fourth. The tight nature of the Jingkai track in the Olympic city was never going to lend itself to spectacular overtaking and as expected the Sprint race proved to be a static affair as the 22 Nation field finally unleashed their identical 550bhp V8-powered A1GP racing machines. Hinchcliffe held fourth to score three more points for Canada, his third straight points-scoring performance, with pole-sitter Jeroen Bleekemolen winning for A1 Team Netherlands ahead of Mexico's Salvador Duran and Italy's Enrico Toccacelo.

The Feature race saw Hinchcliffe climb into podium contention early in proceedings, taking the third spot as the Mexican entry floundered. As soon as the pit window opened on lap 20 the front-runners pitted with the exception of Canada who opted to stay out and build up an advantage over the rest of the field. Unfortunately for Hinchcliffe, almost as soon as he assumed the lead two safety car periods in quick succession denied him the opportunity to streak too far away or similarly pit for a fresh set of tires. When the track finally returned to green James put pedal to the metal but the advantage lay with Holland in fourth having already stopped followed by a string of similarly placed cars. This failed to halt Hinchcliffe's stunning pace demonstration and he duly set the fastest lap of the race on lap 39.