Brazil

A1 Team Brasil suffered a disappointing Malaysian round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Sepang circuit today, finishing the sprint and feature races in 19th and 18th positions respectively. Nominated driver Raphael Matos was always going to struggle in this afternoon's feature race after an incident in the sprint race put him at the back of the field for the main event. He then struggled further in the feature after experiencing an engine misfire problem for the duration of the 70-minutes.

Raphael tangled with the midfield pack on the second corner of the first lap of this morning's 20-minute sprint race after beginning 15th at the rolling start. He was forced into the pits for repair work, and raced hard from a lap down, managing to regain the lost lap to rejoin the rest of the field, but he was unable to get close enough to challenge for position. He crossed the finish line in 19th, establishing his starting position for the feature race.

The enthralling feature race got underway after a ten minute delay due to the deluge of heavy rain that fell at the circuit for the hour preceding the start. The safety car led the field past the start and for the first four laps, before the racing began, albeit in treacherous conditions with severely reduced visibility and a great deal of standing water. Unfortunately for Team Brasil the race was not to be overly rewarding, with Raphael suffering with an engine misfire problem for the whole race, eventually crossing the finish line in 18th, just one position higher than his 19th place starting slot. The race did see plenty off on-track action and innumerable overtakes, and miraculously just one retirement.

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport will remain in Asia for the fifth round of the series, which will take place in a fortnight in Indonesia. It will be the second visit for the series to the Sentul circuit, and A1 Team Brasil will be hoping its fortunes can change in the races, before the series takes a month-long winter break.

Raphael Matos: "We had a problem with the car the whole time in the feature race and were in a bad position from having to start at the back after this morning. The first five laps with the rain were really bad, and after that it started to dry a little bit which meant that at least we could see more. I don't think the car was balanced in the race and, with the engine problem, I don't think there was anything I could have done about our position."

Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "I am disappointed about the whole weekend. We were looking good on Friday and then not so good in qualifying and today everything has gone wrong. We had a bad start to the day with the crash this morning, which put us at the back, and then this afternoon we had the race in the wet. Not only did we have a technical problem with the engine misfiring for the whole race but Raphael has not had a chance to test in these kinds of conditions, so it was a difficult day."

Canada

Vancouver's Sean McIntosh enjoyed a competitive return to racing with A1 Team Canada Sunday as he scored a fifth place points-paying finish in the Feature race at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia in Round 4 of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. The 21-year-old's Feature result, which followed an eighth place Sprint race finish in the morning, helped solidify Canada's sixth place hold in the A1GP Nations Standings with a third of the sophomore season completed.

Back in A1GP action for the first time since leading Canada to victory in Indonesia last season, McIntosh was quickly into the swing of the weekend having assumed driving duties in Malaysia from the team's rookie standout, Toronto's James Hinchcliffe. Armed with track experience from last year's A1GP round at Sepang, Sean qualified the Canadian entry ninth on the 22-car grid for Sunday's Sprint race, later to be promoted to eighth following the exclusion of South Africa's fastest lap.

Boxed in at the start of the 10-lap Sprint race, McIntosh lost position but his pace was sufficient enough to gain it back, passing USA, China and Mexico as the pack funneled through the sweeping 5.54km, 15-turn Sepang International Circuit on the opening laps. With finishing positions in the Sprint race forming the grid for the Feature, the action at the front proved limited as the pack opted to preserve their entries. McIntosh, having diced wheel-to-wheel with the Dutch entry for seventh, took the checkered in eighth, just two places short of a points finish. Pole-winner Neel Jani, driving for A1 Team Switzerland, celebrated the Sprint victory, the team's first of the season, with Germany's Nico Hülkenberg second and New Zealand's Jonny Reid third.

Malaysia's monsoon rains made an unwelcome appearance in the hour leading up the 70-minute Feature race, forcing a delayed start and the eventual appearance of the safety car to lead the field round the treacherously wet circuit. With his visibility severely restricted thanks to the volume of spray being thrown at him from the car's ahead, Sean's progress in the early stages of the race was somewhat restricted but as conditions improved the Canadian began his top-five charge.

In quick succession McIntosh reeled off a series of passing moves with the Dutch, Malaysian and New Zealand entries all falling victims to his prowess before he darted to the pits to make his mandatory pit stop. Slick work from the Canadian team fired Sean back on track and up into fourth ahead of French racer Nicolas Lapierre. A shift in the car's balance, probably brought on by the drying track, brought a halt to Canada's rise and ultimately allowed Lapierre to pass for position.