Team Brazil

It was an action-packed afternoon in Shanghai at the penultimate round of the 2006/07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, with thrilling on track action, no less than three safety car periods, and the crowning of Germany as the champions after Nico Hulkenberg finished third in this afternoon's feature race. The race followed this morning's 10-lap sprint race, which was won by Team Great Britain, its debut A1GP win. Unfortunately things were not as good in the Team Brasil garage, as the squad endured another trying day, with Vitor Meira finishing the sprint and features races in 14th and 19th respectively.

Vitor began this morning's sprint race from 15th on the grid, but dropped to 18th after the rolling start. On lap three he passed Team Portugal for 17th and then moved past Mexico or 16th. After a collision between France and Canada, Vitor was up to 14th, a position he retained until the chequered flag, setting him up for a seventh row start in the feature race.

Team Brasil had a good start to the feature race, immediately up to 13th after passing a slow-moving China. However, on an eventful first corner, Vitor was forced to drive off track to avoid a spinning Team Mexico and fell down to 20th. After progressing up the order, he was closing in on Team Mexico on lap ten, but with the Team Australia car appearing behind and no space for the three cars, Mexico made contact with Team Brasil, forcing Vitor into the pits for a nosecone change. Once in the pits, the team also discovered suspension damage, and so Vitor came back out on track four laps down. He crossed the line in 19th position.

Vitor Meira: "When a weekend starts in bad shape, it can easily end in bad shape. It began on Friday when we missed practice, that's not an excuse, but after that we were behind an hour all the time. It was so hard to make progress in the sprint race, it's so short that it's over before it has begun really. I was really disappointed as I wanted to move up the order for the feature race so it was frustrating not to be able to do that. In the feature race, Mexico had a little better start than me but then he was on the outside on turn 1 and Australia came out of nowhere and there just wasn't space for three cars. I think Australia pushed a little bit more than he should have, Mexico left me no space and I touched with both of them. My front suspension was bent so my race was really done. The guys did a really good job fixing the car and we went back out to get some valuable track time so that we could learn as much as possible. I'd really like to thank Emerson for the opportunity and the Team Brasil crew for their hard work over the weekend."

Emerson Fittipaldi: "We lost Friday which was a very important day for Vitor to get used to the car and learn the track, so as a result we were one day behind the whole weekend. I'm happy with Vitor as he did a very professional job all weekend and he's a good driver. The team now needs to look forward to Brands Hatch."

Team Canada

Sean McIntosh capped his return to the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport with a brilliant drive for Canada from the rear of the field to sixth place at the checkered in Round 10's Feature race, hosted on Sunday at China's stunning Shanghai International Circuit.

In a performance reminiscent of his last-to-first Feature race victory for A1 Team Canada last February in Indonesia, the 21-year-old from Coquitlam, B.C. recovered from the disappointment of being taken out of Round 10's Sprint race in the morning, France's Jean Karl Vernay the guilty culprit, to steer his way from the final row of the 22-car grid through to a points paying finish in sixth in the Feature.

McIntosh had high hopes for the 10-lap Sprint race in Shanghai, an opinion shared by the Canadian team as they qualified ninth the day before, their first top-ten start since January's sixth round at the Taupo Motorsports Park in New Zealand. Sean grabbed a spot at the start of the race and was looking to secure a front-running starting slot for the afternoon's Feature race when France came steaming up the inside of the Canadian entry on the main straight with three laps to go.

Vernay's tricolor car rammed into McIntosh's right rear tire, the pair spearing off-track in the process. While the rivals rejoined it quickly became evident that punctures to both cars would curtail their participation in the final laps of the Sprint race, the two drivers to meet again on the back-row of the Feature grid. Great Britain's Robbie Kerr captured the team's second straight A1GP victory followed at the flag by New Zealand's Jonny Reid and Germany's Nico Hülkenberg.

Sean wasted little time in moving though the field from 21st as the lights flicked to green to start the 70-minute Chinese Feature race. By the end of the first tour of duty the Canadian had charged his way up to 16th and by lap 10, the opening of the mandatory pit-window, he had successfully broken into the top-ten running order. McIntosh climbed as high as fifth before he too darted into the pits on lap 15 for a full tire change, the pit-crew performing flawlessly under the pressure of maintaining their strongest showing in several starts. Losing virtually no ground to his rivals, Sean returned to the track in ninth and by the halfway marker on lap 20 had passed India's Narain Karthikeyan for seventh.

With the demise of Jonathan Summerton in the American entry, and the subsequent safety car period on lap 25, McIntosh broke back into the top-six. From sixth he comfortably held off Italy's Enrico Toccacelo while giving chase to Ireland's Richard Lyons ahead, the gap between the pair less than two seconds as they raced through to the checkered on lap 39. Sean's sixth place rewarded the Canadian team with five valuable points, the team now just two points out of the top-ten with one round remaining. New Zealand's Reid beat Great Britain's Kerr to the flag while Hülkenberg's third place performance was enough for Germany to be crowned 2006-07 A1GP World Champions.