A1 Team South Africa is in Malaysia this weekend to join the 22 nations contesting the third round of the third season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the ultra-modern Sepang International Circuit 60 km south of Kuala Lumpur.

Adrian Zaugg and the distinctively-liveried Vulindlela got A1 Team South Africa off to the best possible start to the third season of this unique motor racing series that pits nation against nation in identical 550 bhp V8 A1GP formula cars by convincingly winning the season-opening sprint race at Zandvoort in the Netherlands in October and finishing second in the feature race. The 21-year-old (he celebrated his 'coming of age' on November 4) followed this up two weeks later with pole position for the sprint race and second place for the feature race in round two at Brno in the Czech Republic.

On a day that promised much, A1 Team South Africa had to be content with just eight points for fourth place in the sprint race. Zaugg finished 16th in the feature race after tyre and handling problems, but emerged from a disappointing weekend with enough points from the first two rounds of the championship to be in second place overall, one behind A1 Team New Zealand and five ahead of A1 Team Great Britain.

"Vulindlela and Adrian have proved to be one of the quickest combinations so far this season and the two races at Sepang (a 20-minute sprint race on Sunday morning and a 70-minute feature race on Sunday afternoon) provide us with an opportunity to put more points on the board and consolidate our strong position in the championship," said Mike Carroll, general manager of A1 Team South Africa.

Zaugg, who now has two A1GP race wins under his belt (he won the season-opening sprint race in the Netherlands in 2006), is confident ahead of this race weekend. "We had a very fast car at Zandvoort and Brno and, had it not been for problems with our tyres on the very abrasive Brno track and the fact that I managed to stall the car in the second pit stop, we might have come away with a much better feature race result."

Wesleigh Orr will make his second appearance for A1 Team South Africa in Friday morning's rookie session.