Brazil

A1 Team Brasil picked up five valuable championship points today when Sergio Jimenez finished the Taupo feature race in sixth place at round five of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. Earlier in the day Team Brasil finished 13th in the feature race after Sergio was forced off track to avoid a first corner collision, costing a points finishing position.

Starting tenth in the 14-lap sprint race, Sergio had no chance to gain positions as he was forced off the circuit on turn one to avoid an incident between Malaysia, Switzerland and Canada, and he dropped to 19th position. Following a safety car period he was up to 18th following Team GBR's dash into the pits and then passed Mexico on lap seven for 17th. Sergio made passes on China and Indonesia on lap nine to move up to 15th and then gained a further position a lap later with the retirement of the Czech Republic. On lap 11 he gained one more place with a great overtake on Team Lebanon, and crossed the finish line in 13th.

Sergio began from 11th on the grid for the afternoon's feature race, and gained one place after the start. He moved up a position again after the restart and was up to seventh by lap five as Team GBR retired and Team Switzerland took a drive through penalty. On lap seven sprint race winners and home favourites New Zealand snatched seventh from Brasil and Sergio remained in eighth position throughout his two mandatory pitstops. On lap 38 he passed South Africa for seventh and, two laps later when Switzerland made another pitstop, Sergio moved up to sixth place, the position in which he crossed the line.

A1 Team Brasil leaves New Zealand in 11th place in the championship with 27 points. However, the team is now just one point adrift of both India and China, and will be looking to move up the championship ladder in a fortnight's time when A1GP moves to Eastern Creek, Australia, for round six of the championship.

Sergio Jimenez: "I have to be happy that we got some points in the bag this afternoon and finished in a strong position but qualifying did not go to plan yesterday, we could easily have been in the top five and we had the race pace to match that. We changed the car for the races today and it was such a shame in the sprint race because I was touched by Malaysia and went off track. That cost us points for sure because I made a very good start and we could have finished in the top six. For the feature race we started 11th and I had a very good start and the pace was good. The car was difficult to drive because we had too much understeer, although that was okay by the end but we need to look at that problem. For Australia we need to work on improving qualifying because we have the speed in the race and we need to put ourselves in a better starting position."

Canada

A1 Team Canada celebrated a return to the Feature race podium today in Round 5 of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport as Toronto's Robert Wickens delivered a stellar performance to finish runner-up to Germany's Christian Vietoris at New Zealand's Taupo Motorsports Park.

Wickens successfully converted fourth on the grid to a well-earned second place, the 18-year-old rookie's first Feature race finish in three attempts and the first Feature podium for Canada since Vancouver's Sean McIntosh led the team to victory in Indonesia in the inaugural 2005-06 A1GP season. Having landed a third place Sprint podium on his A1GP debut in Malaysia last November, Robert scored his second top-three finish in six starts, his efforts at Taupo taking Canada's points tally to 22, the team climbing to 12th in the A1GP Nations Standings at the mid-season turn.

Sunday morning's 14-lap Sprint race was instantly forgettable for Canada. Starting eighth Wickens was caught up in a four-car, first corner incident. While he was able to continue, Robert's race would end in retirement three laps shy of the checkered due to suspension damage while New Zealand's Jonny Reid celebrated victory before an ecstatic home crowd – his win only the second ‘home' triumph in A1GP history following Robbie Kerr's victory for Great Britain at Brands Hatch last season.

Skillful driving and some slick team-work in the pits proved key to Canada's Feature race success. Dropping from fourth to seventh at the start, a broken clutch stop to blame, Robert picked up the pace to sit third at the time of his first pit stop on lap 10. Graduating to third again by lap 23, as a third Safety Car period littered proceedings, Wickens soon took the fight to Germany and France in first and second respectively – the gap between the trio less than a second when racing resumed.

A lightening fast second stop from the Canadian pit-crew allowed Robert to pass France's Loic Duval on pit-lane and set up a nail biting sprint to the checkered with Germany maintaining its position at the head of the pack. Holding second Wickens latched onto the rear of Vietoris in the German entry as they headed a train of four cars tailed by France and New Zealand to the flag. Vietoris held on to claim the win for Germany a mere 1.18 seconds ahead of a jubilant Wickens – scoring Canada's best finish of the season, with France's Duval completing the Taupo podium celebrations.

"There's no doubt our podium was deserved today," enthused Wickens. "The guys did an outstanding job in the pits and the result is testament to the progress made by the team since coming together in Zandvoort at the start of the season. Our previous podium in Malaysia was awarded after the fact so it's great to physically be there today with the team celebrating and sharing the champagne, especially after they worked so hard to repair the car following the Sprint race. I had a clutch stop break at the start of the Feature so I lost time exiting the pits as I had to wait a bit before leaving the box – it didn't do the team justice but the result shows just how well the team worked executing each stop!"