Brazil

A1 Team Brasil hit the track today as round eight of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport kicked off in Mexico City, with two free practice sessions. New rookie Felipe Guimaraes was at the wheel of the A1GP car for this morning's rookie practice, before handing over to Bruno Junqueira for the afternoon, and who will undertake driving duties for the remainder of the weekend.

South American F3 race winner, 16-year-old hotshot Felipe Guimaraes, made his A1GP debut in this morning's rookie practice. In the first 25-minute segment Felipe was tasked with learning the circuit before moving onto set-up work for the team. He completed 27 laps in total, setting his fastest lap of 1:23.773 in the second segment, in which he finished seventh fastest.

Bruno, who has finished on the podium in Mexico City four times over his Champ Car career and who raced for Team Brasil last time out in South Africa, returned to the cockpit for this afternoon's one-hour practice session. Following a set-up programme to find the optimum configurations for tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's races, Bruno completed 21 laps of practice, setting the ninth fastest time with a lap of 1:22.126, seven tenths of a second behind session leaders Team
GBR.

Bruno will drive in one final hour-long practice session tomorrow morning before the afternoon's sprint and feature race qualifying sessions.

Bruno Junqueira: "Today went okay, we tested a few things on the car this afternoon. It started quite good and got better although we tried something towards the end that didn't work and lost us a couple of positions. Great Britain and Switzerland look good but I'm still taking it easy and things will be much better tomorrow."

Felipe Guimaraes: "During the first session I did some laps to learn the track and the car and did some work on the brakes. I was far from the limit and just taking my time to learn everything. In the second session I could push harder. The car had a little bit of oversteer but felt very good on the last run after we made some set-up changes. I've had a great time working with the team and Emerson and I'm pleased with this morning's results. I hope to keep learning and hope that I
can continue to be a part of A1 Team Brasil."

Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "Felipe had a very strong session as all the drivers ahead of him had experience either already in A1GP or in F3000. He finished less than a second behind the best lap on a very long track and I am very pleased with his performance. I'm really happy with Bruno's performance. He knows this place very well so doesn't need a lot of laps. He is finding a few things on the car and we are confident for tomorrow."

Canada

A1 Team Canada enjoyed a solid start to the eighth round of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport with Markham's Daniel Morad sixth quickest in Friday morning's ‘Rookie-Only' session before he handed over to Toronto's Robert Wickens, who was subsequently eleventh fastest of the 22 competitors on-track in the afternoon's official practice session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City, Mexico.

The 4.42km circuit, although new to the Canadian racers, held no obstacles for Morad or Wickens with both drivers picking up the layout quickly and posting promising lap times. The morning's rookie session saw Morad first out for the team and he quickly found a front-running pace, ending the first half of the session with the third fastest time. The 17-year-old Formula BMW USA Champion ended his Friday outing with the sixth fastest lap time, a 1m23.716s, from a total of 21 laps.

Wickens, who turned 19 yesterday, strapped in behind the wheel for the afternoon's hour long practice session. Posting 23 laps, with a best time of 1m22.227s, Robert's turn of speed on used rubber bodes well for Sunday's later Feature race but the Durban Sprint race victor knows he'll need to extract the maximum from new tires in tomorrow afternoon's qualifying runs.

"I don't think we're that far off," reflected Wickens after practice. "Our pace on old tires was pretty respectable. We're just lacking a little bit of grip when the tires are still fresh. We've had this issue before and we've overcome it – there are no points on offer on Friday's so there's no need to panic. We need to pick up a bit everywhere, there isn't one spot where I'm losing a lot of time so that's a sign to me that we have to work to get the balance better and I think we can get it for sure!"

Following just his second A1GP ‘Rookie-Only' session Morad commented; "The track was really dirty but given it was just the second time I'd driven the car things in general seemed pretty good. There's obviously a little bit more work to do. I ended up sixth, things were definitely looking promising in the first half of the session but for the second half we had to bed in brake pads and lost our rhythm a little. I thought the circuit really suited me, some parts are pretty bumpy but I found a rhythm which was ideal as I don't like to muscle the car around, I'm more of a finesse driver!"

France

A1 Team France took to the track today (Friday) for the opening day's practice for the Mexican round of the World Cup of Motorsport. Nicolas Prost was the first to go out for the 2 rookie sessions in the morning. He then handed over to Jonathan Cochet for the afternoon's practice.