Brazil

A1 Team Brasil will begin tomorrow's sprint and feature races at the Shanghai International Circuit in China from the seventh and ninth rows of the grid respectively after Xandi Negrão qualified in 14th and 17th positions. It was a tough day for the team but Xandi learned a lot during his first shot at one-lap qualifying and will work towards a positive result tomorrow.

The team participated in this morning's final one-hour practice ahead of qualifying. Xandi completed 22 laps of practice on old tyres and set a fastest lap of 1:36.622, putting him in 15th position on the timesheets.

In the afternoon's qualifying, Xandi embarked on his first ever one-lap qualifying - this unique format is always a challenge for drivers new to A1GP. Xandi set a lap time of 1:36.256 in the first segment of qualifying for the sprint race, putting him provisionally in 19th position. In his second shot he improved his lap by nearly nine tenths of a second, setting a time of 1:35.492 and moving up to 14th, securing a seventh row grid slot.

In feature qualifying the 22-year-old set a first lap time of 1:36.160, provisionally in 18th position. He improved his time with a lap of 1:35.887 in the final segment, but in an incredibly competitive session, it could only push him up to 17th. Xandi will compete in his first ever A1GP races tomorrow and will be looking to make the most possible out of his grid positions.

Xandi Negrao: "The car wasn't too bad today but I struggled a little bit as I've never done one-lap qualifying before and I was up against drivers that have been in this series for a while. In feature qualifying though I made a little mistake and we should really have been about P10. I think we need to improve the car for tomorrow and I also need to improve my performance – just a little bit all around. I think the session was really competitive and some of the top teams also struggled a bit, so we will just see what we can achieve tomorrow now."

Canada

Robert Wickens will make his final starts this season for A1 Team Canada from third (Sprint) and twelfth (Feature) respectively on the grid after qualifying today for Round 9 of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at China's stunning Shanghai International Circuit – the penultimate round of the third season of A1GP competition.

The 19-year-old, who missed Friday's practice at the 4.6km track having flown in from a test session in Europe, quickly got up to speed at the Formula One circuit taking over from fellow Ontario-native Daniel Morad who ran the Canadian entry in Friday's 'Rookie-Only' session and first official practice.

Wickens qualified third for Sunday morning's 20-minute Sprint race – putting the former Formula BMW USA Champion in line for a potential fifth podium finish for Canada in what's been a stellar rookie season in A1GP. Starting 12th for his final Feature event will prove to be more of a challenge for the A1GP race winner but having reached the podium from even further back this season, few would discount the stand-out Canadian to make an impression in the 70-minute race.

"I think that I'm normally pretty quick to learn a circuit but with a corner like the first one here it's tough to master," reflected Wickens post-qualifying. "I think I did a good job though as did the team and Daniel yesterday finding a decent baseline set-up for me to work with today. I made a mistake in Feature qualifying so that's disappointing and I'm probably going to be beating myself up for a while. That's said I'll take third for the Sprint and hopefully we'll come away with some good points. We just have to get our heads down and score as many points as we can in the Feature!"

Team Manager Simon Cayzer commented; "It was important to get Robert dialed into the circuit as quickly as possible this morning – something he's very good at! Overall in qualifying he did a great job considering the amount of track time he had compared to the other drivers. We had high expectations for his final run in Feature qualifying but he wasn't able to put the time together which was a bit disappointing. He's at the head of the pack for the Sprint which is good and despite his starting slot for the Feature, it's a long race with a couple of pit stops and he's proved he can climb the field. We've got a great shot at scoring points and I'm sure we'll have a competitive car out there."

France

A1 Team France had a difficult day here on the Shanghai circuit in China during qualifying for the second-last round of A1GP, World Cup of Motorsport.

Franck Montagny continued learning the car in the morning's free practice. In the afternoon he couldn't find any grip on new tyres: he will start from 18th place for the short race tomorrow and from 10th on the grid for the long one.

A1 Team France will have its work cut out to score points in the Sprint race, but things will be easier in the Feature event, which includes 2 refuelling stops. In addition, the car has been very competitive on worn rubber all weekend and Franck is happy with its handling in this set-up. The team is concentrating on preparing for the races and is going out there to fight. It intends to leave China having added a few more points to its score.