Brazil

A1 Team Brasil finished today's Sprint and Feature races in 14th and 13th positions respectively for round nine of the 2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Shanghai International Circuit in China. It was a solid result for race driver Xandi Negrao as he embarked on his first full A1GP weekend.

Xandi made a good start in this morning's ten lap sprint race, doing well to avoid a startline collision between Teams New Zealand and USA which saw Jonny Reid's car spin off track. Brasil was initially up to 13th but was overtaken on lap 2 by the Czech Republic. After the ten laps Xandi finished his first race in 14th position, having had a good race experience to head into the afternoon with.

The Brazilian squad had another solid race in this afternoon's 38-lap feature event, with Xandi beginning from 17th after a tricky qualifying session yesterday. The Team was promoted to 16th as South Africa began from the pitlane and on lap three Xandi overtook Pakistan's Adam Khan to take 15th. He led the race briefly during the pitstop period but emerged from his own mandatory stop in 14th, having gained one position from slick work from the Team. He began in pursuit of Australia and overtook John Martin on lap 19 for 13th position. He made his second compulsory stop on lap 26, maintaining his 13th position, and was in this spot when he passed the chequered flag.

A1 Team Brasil maintains its 11th place in the championship after this weekend with 44 points. Its nearest rival is Team China who is two points ahead so Brasil will be aiming to take that top ten championship finish at the season finale in three weeks time at the Brands Hatch circuit in the United Kingdom.

Xandi Negrao: Sprint Race: "Overall the race was good for me. I think on true pace and performance we could have finished three or four positions higher, but I had to lift off on the start to avoid the New Zealand car when it spun off track, so I couldn't push at the crucial time. The rest of the race was not bad, the pace was good and I was able to hold a solid position. It was important for me to get a race distance under my belt and learn how the car behaved, so I achieved that and we used it to work on set-up for the feature race."

Feature Race: "Again, it was another good race and I was able to make a couple of good passes. It was a shame that we couldn't overtake anyone in the pitstops but I was in traffic for the majority of the race. I should have passed Italy in the second stop but I was held up by Lebanon on my inlap which cost me a couple of seconds. When I was along on the track I had a good pace, the car was consistent throughout and the last stint on new tyres was very good. It was great to learn by finishing both races and not making any mistakes. I wish I could have scored points but I'm sure if we had had a better qualifying then we definitely had the pace to finish in the top ten."

France

A1 Team France leaves Shanghai in China having added another 3 points to its tally thanks to Franck Montagny's 8th place in the Feature race.

As expected, starting from 18th on the grid he did not manage to score in the Short race. He got as high as 12th but lacked the time to move up further.

In the Feature race Franck was up to 9th place in the first corner and he got past his closest rival Great Britain during the first round of refuelling stops. Although he was much quicker than the cars in front of him passing them on the track proved impossible. The Team tried to put back his second stop slightly to help him overtake in the pits. To no avail as he rejoined in 8th place where he stayed till the finish.

A1 Team France has 111 points but the 2007/2008 title is now beyond its grasp. It can still aim for the runner-up slot though, as it is only 10 points behind New Zealand. This will be the squad's objective in the last round of the season in 3 weeks' time at Brands Hatch.

Olivier Panis, sporting director: "Today's scenario was what we expected. We knew it would be difficult to score points in the first race and that we could move up a few places in the second. And that's what happened. We could probably have finished a little higher up, but we were unable to get past Malaysia and India, which held Franck up for two-thirds of the long race. Today, mathematically speaking, we're no longer in the running for the title, so our aim is to move up a place in the overall classification at Brands Hatch and finish the season in second position. Bravo to the whole Team for its work this weekend."

Franck Montagny: "Today's two races helped me to accumulate experience in the car and it's now much more to my liking. I did the maximum here but my aero set-up prevented me from overtaking some cars, which were slower than me over a lap. I spent the whole afternoon glued to a rival's gearbox, and this meant that I wasn't able to set competitive times: the car's at least 0.4s quicker than our fastest lap today. Now, we're going to concentrate on the next meeting. I don't know the Brands Hatch circuit, but maybe that's an advantage, as I won't arrive with my F1 points of reference. It'll be much easier to adapt my driving style right from the start to the very special characteristics of the A1GP car."

Canada