The fourth round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport takes place this weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with A1 Team Lebanon participating in the second season of this international motor racing series.

The 24 nations competing in A1GP return to the Sepang circuit, close to the Malaysian capital, for the first event of this season to be held at a circuit raced in the Series' inaugural year of competition. A1 Team Lebanon drivers Khalil Beschir and Basil Shaaban represented the team at the event a year ago, and this season are joined by a young rookie driver, Alex Khateeb.

In 2005 A1 Team Lebanon experienced a tough weekend with the high humidity, intense heat, tropical rainstorms and minor mechanical issues all contributing to the fortunes of the team. Khalil Beschir was selected to drive for the weekend and brought the Lebanese car home in seventeenth place in the main Feature race, after a retirement due to mechanical problems in the earlier Sprint race.

This year the team is chasing its first championship points and against a competitive field of drivers the team continues to build its experience on a variety of race tracks around the globe. Three new tracks opened this season's racing with Zandvoort, Holland; Brno, Czech Republic and Beijing, China, each hosting A1GP events for the first time.

Beschir looks ahead to the Malaysian race weekend, saying, "I enjoyed my races at this circuit last season and gained valuable experience here. I hope that this will help us at this year's event, with the data we collected and the track knowledge that we gained. It's a great track to drive, although last year we had very changeable weather, which made the racing very unpredictable. I expect that we might see the seasonal rainstorms to impact on the races this year as well."

Shaaban adds, "The A1GP series really mixes up the challenges for the teams. Two weeks ago we were exploring the streets of Beijing in the first ever international motor racing event the Chinese capital had held and now we're at the well-established permanent facility of Sepang, which offers a totally different racing environment. It's one of the key strengths of the Series and gives drivers such as myself, the chance to broaden and learn from these different racing experiences.

"I'm excited to be visiting one of the current tracks that the Formula One World Championship races on" says Khateeb. "I've watched the races on television and they're always full of action, so I'm expecting A1GP to deliver some great racing for the Malaysian fans. For me, I'll be doing my rookie duties for the team and hope that we have a good race weekend."