Brazil

Raphael Matos was on track today for A1 Team Brasil as the team began the Malaysian round of the 2006/07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport by participating in two official practice sessions.

The team was able to capitalise of the fact that Raphael is still classed as a rookie driver, and so the 26-year-old ran the maximum one hour and fifty minutes of track time available in this morning's practice session 1, which is limited to rookies, and the second official practice this afternoon.

In the fifty minute rookie session this morning (two 25-minute sessions with a ten minute break) Raphael was able to complete 19 laps of practice, finishing each segment in eighth place, albeit reducing the deficit to the session leader by the second segment.

However, it was in the one-hour second practice this afternoon that Team Brasil was able to make inroads into its development programme. Although a rain shower in the middle of the session hampered progress for a few minutes, the track dried out quickly and dry testing resumed. Raphael completed 17 laps during the practice, setting a fastest lap of 1:53.947, the seventh quickest time of the session.

Raphael Matos: "I really love this track and I'm pleased because we've made a lot of progress from the first session this morning. We tried a lot of different things and the last two changes we did made a big improvement. We still have some work to do on the car to make it faster but we are going in the right direction. We don't know what will happen with the weather tomorrow, because it could easily rain and we haven't had the chance to do any wet set-up work, but it's unpredictable so we'll just have to wait and see."

Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "I think we have had a good test today. We are going the right way and, especially in the last part of the second practice session, things were going better. We were setting good times on old tyres and I am happy with the way that Raphael is handling everything."

Canada

A1 Team Canada's Sean McIntosh kicked off preparations for Sunday's fourth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, hosted at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, by posting the 13th fastest lap time in Friday's official practice session as he returned to A1GP competition for the first time since scoring Canada's maiden victory last February in Indonesia.

With the 21-year-old Vancouver-native rotating back into the Canadian team's race seat following three impressive outings to launch the sophomore season of A1GP by Toronto rookie James Hinchcliffe (19), Sean's race weekend started positively as he familiarized himself once again with the 550bhp, V8-powered A1GP car and the 5.44km Sepang track.

The heat and humidity that greeted the field of nations for the rookie-only session in the morning and the afternoon's official practice failed to faze McIntosh, the Canadian having first experienced the challenging conditions presented by Malaysia in the corresponding round of the inaugural A1GP Championship last November. While 17 nations opted to run rookie drivers in the morning session, A1 Team Canada's first track running came in the afternoon when McIntosh was finally unleashed along with the full contingent of 22 competitors.

Logging the second-highest number of laps for the session in a bid to maximize track time, Sean's stint saw him end the hour-long outing with a lap time of 1m54.923s, placing him 13th overall, one spot behind the points-leading entry of A1 Team Mexico, piloted by Salvador Duran, and a place ahead of A1 Team Australia with Indy Racing League and Champ Car racer Ryan Briscoe behind the wheel.

19-year-old Nico Hülkenberg, winner of last month's Round 1Feature race in Holland, launched A1 Team Germany to the top of Friday's time-sheets in both sessions.

"It's great to be back in the car representing Canada!" stated McIntosh following his first day back in Malaysia. "We were quick here in Sepang last year and I think the potential is there to have another good weekend. Obviously the drivers and teams that participated in the rookie session this morning have a bit of an advantage over our team with the extra track time but we'll hopefully be up there tomorrow in qualifying when it counts. As always the weather's really hot and humid so it's a good job I've been training hard as Sunday's going to be a physically demanding day of racing!"

France

On the 5.54km Sepang circuit in Malaysia, A1 Team France driver Nicolas Lapierre covered 16 solid laps during the official practice session and clocked the tenth best time of 1m54.426s. The fifth round of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport takes place at one of the world's most challenging circuits in Malaysia.

The day went well for Nicolas's first experience of the Sepang circuit. Nicolas explained: "I studied this track very closely last year with my old team mate as he was the race driver at that
event, so I knew to expect that it would be a very demanding weekend.

"It was very hot today at Sepang", Lapierre added. "The track is not as easy to learn as I expected because it is very wide and there are a number of different lines you can take. The high-speed corners are really exciting, but the high track temperature is very demanding for the tyres and the brakes.