From the very start of the first lap of the Portugal A1 Grand Prix Of Nations there was already an incident forcing the safety car to be called out for 1 lap. Team Netherlands, Brazil and Russia did not pull off from the start and were pushed into the pit lane while the safety car was out and with this done the safety car pulled back off the track on lap 2 and the race was "go" again; a strange sight was seen as 10 of the cars followed it straight into the pits to complete their one compulsory pit stop for the race.
France led from pole followed by Portugal and the Czech Republic. Of those that made a wonderful start to the race were team Italy but the joy was shortlived as they had to serve a drive-through penalty for an infringement. A1 Team Indonesia also started brightly but shortly after passing both Great Britain and South Africa the car spun off and that was that. A1 Team Portugal could not hold on to this good second position as later on in the race the car stalled in the pits to end a lot of hopes in the home crowd.
The safety car was very busy in Portugal being called out again on lap 10 when A1 Team Canada's car ran into the back of the A1 Team Mexico car. This period under the safety car lasted all of 6 laps. Guess what? The safety car was out again very shortly after A1 Team Netherlands' self-confessed "over ambitious" move did not come off and only succeeded in themselves and A1 Team Germany's car out of the race.
A1 Team South Africa's achievements in the Grand Prix of Nations did not get any better with them pulling out under the 2nd safety car with a broken rear suspension caused by contact in the very first corner of the race. The last two A1 race meetings have been very disappointing for Team South Africa as they have a very experienced driver, Tomas Scheckter, at the wheel but the car keeps failing him.
Team France led from the start with little or no hassles to win their 4th A1 Grand Prix out of 6 so far with Team Portugal ultimately finishing in 5th place. A1 Team USA, with Scott Speed driving again, wil be very pleased with their 4th place and finally earning some points in this series. Ireland rounded off the podium with a very good 3rd place. Irish driver Ralph Firman said, "It has been a good weekend despite having problems with the gearbox in qualifying and I lost my front wing in the Sprint race. I went off the track trying to get pst Canada andthought my race was over but I managed to get back on track and had a great pit stop which really helped a lot. I overtook Scott Speed during one of the re-starts which was fantastic."
A1 Team Switzerland grabbed their first podium coming in 2nd with Neel Jani driving. His comments: "I had a good start, but nearly got pushed into the wall and had to be careful not to crash. I suffered from over-steer in the beginning of the race but after the pit stop the car got better. I nearly took first place during a re-start - but again nearly got pushed into the wall and was lucky not to crash. I'm looking forward to winning a race, we seem to be getting better and better every race, we are definitely progressing."
All in all some exciting entertainment for the day but interrupted too often by the safety car.