2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, China

After missing the first race due to a lack of cars, A1 Teams Great Britain, India and Mexico took part in this race.[1] Both A1 Team Pakistan and A1 Team Germany will not make their season debut until the fourth round at Taupo. Team Pakistan require more changes to their chassis to render it suitable for their lead driver Adam Khan, while Team Germany is undergoing management restructuring.[1]

The status of A1 Team Canada was not announced, but they were removed from the race's drivers list on the A1GP website front page, and did not make an appearance. Their status for future events is still unknown.

Team	Main Driver	Rookie Driver[2]
Australia	John Martin
Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	Felipe Guimarães
Canada	Did Not Participate
China	Ho-Pin Tung
France	Nicolas Prost[3][4]	Nicolas Prost
Germany	Did Not Participate
Great Britain	Danny Watts[5]	Danny Watts[5]
India	Narain Karthikeyan[6]	Narain Karthikeyan↑
Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	Zahir Ali[7]
Ireland	Adam Carroll	Niall Quinn
Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	Christian Montanari[8]
Korea	Hwang Jin-Woo	Hwang Jin-Woo
Lebanon	Daniel Morad	Daniel Morad
Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy[9]	Aaron Lim[9]
Mexico	Davíd Garza Pérez	Davíd Garza Pérez
Monaco	Clivio Piccione
The Netherlands	Robert Doornbos[10]	Dennis Retera[11]
New Zealand	Chris van der Drift[9]	Chris van der Drift
Pakistan	Did Not Participate
Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque
South Africa	Adrian Zaugg
Switzerland	Neel Jani	Alexandre Imperiatori
USA	Marco Andretti[12][13]	Marco Andretti↑

↑ Karthikeyan and Andretti were granted special dispensation to participate in the rookie session as neither team had completed as many testing miles as the other teams with the new car. Karthikeyan (F1) and Andretti (IRL ICS) are veteran drivers in one of the four series (F1, GP2, FN, IRL-ICS) which their drivers may not compete as A1GP rookies.[14]

Due to a delay in recovering the Italian car after spinning into a gravel trp during the first qualifying session, the second qualifying session was cancelled, meaning all times from Q1 set the field for Q1, with Ireland taking their first ever pole position, ahead of The Netherlands and Switzerland.

Q4 was stopped briefly after a spin for France. The session was resumed with teams able to make a run in time. Danny Watts for Great Britain took pole ahead of Ireland and Portugal.

Sprint race qualifying[15] Pos Team Time Gap 1 Ireland 1'15.423 – 2 Netherlands 1'15.492 +0.069 3 Switzerland 1'15.683 +0.260 4 Great Britain 1'15.799 +0.376 5 Portugal 1'16.124 +0.701 6 France 1'16.164 +0.741 7 South Africa 1'16.268 +0.845 8 New Zealand 1'16.505 +1.082 9 India 1'16.553 +1.130 10 Monaco 1'16.794 +1.371 11 Australia 1'17.054 +1.631 12 Brazil 1'17.131 +1.708 13 Lebanon 1'17.143 +1.720 14 Malaysia 1'17.171 +1.748 15 Italy 1'17.288 +1.865 16 USA 1'17.437 +2.014 17 Mexico 1'18.025 +2.602 18 China 1'18.128 +2.703 19 Indonesia 1'19.479 +4.056 20 Korea 1'20.102 +4.679

Feature race qualifying[16] Pos Team Time Gap 1 Great Britain 1'15.325 – 2 Ireland 1'15.356 +0.031 3 Portugal 1'15.400 +0.075 4 Switzerland 1'15.621 +0.296 5 South Africa 1'15.947 +0.622 6 Malaysia 1'15.963 +0.638 7 Monaco 1'16.016 +0.691 8 Netherlands 1'16.124 +0.799 9 Australia 1'16.289 +0.964 10 Brazil 1'16.403 +1.078 11 USA 1'16.557 +1.232 12 France 1'16.604 +1.279 13 Lebanon 1'16.702 +1.377 14 Mexico 1'16.965 +1.660 15 New Zealand 1'17.176 +1.851 16 India 1'17.218 +1.893 17 China 1'17.299 +1.974 18 Indonesia 1'17.759 +2.434 19 Italy 1'17.845 +2.520 20 Korea 1'18.875 +3.550

For safety reasons, a pit stop was not required for the Sprint Race. In lap 2, Brazil is slowing and the Safety car is on while Felipe Guimarães reach the pits. In the same lap 2, China spun and lost some positions but finally catch up and pass Korea in lap 7. when the Safety car is out, the order was Ireland, Netherlands, Great Britain, Switzerland, South Africa, Portugal, New Zealand and France. Those positions remain until the end of the race with the fastest lap for Adam Carroll.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Ireland	Adam Carroll	18	22'58.740	10 +1
2	Netherlands	Robert Doornbos	18	+2.037	8
3	Great Britain	Danny Watts	18	+14.361	6
4	Switzerland	Neel Jani	18	+14.619	5
5	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	18	+20.108	4
6	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	18	+20.475	3
7	New Zealand	Chris van der Drift	18	+27.224	2
8	France	Nicolas Prost	18	+27.923	1
9	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	18	+30.378
10	India	Narain Karthikeyan	18	+32.268
11	Australia	John Martin	18	+33.198
12	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	18	+34.293
13	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	18	+34.665
14	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	18	+36.541
15	USA	Marco Andretti	18	+38.102
16	Mexico	Davíd Garza Pérez	18	+42.511
17	China	Ho-Pin Tung	18	+49.611
18	Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	18	+1'04.128
19	Korea	Hwang Jin-Woo	18	+1'06.171
20	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	14	+4 laps

The second pit-stop window for the Feature Race was set for Laps 24–32.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	51	1:11'23.179	15
2	Ireland	Adam Carroll	51	+0.571	12
3	Great Britain	Danny Watts	51	+4.802	10
4	Switzerland	Neel Jani	51	+7.157	8
5	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	51	+13.302	6
6	Australia	John Martin	51	+15.544	5
7	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	51	+16.236	4
8	USA	Marco Andretti	51	+16.690	3
9	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	51	+18.030	2
10	India	Narain Karthikeyan	51	+18.579	1
11	New Zealand	Chris van der Drift	51	+19.675
12	China	Ho-Pin Tung	51	+20.126
13	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	51	+22.580
14	Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	51	+31.285
15	Mexico	Davíd Garza Pérez	50	+1 lap
16	Netherlands	Robert Doornbos	50	+1 lap	+1
17	Korea	Hwang Jin-Woo	50	+1 lap
Ret	France	Nicolas Prost	37	Spin
Ret	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	30	Mechanical
Ret	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	13	Mechanical

• It was the 34th race weekend (68 starts).
• It was the 6th race in China, and the first at Chengdu Goldenport Circuit.
• It was the first race weekend as main driver for Marco Andretti, Robert Doornbos, Nicolas Prost, Chris van der Drift and Danny Watts.
• It was the first race weekend as rookie driver for Zahir Ali, Christian Montanari and Dennis Retera.
• Records:
  • Adam Carroll, Danny Watts, and Ireland scored their first pole position.
  • Filipe Albuquerque and Portugal scored their first victory.
  • Adam Carroll and Ireland scored their first Sprint Race victory.

• Oh Danny boy! (Qualifying analysis)
• Ireland bounces back in Chengdu
• Sprint race: as it happened
• Sprint race results
• Portugal storms to first victory
• Feature race: as it happened
• Feature race results