Portugal became the 17th nation to win an A1GP race when Filipe Albuquerque took the honours in the feature race in round two of the fourth season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at the Chengdu International Circuit on Sunday.

It was a popular first ever A1GP victory for Portugal and followed Albuquerque?s sixth place in the shorter sprint race earlier in the day. A1 Team Ireland?s Adam Carroll was second after the Irish driver dominated the sprint race from pole position. Great Britain?s Danny Watts, in his first A1GP and the team?s first appearance of the new season, finished third in both races after starting the feature race from pole position.

South Africa, with Adrian Zaugg at the wheel of Vulindlela, was fifth in the sprint race after starting from seventh on the grid and ninth in the feature race after starting fifth.

With Zaugg finishing in the points in both races, South Africa is now 10th in the championship after the first two rounds. Malaysia retains its lead from the opening round at Zandvoort in the Netherlands in October with 28 points from France and Ireland on 23.

Zaugg made up two places in the dash to the first corner in the rolling start sprint race, but was unable to improve his position further during the 18-lap race. He came under pressure from Albuquerque from half distance, but was able to control the gap to the Portuguese car to the chequered flag.

The South African lost three places in the standing start to the feature race and was eighth at the end of the first of the scheduled 50 laps. South Africa was one of the last to make the first of the two mandatory pit stops and lost another three places in the process when the team had to remove a piece of plastic advertising material that had wrapped itself around the front wing. A better second pit stop at around the halfway mark saw South Africa make up a place to lie 11th with 23 laps remaining.

With 12 laps to go Zaugg was 10th and in the points after France?s Nicolas Prost went wide in turn one while attempting top pass Australia?s John Martin and beached his car in a gravel trap. Zaugg, putting in a strong performance in the second half of the race, passed India?s Narain Karthikeyan at the end of the main straight to take ninth place with five laps remaining.

?My race was compromised from the start when I was forced wide and lost two places before turn one,? said Zaugg. ?I thought I had a good chance to get past John Martin in the Australian car during the first stint, but then we picked up a piece of plastic debris on the track that attached itself to the front wing, reducing the downforce and causing understeer.

"I hung on as best I could and managed to hold off Chris van der Drift in the New Zealand car until the first pit stop. Unfortunately, with the team having to remove the debris from the wing, we were delayed in the pits and lost another three places. The second stint was better, but we were too far back to make much of an impression. I was happy to get back into a points scoring position at least.?

Sprint race result:

1 Ireland (Adam Carroll), 18 laps, 22:58.470
2 Netherlands (Robert Doornbos), 18, 23:00.507, +2.037
3 Great Britain (Danny Watts), 18, 23:12.831, +14.361
4 Switzerland (Neel Jani), 18, 23:13.089, +14.619
5 South Africa (Adrian Zaugg), 18, 23:18.578, +20.108
6 Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque), 18, 23:18.945, +20.475
7 New Zealand (Chris Van Der Drift), 18, 23:25.694, +27.224
8 France (Nicolas Prost), 18, 23:26.393, +27.923
9 Monaco (Clivio Piccione), 18, 23:28.848, +30.378
10 India (Narain Karthikeyan), 18, 23:30.738, +32.268
11 Australia (John Martin), 18, 23:31.668, +33.198
12 Lebanon (Daniel Morad), 18, 23:32.763, +34.293
13 Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy), 18, 23:33.125, +34.655
14 Italy (Edoardo Piscopo), 18, 23:35.011, +36.541
15 USA (Marco Andretti), 18, 23:36.572, +38.102
16 Mexico (David Garza), 18, 23:40.981, +42.511
17 China (Ho Pin Tung), 18, 23:48.081, +49.611
18 Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto), 18, 24:02.598, +1:04.128
19 Korea (Jin Woo Hwang), 18, 24:04.641, +1:06.171
20 Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes), 14, 23:49.356, +4 Laps

Feature race result:

1 Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque), 51 laps, 11:23.179
2 Ireland (Adam Carroll), 51, 11:23.750, +0.571
3 Great Britain (Danny Watts), 51, 11:27.981, +4.802
4 Switzerland (Neel Jani), 51, 11:30.336, +7.157
5 Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy), 51, 11:36.481, +13.302
6 Australia (John Martin), 51, 11:38.723, +15.544
7 Monaco (Clivio Piccione), 51, 11:39.415, +16.236
8 USA (Marco Andretti), 51, 11:39.869, +16.69
9 South Africa (Adrian Zaugg), 51, 11:41.209, +18.03
10 India (Narain Karthikeyan), 51, 11:41.938, +18.759
11 New Zealand (Chris Van Der Drift), 51, 11:42.854, +19.675
12 China (Ho Pin Tung), 51, 11:43.305, +20.126
13 Lebanon (Daniel Morad), 51, 11:45.759, +22.58
14 Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto), 51, 11:54.464, +31.285
15 Mexico (David Garza), 50, 11:37.063, +1 Lap
16 Netherlands (Robert Doornbos), 50, 11:40.217, +1 Lap
17 Korea (Jin Woo Hwang), 50, 11:58.454, +1 Lap
18 France (Nicolas Prost), 37, 50:48.185, +14 Laps
19 Italy (Edoardo Piscopo), 30, 42:26.221, +21 Laps
20 Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes), 13, 19:28.502, +38 Laps

Championship points of two rounds of 10:

1. Malaysia: 28;
2. Ireland and France: 23;
4. New Zealand and Netherlands: 20;
6. Portugal: 18;
7. Switzerland: 17;
8. Great Britain: 16;
9. Australia: 13;
10. South Africa and Monaco: 9;
12. USA: 6;
13. Korea: 4;
14. Lebanon: 3;
15. Italy and China: 2;
17. India: 1.

Next race: A1GP Sepang, Malaysia 21 to 23 November.