In one of the best day's racing in the five-year history of A1GP on a brand new circuit destined to be a great one, Switzerland's Neel Jani became the winningest A1GP driver when he took his 10th victory in Sunday's Feature race at Portimao in the Portuguese Algarve on Sunday afternoon.

In the process, Jani recorded his fourth win of the season, back-to-back Feature race successes for Switzerland following the team's victory at Kyalami in South Africa in February, and put Switzerland back on top of the championship standings with four races remaining.

Ireland (Adam Carroll) finished a fighting second in the Feature race, only to be penalised 25 seconds for overtaking Australia (John Martin) behind the Safety Car before a re-start. He dropped to fifth, promoting home favourite Filipe Albuquerque to second and Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy to third.

It was the first international car race meeting at the 4.69-km Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, which saw a dominant A1 Team Netherlands (Robert Doornbos) take the Sprint race victory ahead of Ireland's Carroll and Portugal's Albuquerque.

For South Africa and 21-year-old Adrian Zaugg, it was a desperately unlucky weekend. After qualifying eighth for the Sprint race and fourth for the Feature event ? the team's best qualifying result this season ? Zaugg was forced to start the shorter race at the back of the 20-car grid after his engine cut out on the grid. The team managed to restart it, but only after the rest of the cars had got away.

He was then involved in two incidents, neither of which was of his making. In the first he was slowed by a puncture and had to pit to replace the flat wheel, losing two laps. Then, three laps from the end of the race, he was taken out by Brazil's Felipe Guimaraes, who crashed into him from behind.

The Feature race started promisingly, with Zaugg into third place at the end of the first lap after pole sitter Doornbos dropped out on the formation lap with an electrical probelm that caused his car to catch fire and activate the extinguisher system. After an excellent first compulsory pit stop, the South African emerged in second place ahead of New Zealand's Earl Bamber. The Kiwi, running on a set of new tyres while the South African's team had opted to save their set of new tyres for the second compulsory pit stop, pressured Zaugg until Bamber suffered a bout of red mist and ran into the back of Zaugg on lap 15.

It was a disappointing end to a weekend that had promised so much.

"After our good showing in Saturday?s qualifying, we were looking to add some much-needed points to our total and substantially improve our championship position. The team deserved better today, but that?s motor racing. Things don't always go your way," said a philosophical Mike Carroll, general manager of A1 Team South Africa.

Zaugg was equally disappointed. "We had such a good chance to do well today, but luck was not with us at all. I was enjoying the battle with Bamber, who was quicker than me on his new tyres, and I knew if I could finish that second stint well I'd be in a good position to race for a podium in the third and final stint on new tyres."

With no points scored this weekend, South Africa remains 11th in the championship with 19 points and just two more rounds (at Brands Hatch in England on 3 May and Mexico City on 24 May) remaining.

Sprint Race Results

1. Netherlands (Robert Doornbos), 11 laps, 19:33.501
2. Ireland (Adam Carroll), 11, 19:37.136, +3.635
3. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque), 11, 19:39.229, +5.728
4. Italy (Vitantonio Liuzzi), 11, 19:42.588, +9.087
5. Monaco (Clivio Piccione), 11, 19:43.549, +10.048
6. India (Narain Karthikeyan), 11, 19:46.097, +2.596
7. Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes), 11, 19:46.798, +3.297
8. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy), 11, 19:51.515, +8.014
9. Mexico (Salvador Duran), 11, 19:54.046, +20.545
10. Australia (John Martin), 11, 19:56.184, +20.683
11. Great Britain (Daniel Clarke), 11, 19:56.581, +23.08
12. USA (Marco Andretti), 11, 19:56.655, +23.154
13. France (Nicolas Prost), 11, 19:57.676, +24.175
14. Indonesia (Zahir Ali), 11, 20:12.901, +39.4
15. Switzerland (Neel Jani), 11, 20:17.797, +44.296
16. China (Ho Pin Tung), 11, 20:24.156, +50.655
17. South Africa (Adrian Zaugg), 9, 21:05.398, +2 laps
18. Lebanon (Daniel Morad), 1, 02:38.560, +10 laps
19. Germany (Andre Lotterer), 0, +11 laps
20. New Zealand (Earl Bamber), 0, +11 laps

Feature Race Results

1. Switzerland (Neel Jani), 42 Laps, 10:45.011
2. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque), 42, 10:51.797, +6.786
3. Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy), 42, 10:54.716, +9.705
4. Mexico (Salvador Duran), 42, 11:01.343, +16.332
5. Ireland (Adam Carroll), 42, 11:10.422, +25.411
6. France (Nicolas Prost), 42, 11:12.333, +27.322
7. Great Britain (Daniel Clarke), 42, 11:14.891, +29.88
8. China (Ho Pin Tung), 42, 11:19.597, +34.586
9. Germany (Andre Lotterer), 42, 11:28.981, +43.97
10. Indonesia (Zahir Ali), 42, 11:59.004, +1:13.993
11. India (Narain Karthikeyan), 39, 06:18.915, +3 Laps
12. Australia (John Martin), 38, 05:15.599, +4 Laps
13. Italy (Vitantonio Liuzzi), 18, 30:33.518, +24 Laps
14. Usa (Marco Andretti), 18, 30:33.604, +24 Laps
15. Monaco (Clivio Piccione), 18, 30:34.044, +24 Laps
16. South Africa (Adrian Zaugg), 15, 24:18.166, +27 Laps
17. New Zealand (Earl Bamber), 15, 24:18.264, +27 Laps
18. Lebanon (Daniel Morad), 1, 01:42.800, +41 Laps
Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes), 0
Netherlands (Robert Doornbos), 0

Championship points after 12 races:

1 Switzerland 88
2 Ireland 86
3 Portugal 82
4 Netherlands 66
5 France 46
6 Malaysia 43
7 New Zealand 36
8 Australia 30
9 Monaco 27
10 Great Britain 24
11 South Africa and United States 19
13 Brazil 18
14 Italy 15
15 India 11
16 Mexico and Lebanon 8
18 China 7
19 Korea 4
20 Indonesia 3
21 Germany 2.

Next round: Brands Hatch, Great Britain on 1 to 3 May.