Team Ireland won the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brands Hatch in Great Britain on Sunday afternoon after a dominant weekend that saw Irish driver Adam Carroll win both the Sprint and Feature races of the final round from pole position.

Second in the championship was Portugal after Filipe Alburquerque finished fifth in the final race of the season, with Switzerland third at the end of the fourth season thanks to a third place in the Feature race by Neel Jani.

Netherlands, with Jeroen Bleekemolen at the wheel, was second in this afternoon’s Feature race to secure fourth place in the final standings for his country.

South Africa finished the season in joint 12th place with Mexico and India after Alan van der Merwe was 15th in the Sprint race and 11th in the Feature race.

Carroll got his country's title aspirations off to a good start this morning with a comfortable seven-second win ahead of India's Narain Karthikeyan in the 18-lap Sprint race.

Mexico (Salvador Duran) completed the podium positions, another five seconds back, after taking the lead from pole sitter Ireland in the rolling start but losing the advantage in the mandatory pit stop.

India's Narain Karthikeyan finished second after a great pit stop moved him up the order. After taking the lead from Ireland off the start, Mexico's Salvador Duran settled for the final podium position after dropping down the order during the mandatory pit stop.

Ireland's Carroll took the lead of the Feature race from pole position at the start and won comfortably from a hard chasing Bleekemolen of Netherlands. It was a disappointing weekend for South Africa. Van der Merwe, standing in for regular driver Adrian Zaugg, who was doing duty in the World Series by Renault in Belgium, was having his first A1GP race since last representing his country in 2007.

After qualifying 19th for the Sprint race he did well to improve to 15th at the finish. Vulindlela, South Africa's distinctively liveried car, stalled on the grid at the start of the formation lap of the Feature race and Van der Merwe was forced to start from the back of the grid.

He did well to climb to 11th at the finish and was unlucky to just miss out on the points.

Sprint Race results

1. Ireland (Adam Carroll), 18 laps, 22:32.704
2. India (Narain Karthikeyan), 18, 22:39.934, +7.23seconds
3. Mexico (Salvador Duran), 18, 22:45.044, +12.34
4. USA (John R. Hildebrand Jr.), 18, 22:45.393, +12.689
5. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque), 18, 22:45.722, +13.018
6. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen), 18, 22:46.487, +13.783
7. Australia (John Martin), 18, 22:47.912, +15.208
8. Switzerland (Neel Jani), 18, 22:54.924, +22.22
9. France (Nicolas Prost), 18, 22:55.649, +22.945
10. Italy (Vitantonio Liuzzi), 18, 22:59.766, +27.062
11. Germany (Michael Ammermuller), 18, 23:04.651, +31.947
12. Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto), 18, 23:05.863, +33.159
13. Great Britain (Daniel Clarke), 18, 23:06.245, +33.541
14. China (Congfu Cheng), 18, 23:07.667, +34.963
15. South Africa (Alan Van Der Merwe), 18, 23:13.192, +40.488
16. Malaysia (Aaron Lim), 18, 23:14.232, +41.528
17. Lebanon (Daniel Morad), 13, 16:51.416, +5 Laps
18. New Zealand (Earl Bamber), 13, 16:51.675, +5 Laps
19. Monaco (Clivio Piccione), 8, 10:53.522, +10 Laps
Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes), 0

Feature Race results

1. Ireland (Adam Carroll), 49 laps, 04:14.970
2. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen), 49, 04:25.126, +10.156seconds
3. Switzerland (Neel Jani), 49, 04:28.534, +13.564
4. Monaco (Clivio Piccione), 49, 04:29.263, +14.293
5. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque), 49, 04:31.454, +16.484
6. Mexico (Salvador Duran), 49, 04:36.780, +21.81
7. Great Britain (Daniel Clarke), 49, 04:38.379, +23.409
8. Australia (John Martin), 49, 04:39.463, +24.493
9. Italy (Vitantonio Liuzzi), 49, 05:00.974, +46.004
10. France (Nicolas Prost), 49, 05:04.064, +49.094
11. South Africa (Alan Van Der Merwe), 49, 05:28.875, +1:13.905
12. Lebanon (Daniel Morad), 49, 05:31.227, +1:16.257
13. Indonesia (Satrio Hermanto), 48, 04:16.252, +1 Lap
14. USA (John R. Hildebrand Jr.), 48, 04:19.441, +1 Lap
15. Malaysia (Aaron Lim), 27, 37:36.390, +22 Laps
16. Germany (Michael Ammermuller), 26, 36:04.588, +23 Laps
17. New Zealand (Earl Bamber), 6, 10:09.420, +43 Laps
18. China (Congfu Cheng), 0, +49 Laps
19. India (Narain Karthikeyan), 0, +49 Laps
20. Brazil (Felipe Guimaraes)

AFP

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