2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia
# 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia

The 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia was an A1 Grand Prix race held at Sepang International Circuit, Sepang, Malaysia.

## Pre-race

Because Great Britain, India and Mexico had only joined the season at the Chinese round, they were permitted to take part in a special practice session on November 20. In the wet conditions, Narain Karthikeyan was the fastest driver just in front of Danny Watts. Davíd Garza Pérez was the slowest with 3 seconds.

## Drivers

| Team | Main Driver | Rookie Driver | Reserve Driver |
| - | - | - | - |
| Australia | John Martin | Ashley Walsh | |
| Brazil | Felipe Guimarães | Felipe Guimarães | |
| Canada | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate |
| China | Ho-Pin Tung | | Congfu Cheng |
| France | Loïc Duval | Nicolas Prost | |
| Germany | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate |
| Great Britain | Danny Watts | Danny Watts | James Winslow |
| India | Narain Karthikeyan | Armaan Ebrahim | |
| Indonesia | Satrio Hermanto | Zahir Ali | |
| Ireland | Adam Carroll | Niall Quinn | |
| Italy | Edoardo Piscopo | Stefano Coletti | |
| Korea | Hwang Jin-Woo | Hwang Jin-Woo | |
| Lebanon | Daniel Morad | Daniel Morad | Jimmy Auby |
| Malaysia | Fairuz Fauzy | Aaron Lim | |
| Mexico | Davíd Garza Pérez | | |
| Monaco | Clivio Piccione | | |
| The Netherlands | Jeroen Bleekemolen | Dennis Retera | |
| New Zealand | Earl Bamber | Earl Bamber | Chris van der Drift |
| Pakistan | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate |
| Portugal | Filipe Albuquerque | Armando Parente | |
| South Africa | Adrian Zaugg | Gavin Cronje | |
| Switzerland | Neel Jani | Alexandre Imperatori | |
| USA | Marco Andretti | J. R. Hildebrand | |

## Qualifying

The qualifying sessions were the first to utilise the new "joker" Qualifying lap rule – where the driver has PowerBoost available for use over an entire qualifying lap, to be used in any session at the team's discretion.

Sprint race qualifying :

| Pos | Team | Time | Gap |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Switzerland | 1'47.154 | – |
| 2 | France | 1'47.747 | +0.593 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 1'47.779 | +0.625 |
| 4 | Portugal | 1'48.930 | +1.776 |
| 5 | Italy | 1'49.007 | +1.853 |
| 6 | Great Britain | 1'49.076 | +1.922 |
| 7 | Ireland | 1'49.197 | +2.043 |
| 8 | Mexico | 1'49.293 | +2.139 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 1'49.323 | +2.169 |
| 10 | India | 1'49.350 | +2.196 |
| 11 | South Africa | 1'49.528 | +2.374 |
| 12 | USA | 1'49.650 | +2.496 |
| 13 | Malaysia | 1'49.753 | +2.599 |
| 14 | Brazil | 1'50.085 | +2.931 |
| 15 | Monaco | 1'50.171 | +3.017 |
| 16 | Australia (1) | 1'49.998 | +2.844 |
| 17 | China | 1'50.274 | +3.120 |
| 18 | Lebanon | 1'50.382 | +3.228 |
| 19 | Indonesia | 1'51.423 | +4.269 |
| 20 | Korea | no time | – |

Feature race qualifying :

| Pos | Team | Time | Gap |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Ireland | 1'47.124 | – |
| 2 | Great Britain | 1'47.340 | +0.216 |
| 3 | Lebanon | 1'47.645 | +0.521 |
| 4 | Malaysia | 1'47.648 | +0.524 |
| 5 | Portugal | 1'47.680 | +0.556 |
| 6 | Netherlands | 1'47.825 | +0.701 |
| 7 | India | 1'47.848 | +0.724 |
| 8 | USA | 1'47.866 | +0.742 |
| 9 | France | 1'47.993 | +0.869 |
| 10 | China | 1'48.126 | +1.002 |
| 11 | Monaco | 1'48.242 | +1.118 |
| 12 | Brazil | 1'48.323 | +1.199 |
| 13 | Australia | 1'48.586 | +1.462 |
| 14 | Indonesia | 1'48.839 | +1.715 |
| 15 | New Zealand | 1'48.866 | +1.742 |
| 16 | Switzerland | 1'48.980 | +1.856 |
| 17 | South Africa | 1'49.061 | +1.937 |
| 18 | Mexico | 1'49.537 | +2.413 |
| 19 | Italy | 1'49.885 | +2.761 |
| 20 | Korea | no time | – |

* (1) : Australia received a two-place grid penalty for the Sprint race for using a non-approved part in practice.

## Sprint Race

Following a major crash at the first start, involving USA, Brazil and India, and the pack slowed down after it seemed to have accelerated off, the race was delayed 30 minutes for track cleanup, and reduced to 11 laps.

This Sprint Race was the first this season to utilise the new Sprint Race pit-stop rule, the windows always set for Laps 4–8.

| Pos | Team | Driver | Laps | Time | Points |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Switzerland | Neel Jani | 11 | 22'41.567 | 10 +1 |
| 2 | France | Loïc Duval | 11 | +9.912 | 8 |
| 3 | New Zealand | Earl Bamber | 11 | +11.813 | 6 |
| 4 | Portugal | Filipe Albuquerque | 11 | +12.453 | 5 |
| 5 | Ireland | Adam Carroll | 11 | +13.205 | 4 |
| 6 | Netherlands | Jeroen Bleekemolen | 11 | +15.399 | 3 |
| 7 | Italy | Edoardo Piscopo | 11 | +19.947 | 2 |
| 8 | Australia | John Martin | 11 | +21.437 | 1 |
| 9 | South Africa | Adrian Zaugg | 11 | +27.674 | |
| 10 | China | Ho-Pin Tung | 11 | +29.492 | |
| 11 | Lebanon | Daniel Morad | 11 | +32.049 | |
| 12 | Monaco | Clivio Piccione | 11 | +32.406 | |
| 13 | Indonesia | Satrio Hermanto | 11 | +38.959 | |
| 14 | Mexico | Davíd Garza Pérez | 11 | +55.055 | |
| 15 | Malaysia | Fairuz Fauzy | 10 | +1 lap | |
| Ret | Great Britain | Danny Watts | 4 | Gearbox | |
| Ret | Brazil | Felipe Guimarães | 0 | Accident | |
| Ret | India | Narain Karthikeyan | 0 | Accident | |
| Ret | USA | Marco Andretti | 0 | Accident | |
| DNS | Korea | Hwang Jin-Woo | – | Did not start |

Race red-flagged after the start because of accident.

## Feature Race

The second pit stop window was set for Laps 20–28. Switzerland were sent to the back of the grid for having a brake cooler in too long before the start, and a pit crew violation during the Sprint Race pit-stop.

| Pos | Team | Driver | Laps | Time | Points |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Ireland | Adam Carroll | 34 | 1:05'52.205 | 15 +1 |
| 2 | Portugal | Filipe Albuquerque | 34 | +15.996 | 12 |
| 3 | USA | Marco Andretti | 34 | +47.637 | 10 |
| 4 | Australia | John Martin | 34 | +51.679 | 8 |
| 5 | South Africa | Adrian Zaugg | 34 | +52.106 | 6 |
| 6 | New Zealand | Earl Bamber | 34 | +54.354 | 5 |
| 7 | Brazil | Felipe Guimarães | 34 | +57.369 | 4 |
| 8 | Netherlands | Jeroen Bleekemolen | 34 | +57.490 | 3 |
| 9 | China | Ho-Pin Tung | 34 | +59.158 | 2 |
| 10 | Malaysia | Fairuz Fauzy | 34 | +1'03.888 | 1 |
| 11 | Italy | Edoardo Piscopo | 34 | +1'06.145 | |
| 12 | Lebanon | Daniel Morad | 34 | +1'14.990 | |
| 13 | Indonesia | Satrio Hermanto | 34 | +1'15.761 | |
| 14 | France | Loïc Duval | 34 | +1'16.463 | |
| 15 | Mexico | Davíd Garza Pérez | 34 | +1'30.001 | |
| 16 | Great Britain | Danny Watts | 28 | +6 laps | |
| Ret | Monaco | Clivio Piccione | 2 | Mechanical | |
| Ret | India | Narain Karthikeyan | 0 | Collision | |
| Ret | Switzerland | Neel Jani | 0 | Collision | |
| DNS | Korea | Hwang Jin-Woo | – | Did not start |
