Maiden A1 GP win for McIntosh

McIntosh had failed to finish the sprint event after a first-lap collision, which left him at the back of the grid for the pitstop race. The John Village Automotive-run team brought him in for his mandatory stop at the end of the second lap, for its driver to cross the white line exiting the pits.

The resulting stop-go left him down the order, but by the end of the second of three safety-car periods that interrupted this 36-lap race, he was up to fifth. He quickly passed Czech Tomas Enge and then moved into the lead when Stephen Simpson and Robbie Kerr pitted in the final laps.

McIntosh said: "A bit of luck played into our hands today, but the car was actually very good. I made a few daring overtaking moves and we had a good pitstop, too."

Team Malaysia driver Alex Yoong finished second, 1.9 seconds behind the race winner. The former Minardi Formula 1 driver started fourth and ran third in the early stages.

A pitstop during the second safety-car period left him near the back, but he was able to move up the field in tandem with the Netherlands's Jos Verstappen. The pair were effectively dicing for second place when they tangled on lap 30, the Dutchman ending up sixth.

Third and fourth places went to Marcus Marshall and Christian Fittipaldi in their respective Australian and Brazilian entries. Both benefitted from stopping during the opening safety-car period on lap two.

Kerr and Simpson ran at the front for the majority of the race, but both Team GBR and the South African operation decided against pitting during the early race yellows. That meant they dropped to tenth and 11th places respectively after stopping under green-flag conditions as the race entered its final laps.

Sprint race winner Nicolas Lapierre tangled with Yoong on the third lap and immediately stopped in the pits for a new nosecone. His comeback was hindered by another off, but he still ended up eighth.

CLASSIFICATION (provisional):

Pos  Driver            Country         Time
 1.  Sean McIntosh     Canada          55:55.779
 2.  Alex Yoong        Malaysia        +   1.931
 3.  Marcus Marshall   Australia       +  12.617
 4.  C. Fittipaldi     Brazil          +  14.000
 5.  Neel Jani         Switzerland     +  16.509
 6.  Jos Verstappen    Netherlands     +  21.846
 7.  Matt Halliday     New Zealand     +  22.219
 8.  Nicolas Lapierre  France          +  22.698
 9.  Philip Giebler    USA             +  26.313
10.  Robbie Kerr       Great Britain   +  42.969
11.  Stephen Simpson   South Africa    +1:14.514
12.  Timo Scheider     Germany         +1:32.984
13.  Tomas Enge        Czech Republic  +  1 Lap
14.  Ananda Mikola     Indonesia       +  1 Lap
15.  Armaan Ebrahim    India           +  1 Lap
16.  Max Businelli     Italy           +  5 Laps
17.  Alvaro Parente    Portugal        +  5 Laps
18.  Mathias Lauda     Austria         + 12 Laps
19.  Ralph Firman      Ireland         + 15 Laps
20.  Salvador Duran    Mexico          + 18 Laps
21.  Tengyi Jiang      China           + 25 Laps
22.  Basil Shabaan     Lebanon         + 29 Laps
23.  Hayanari Shimoda  Japan           + 36 Laps

Fastest lap: Ralph Firman, 1:19.029 on lap 19

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (provisional):

Pos  Country         Points
 1.  France           132
 2.  Switzerland      104
 3.  Brazil            70
 4.  Great Britain     68
 5.  New Zealand       61
 6.  Netherlands       53
 7.  Ireland           50
 8.  Portugal          50
 9.  Malaysia          49
10.  Canada            42
11.  Australia         37
12.  Czech Republic    31
13.  Mexico            28
14.  Italy             26
15.  South Africa      20
16.  Germany           15
17.  USA               15
18.  Indonesia         10
19.  Austria            9
20.  Japan              8
21.  China              6
22.  Pakistan           4