Malaysia top Silverstone test

The team, who took the country's maiden win in the series in last season's finale in Shanghai, was quickest around the Silverstone International layout thanks to Fairuz Fauzy's best effort this morning.

The two-day programme is A1 teams' only chance to test against each other before the season opener on October 1.

Fauzy set a lap of 1:10.507 in this morning's three-hour session, just 0.121 seconds quicker than Nicolas Lapierre, returning for reigning champions France.

Champ Car Atlantic runner James Hinchcliffe put in an impressive performance for A1 Team Canada with the third quickest time.

Canada chose to run Hinchcliffe in the car today to acclimatise him to the 550bhp machine in time for the season opener at Zandvoort, where he will make his A1 race debut.

Regular driver Sean McIntosh will be racing in the World Series by Renault that weekend.

Jos Verstappen was fourth quickest for the Netherlands, with a time just two tenths slower than Fauzy's best. GP2 racer Michael Ammermuller was fifth quickest for Germany.

Double Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr made his A1 Team America debut late this afternoon, however his best lap was 1:14.177, more than three and a half seconds off Fauzy's best from this morning.

Teammate Phil Giebler recorded the sixth best time of the day, with a 1:11.019.

Mario Dominguez didn't get to complete a lap in his Mexican car at all, after the team struggled to fix engine problems all day.

The day ran largely trouble free, however there were brief red flags thrown when Raphael Matos had an off in the Brazilian car, and also when Hinchcliffe ran out of fuel.

Canadian team manager John Village had a novel definition of the latter, when he termed it an 'air-infected fuel tank."

Morning times:

Pos  Team           Time      Laps
 1.  Malaysia       1.10.507   61
 2.  France         1.10.628   31
 3.  Netherlands    1.10.763   38
 4.  USA            1.11.019   52
 5.  Lebanon        1.11.159   43
 6.  New Zealand    1.11.362   42
 7.  Italy          1.11.379   60
 8.  Germany        1.11.431   46
 9.  China          1.11.463   45
10.  South Africa   1.11.552   49
11.  Indonesia      1.11.569   42
12.  Australia      1.11.617   51
13.  Great Britain  1.11.670   39
14.  Switzerland    1.11.978   43
15.  Canada         1.12.059   32
16.  Ireland        1.12.085   45
17.  Brazil         1.12.418   55
18.  Pakistan       1.12.627   42
19.  Czech Republic 1.13.324   46

Afternoon times:

Pos  Team           Time      Laps
 1.  Canada         1.10.738   58
 2.  Netherlands    1.10.821   44
 3.  Germany        1.10.877   44
 4.  New Zealand    1.11.054   55
 5.  France         1.11.059   37
 6.  Great Britain  1.11.246   51
 7.  China          1.11.272   47
 8.  Indonesia      1.11.295   56
 9.  Switzerland    1.11.383   52
10.  Lebanon        1.11.411   43
11.  South Africa   1.11.533   27
12.  Malaysia       1.11.571   59
13.  Brazil         1.11.613   57
14.  Czech Republic 1.11.689   46
15.  Italy          1.11.712   64