The A1 Grand Prix rules allowed teams to use one driver for qualifying and another for the race, provided the race driver's best practice time is within 102% of the team's best qualifying lap – resulting in Lebanon's Basil Shaaban and China's Qinghua Ma replaced with Khalil Beschir and Tengyi Jiang respectively.

The field remained in almost the same order for the remainder of the race, as Piquet, Prémat and Halliday produced a gap back to Power, who pulled away from Kerr to secure fourth place.

A1 Team Mexico remained 6th, ahead of the Pakistani car in 7th – which spent most of the race holding up Portugal – Switzerland and Ireland behind him.

Further back in the field, Michael Devaney of Ireland collided with Neel Jani of Switzerland, putting both cars out of the race.

Several battles were emerging throughout the field, involving Pakistan and Italy for 4th place, Germany and Malaysia for 6th, as well as Canada and South Africa for 9th.

Malaysia lost time in the pit cycle as the mechanics struggled to fit a wheel, a common occurrence in early A1GP races.

On lap 13, Toccacelo and Beschir collided at Paddock Hill Bend, resulting in the Lebanese car barrel-rolling through the gravel.

The top three pitted as the Safety Car came out for the first time, but Brazil also had problems changing tyres Great Britain and Australia past.

Only a few laps later, A1 Team Russia driver Aleksey Vasilyev spun off the track and forced the safety car to come out again.