Friday was affected by inclement weather, which saw the morning test sessions and practice held in wet conditions due to rain.

The track was still slightly damp for the first practice session, but A1 Team France, who won both races in the previous round continued their impressive form with Alexandre Premat setting the fastest time - a 1'33.024.

Czech driver Tomáš Enge was a mere 0.034 seconds behind, while Australia's Will Davison made a successful return to the car to set the fourth fastest time.

The rain returned prior to the commencement of the second practice session, and it was delayed by 25 minutes to allow areas of standing water on the circuit to clear.

This ensured that times were considerably slower than in the previous session, but Premat was still able to come out on top, setting a 1'52.037 after just 5 laps to finish over 1.5 seconds ahead of second-placed Piquet.

Brazil's aggregate time was over half a second quicker than that of Switzerland, who were able to set the second-quickest lap of the session on their fourth run.

Portugal did not disappoint the home crowd, following on from their impressive times in the weekend's practice sessions to line up 6th, ahead of Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia and Great Britain.

At this stage in the race, France was in the lead, followed by Brazil, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Portugal (who passed Canada down the pit straight at the end of lap 1), Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, USA, New Zealand, Russia, Lebanon, India and Austria.

With Great Britain and Ireland out of the way, it was the turn of Scott Speed of Team USA to try to find a way past the slower, German car ahead of him.

As the field formed up, Nelson Piquet Jr. had pointed his car directly towards Alexandre Premat and Lebanon were in the wrong grid box, -1 place.

While it was on track a number of teams chose to make their compulsory pit stop:- Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Great Britain, China, Mexico, Pakistan and India.

South Africa emerged first following an excellent stop, followed by Germany, Indonesia, Great Britain, Mexico, India, Pakistan and China.

On lap 3, the race order was France, Portugal, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Ireland, USA, Austria, Australia, Lebanon, The Netherlands, South Africa, Germany, Indonesia, Great Britain and Mexico in 17th place.

By the end of lap 10 the complete race order was France, Portugal, Czech Republic, Ireland, Australia, Austria, The Netherlands, Lebanon, Italy, Switzerland *, USA *, Germany *, South Africa *, Great Britain *, Indonesia *, Canada*, India *, China*, Pakistan *, Mexico *, Brazil *, New Zealand *, Russia * & Malaysia *.

This happened right in front of Tomas Scheckter and Robbie Kerr capitalised on the confusion, passing the South African car into turn 2.

When the safety car was deployed, the remaining teams chose to make their pit stops:- France, Czech Republic, Ireland, Australia, The Netherlands, Italy and Lebanon.

After the pit stops had been completed, the race order was France, Switzerland, USA, Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Austria, Italy, Lebanon, India, China, Portugal, Pakistan, Brazil, New Zealand, Russia and Malaysia.

On lap 23 the British car developed a gearshift problem which caused Robbie Kerr to lose a number of places.