CARROLL WINS SPRINT RACE FOR IRELAND

Ireland took their first victory of A1GP's Powered by Ferrari era courtesy of a perfect race from Adam Carroll in the Sprint Race at Chengdu.Carroll started from pole and saw off an early challenge from the Netherlands before slowly building his advantage to eventually claim victory with a margin of 2.371 seconds."I just tried to keep my head down and not make any mistakes," Carroll said. "But it's going to be a pretty long race this afternoon."The Netherlands might not have had an answer to Ireland, but Robert Doornbos never looked under threat for second place, giving the Dutch team a podium in his first ever race in an A1 car."It feels good to be on the podium," Doornbos said. "Obviously it's the best first impression you can make. We started strong - we missed pole by just 0.006s - and in the race it was the same. I'm very happy with second."

The final podium spot was filled by another A1 debutante in the form of Team GBR's Danny Watts, but the Briton was made to work hard for the result by Switzerland's Neel Jani. The reigning champion pushed Watts hard over the closing laps, but a small mistake at the end of the penultimate lap gave Watts just enough breathing space to secure third, albeit by a margin of just 0.3 seconds."It's a great result, and a great reward for all the hard work that all the boys have put in throughout the week," Watts said. "Third is good points for us, but we'll have to see how we go this afternoon."South Africa finished fourth after spending most of the race fighting off Portugal, with New Zealand, France, Monaco and India completing the top 10.

The result was a noteworthy one for India who, like GBR, is making their season debut in China this weekend. Mexico, who are the third team competing for the first time in the 2008/9 season, finished 16th behind Team USA's Marco Andretti. The race passed generally without incident, although Brazil finished several laps down after pitting early with mechanical problems, while China had to settle for 17th as a result of an early spin.