2008–09 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Malaysia

Because Great Britain, India and Mexico had only joined the season at the Chinese round, they were permitted to take part in a special practice session on November 20.^[1] In the wet conditions, Narain Karthikeyan was the fastest driver just in front of Danny Watts. Davíd Garza Pérez was the slowest with 3 seconds.

The qualifying sessions were the first to utilise the new "joker" Qualifying lap rule – where the driver has PowerBoost available for use over an entire qualifying lap, to be used in any session at the team's discretion.^[8]

Sprint race qualifying[9] Pos Team Time Gap 1   Switzerland 1'47.154 – 2   France 1'47.747 +0.593 3   New Zealand 1'47.779 +0.625 4   Portugal 1'48.930 +1.776 5   Italy 1'49.007 +1.853 6   Great Britain 1'49.076 +1.922 7   Ireland 1'49.197 +2.043 8   Mexico 1'49.293 +2.139 9   Netherlands 1'49.323 +2.169 10   India 1'49.350 +2.196 11   South Africa 1'49.528 +2.374 12   USA 1'49.650 +2.496 13   Malaysia 1'49.753 +2.599 14   Brazil 1'50.085 +2.931 15   Monaco 1'50.171 +3.017 16   Australia (1) 1'49.998 +2.844 17   China 1'50.274 +3.120 18   Lebanon 1'50.382 +3.228 19   Indonesia 1'51.423 +4.269 20   Korea no time –

Feature race qualifying[10] Pos Team Time Gap 1   Ireland 1'47.124 – 2   Great Britain 1'47.340 +0.216 3   Lebanon 1'47.645 +0.521 4   Malaysia 1'47.648 +0.524 5   Portugal 1'47.680 +0.556 6   Netherlands 1'47.825 +0.701 7   India 1'47.848 +0.724 8   USA 1'47.866 +0.742 9   France 1'47.993 +0.869 10   China 1'48.126 +1.002 11   Monaco 1'48.242 +1.118 12   Brazil 1'48.323 +1.199 13   Australia 1'48.586 +1.462 14   Indonesia 1'48.839 +1.715 15   New Zealand 1'48.866 +1.742 16   Switzerland 1'48.980 +1.856 17   South Africa 1'49.061 +1.937 18   Mexico 1'49.537 +2.413 19   Italy 1'49.885 +2.761 20   Korea no time –

• (1) : Australia received a two-place grid penalty for the Sprint race for using a non-approved part in practice.^[11]

Following a major crash at the first start, involving   USA,   Brazil and   India, and the pack slowed down after it seemed to have accelerated off, the race was delayed 30 minutes for track cleanup, and reduced to 11 laps.

This Sprint Race was the first this season to utilise the new Sprint Race pit-stop rule, the windows always set for Laps 4–8.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Switzerland	Neel Jani	11	22'41.567	10 +1
2	France	Loïc Duval	11	+9.912	8
3	New Zealand	Earl Bamber	11	+11.813	6
4	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	11	+12.453	5
5	Ireland	Adam Carroll	11	+13.205	4
6	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	11	+15.399	3
7	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	11	+19.947	2
8	Australia	John Martin	11	+21.437	1
9	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	11	+27.674
10	China	Ho-Pin Tung	11	+29.492
11	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	11	+32.049
12	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	11	+32.406
13	Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	11	+38.959
14	Mexico	Davíd Garza Pérez	11	+55.055
15	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	10	+1 lap
Ret	Great Britain	Danny Watts	4	Gearbox
Ret	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	0	Accident
Ret	India	Narain Karthikeyan	0	Accident
Ret	USA	Marco Andretti	0	Accident
DNS	Korea	Hwang Jin-Woo	–	Did not start

Race red-flagged after the start because of accident.

The second pit stop window was set for Laps 20–28.   Switzerland were sent to the back of the grid for having a brake cooler in too long before the start, and a pit crew violation during the Sprint Race pit-stop.

Pos	Team	Driver	Laps	Time	Points
1	Ireland	Adam Carroll	34	1:05'52.205	15 +1
2	Portugal	Filipe Albuquerque	34	+15.996	12
3	USA	Marco Andretti	34	+47.637	10
4	Australia	John Martin	34	+51.679	8
5	South Africa	Adrian Zaugg	34	+52.106	6
6	New Zealand	Earl Bamber	34	+54.354	5
7	Brazil	Felipe Guimarães	34	+57.369	4
8	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	34	+57.490	3
9	China	Ho-Pin Tung	34	+59.158	2
10	Malaysia	Fairuz Fauzy	34	+1'03.888	1
11	Italy	Edoardo Piscopo	34	+1'06.145
12	Lebanon	Daniel Morad	34	+1'14.990
13	Indonesia	Satrio Hermanto	34	+1'15.761
14	France	Loïc Duval	34	+1'16.463
15	Mexico	Davíd Garza Pérez	34	+1'30.001
16	Great Britain	Danny Watts	28	+6 laps
Ret	Monaco	Clivio Piccione	2	Mechanical
Ret	India	Narain Karthikeyan	0	Collision
Ret	Switzerland	Neel Jani	0	Collision
DNS	Korea	Hwang Jin-Woo	–	Did not start

• It was the 35th race weekend (70 starts).
• It was the 4th race in Malaysia, and the 4th at Sepang International Circuit.
• It was the first race weekend as rookie driver for   Stefano Coletti,   J. R. Hildebrand,   Armando Parente and   Ashley Walsh.
• Records
  •   Switzerland scored their 9th pole position as Neel Jani.
  •   Neel Jani scored their 7th fastest lap.

• Switzerland's Sepang Sprint
• Sprint race: as it happened
• Sprint race results
• Feature Glory for Ireland
• Feature race results