Brazil start A1GP series with win

Nelson Piquet (front) on his way to victory at Brands Hatch

Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr won the opening two races of the A1 Grand Prix series at Brands Hatch on Sunday.

He led from start to finish in the sprint to earn pole for the feature race, which he also dominated apart from when he made a pit stop.

France's Alexandre Premat was second in the sprint, with Australia's Will Power second in the feature.

The next meeting in the series, which sees national teams driving identical cars, is in Germany on 8-9 October.

Piquet was confident of winning race one as soon as he rounded the first corner and said: "It was a beautiful show and the team has done a good job.

"Alexandre was quite close but I knew on this circuit that if he wasn't one second a lap quicker he would not overtake me as it is so hard here."

In the 38-lap feature race, the safety car was forced to come out after 13 laps when Italy's Enrico Toccacelo collided with Khalil Beschir of Lebanon, who said: "It was a dramatic accident but I knew it would be fine, the car is very strong."

A1GP on right track

Four cars were eliminated on the first lap and two cars failed to make it past the end of the second lap.

But Piquet kept going and overtook Power to seal his double success.

"When I saw Will in front I thought that I would be second," the Brazilian admitted.

The inaugural event in the series attracted a crowd of around 80,000.