France (Loic Duval) and Malaysia (Fairuz Fauzy) emerged from the opening round of the 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in the joint lead after two incident-packed races that were dominated by wet and treacherous conditions.

Malaysia won Sunday morning's Sprint race from New Zealand (Earl Bamber), France, the Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen), Switzerland (Neel Jani) and South Africa (Adrian Zaugg). The race started behind the safety car after persistent rain fell over the circuit at the Dutch seaside resort and ended after 10 of the scheduled 14 laps when the red flag came out after yet another incident.

The longer Feature race also started behind the safety car with driving rain making conditions even worse than the earlier race. France emerged the victors after 36 of the scheduled 40 laps (the race ended after another safety car period), scoring their 15th A1GP win and the second for Duval, from Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia (John Martin), the Netherlands and A1GP newcomers Monaco (Clivio Piccione). South Africa became one of the many casualties of the conditions when Vulindlela was unceremoniously knocked off the Zandvoort circuit on lap six by the car of Italy, driven by A1GP rookie Onidi Fabio.

It was a big disappointment for 21-year-old Zaugg, who was lying fifth at the time. "I was being very careful in the conditions, which were really bad. It was difficult to see anything in the spray from the car ahead and the track surface was extremely slippery with a lot of water around."

"Adrian was very unlucky," said Mike Carroll, general manager of A1 Team South Africa. "He did well to survive the difficult conditions in the Sprint race and finish in the points without making any mistakes or being involved in any incidents. To go out so early in the Feature race through no fault of his own was most unfortunate. But that's what happens in wet races. It's a bit of a lottery and this time we didn't win the jackpot. However, we achieved a respectable result in race one under the circumstances and we live to fight another day.

"Our sister team France?s performance was unbelievable," added Carroll. "Loic only drove the car for the first time in Saturday's qualifying session and qualified 11th on his 12th and last lap. His third place in the Sprint race and then his victory in the Feature race was quite outstanding. He gave a master class in driving in the wet."

Sprint race results:

1. Fairuz Fauzy (Malaysia), 19:44.533
2. Earl Bamber (New Zealand), 19:48.007, +3.474
3. Loic Duval (France), 19:50.803, +6.27
4. Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands), 19:57.966, +13.433
5. Neel Jani (Switzerland), 20:01.429, +16.896
6. Adrian Zaugg (South Africa), 20:05.458, +20.925
7. Fabio Onidi (Italy), 20:06.747, +22.214
8. Charlie Kimball (USA), 20:08.683, +24.15
9. Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), 20:13.960, +29.427
10. Daniel Morad (Lebanon), 20:23.462, +38.929
11. John Martin (Australia), 21:12.004, +1:27.471
12. Ho Pin Tung (China), 18:09.652, +1 Lap
13. Felipe Guimaraes (Brazil), 19:24.409, +1 Lap
14. Jin Woo Hwang (Korea), 07:27.249, +7 Laps
15. Satrio Hermanto (Indonesia), 05:27.400, +8 Laps
16. Adam Carroll (Ireland), 05:58.094, +8 Laps
17. Clivio Piccione (Monaco), 02:48.422, +9 Laps

Feature race results:

1. Loic Duval (France), 11:58.723
2. Fairuz Fauzy (Malaysia), 12:01.011, +2.288
3. Earl Bamber (New Zealand), 12:01.432, +2.709
4. John Martin (Australia), 12:05.052, +6.329
5. Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands), 12:06.996, +8.273
6. Clivio Piccione (Monaco), 12:03.356, +2 Laps
7. Jin Woo Hwang (Korea), 12:28.432, +3 Laps
8. Daniel Morad (Lebanon), 03:15.216, +4 Laps
9. Ho Pin Tung (China), 03:14.803, +5 Laps
10. Charlie Kimball (USA), 59:04.806, +6 Laps
11. Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), 29:34.235, +21 Laps
12. Satrio Hermanto (Indonesia), 26:14.548, +24 Laps
13. Adrian Zaugg (South Africa), 11:00.955, +31 Laps
14. Fabio Onidi (Italy), 11:01.706, +31 Laps
15. Felipe Guimaraes (Brazil), 12:03.879, +31 Laps
16. Adam Carroll (Ireland), 09:17.297, +32 Laps
17. Neel Jani (Switzerland), 09:52.638, +32 Laps

Championship points after one round of 10:

1. Malaysia and France 22
3. New Zealand 18
4. Netherlands 11
5. Australia 8
6. Monaco 5
7. Switzerland 4
8. Korea 4
9. South Africa 3
10. Lebanon

Next race: A1GP Chengdu, China, 7 to 9 November.