Late on Sunday night, A1 Team Ireland's joy at regaining the lead in the A1 Grand Prix series thanks to their pair of second places in the Portuguese rounds at Park Algarve was dampened when a belated stewards' decision gave driver Adam Carroll a 25 second penalty in the Feature Race, dropping him to fifth place and leaving Ireland second in the points table, two behind Switzerland.

The penalty was for overtaking another driver during a Safety Car period, when the Australian car slowed just before crossing the start line for the restart, causing confusion among the closely packed bunch following. Although Ireland are two points down on Switzerland in total, they are in a stronger position than their rivals on dropped scores, with four races left, in Britain and Mexico next month.