Motorsport:Team Ireland roared to the top of the A1 Grand Prix standings as Adam Carroll raced to victory in the Feature race in Malaysia to add to his earlier fifth place in the sprint.
A1 Team Ireland became the first nation to score two victories this season, with Carroll coming home ahead of Filipe Albuquerque of Portugal while Marco Andretti finished a third for the USA
Carroll got a clean start from pole position to lead the pack into the first corner and built up a 15 second lead before his first pit stop. Some good work by his crew got him back out ahead of the chasing pack with a comfortable five second lead.
Portugal driver Albuquerque was keeping Carroll honest, with the pair putting in consistently close lap times in the blistering heat.
Another flawless pit from Carroll's crew helped him keep the advantage to the end, while also picking up a bonus point for the fastest lap to give the team an eight-point lead at the top of the championship going into the Christmas break.
A delighted Carroll said: "We were starting from pole position and I just concentrated on getting a good start, which allowed me to control the race from there.
"It's a long race, the car's heavy at the start so you just run as fast as you can and be smooth and it allowed us to open up quite a good gap.
"It's all team work though, it doesn't just come down to one person as everybody works extremely hard. It's been hard for the guys to be out here since Tuesday at the circuit in this heat and humidity, but they practiced pit stops every night to make sure they did a good job.
"We planned to come here and try and come away leading the championship and we have. Winning the race is just a good bonus and I'm going to fight hard to keep it."
The championship resumes in New Zealand on January 23rd.