This weekend's A1GP street race in Beijing faces a crisis after drivers found its hairpin almost impossible to negotiate in today's brief attempt at a free practice session.

Practice was initially delayed by over four hours as last-minute circuit inspections were completed.

But fears that the hairpin would be far too tight for the A1GP cars proved to be entirely founded when the very first driver, Team Germany's Nico Hulkenberg, ran out of road on the exit despite a crawling approach.

Chaos followed, with the following drivers literally queuing at a standstill with little hope of getting around. Others shot up the escape road, stopped and resorted to turning their cars around with a large dose of throttle.

The session was quickly red-flagged when it proved impossible to move the Team Lebanon car, and two subsequent attempts at a re-start resulted in a similar story. The day's running has now been abandoned.

Team Malaysia driver Fairuz Fauzy said: "I was able to get around it once in normal fashion, but it's not safe to run with that hairpin. It's clear that you can't trust all the drivers to get around there for a full race distance. It needs to be widened and probably covered by permanent yellows."

Team Ireland's John O'Hara added: "It's a disaster really. We knew it might be difficult for two cars side by side, but didn't think it would be so bad for a single car. I never got to try and take the corner properly - the track was blocked every time."

Widening the circuit may not be beyond the realms of possibility, but seems unlikely as it would require extensive digging and resurfacing. Another option could be to eliminate the whole loop containing the hairpin, but this would make for a very short circuit.

FIA circuit inspector Charlie Whiting and A1GP organisers are set for a late night of decision-making.

The Beijing street circuit has undergone revisions to enable the A1GP event to take place this weekend.

Practice was abandoned on Friday when it became clear that the cars could not cleanly negotiate the tight Turn 8 hairpin, even when they were running in single file.

A revised map of the track (see below) shows that the long straight into the hairpin has been shortened significantly, and the new Turn 8 will not be as tight as the original.

The practice session scheduled for Saturday morning has been extended from one hour to 90 minutes to allow teams some extra track time before qualifying.

As a result, the driver autograph session originally scheduled for Saturday has been cancelled.

Team Netherlands driver Jeroen Bleekemolen was fastest in today's free practice session for the A1GP Beijing street race, but the rest of the day's running has been canned after more circuit problems surfaced during the session.

The temporary track was heavily revised and shortened overnight after the problems caused by the tight hairpin yesterday. The hairpin was effectively shifted further back up the track, into a position which allowed the cars more room at the exit.

Although a half hour of clean and steady practice proved that this solution was workable (if ultra-slow), a new problem appeared when manhole covers began to lift.

The session was red-flagged and the rest of the day's running has been called off while a solution is sought.

Various ways of rescuing some racing this weekend are now being discussed. There have been suggestions that the grid will be determined by the times from this session, or by the championship standings.

The results of this morning's aborted free practice session in Beijing will be used to set the grid for tomorrow's A1GP sprint race.

This follows the cancellation of qualifying due to problems with manhole covers, which halted free practice early.

This means that Team Netherlands driver Jeroen Bleekemolen will start on pole, ahead of Team Mexico's Salvador Duran. Team Italy (Enrico Toccacelo) and Team Canada will line up on the second row.

Although these times are almost meaningless - the clock having been arbitrarily stopped midway through an exploratory first session - the near impossibility of overtaking around the narrow track means that one of those on the front row is likely to take the win.

Sprint race starting grid:

Pos Team Driver
1. Netherlands J.Bleekemolen
2. Mexico Salvador Duran
3. Italy Enrico Toccacelo
4. Canada J.Hinchcliffe
5. Germany N.Hulkenberg
6. Brazil Raphael Matos
7. South Africa Adrian Zaugg
8. Great Britain Oliver Jarvis
9. Czech Republic Tomas Enge
10. Switzerland Neel Jani
11. Ireland Michael Devaney
12. New Zealand Matthew Halliday
13. USA Phil Giebler
14. Australia Karl Reindler
15. China Cheng Congfu
16. Malaysia Alex Yoong
17. Singapore C.Murchison
18. Indonesia Ananda Mikola
19. India Armaan Ebrahim
20. Lebanon Basil Shaaban
21. France Nicolas Lapierre
22. Pakistan Nur Ali

Im still getting up at 6am anyway tomorrow!

Hopefully I will get to see some racing

Team Netherlands took their expected victory in this morning's A1GP street race in Beijing.

Although the race was undramatic, organisers will no doubt be relieved that it passed without any serious problems.

Not surprisingly, there was no overtaking during the race except in the very depths of the field. And even if passing were possible on this circuit, there were precious few racing laps available anyway.

The start, in single file behind the safety car, provided no opportunity for a change to grid order.

And so it stayed until the safety car re-appeared a couple of laps into the race to allow for the removal of Adrian Zaugg's Team South Africa car, after he spun off-track.

By the time the car was cleared, there were little more than four minutes of racing time remaining.

Bleekemolen simply peeled off the laps to the flag, leaving Team Mexico's Salvador Duran to worry about the faster-looking Team Italy car behind him.

But as in the first segment of the race, there was no danger of a change in the order.

Pos Team Time
1. Netherlands 20m28.420
2. Mexico + 1.464
3. Italy + 2.311
4. Canada + 3.375
5. Germany + 3.943
6. Brazil + 4.400
7. Great Britain + 7.377
8. Czech Republic + 8.397
9. Switzerland + 8.849
10. New Zealand + 9.265
11. USA + 10.422
12. Australia + 11.920
13. China + 13.216
14. Malaysia + 17.027
15. Indonesia + 18.479
16. Singapore + 20.659
17. France + 20.802
18. India + 22.253
19. Lebanon + 22.783
20. Ireland + 23.247
21. Pakistan + 47.541
22. South Africa + 2 laps

Fastest lap: Mexico (Salvador Duran), 59.329 on lap 15

Italy won an accident-strewn feature race in Beijing after sprint race winner Team Netherlands crashed in the closing laps while leading.

Netherlands looked set for a repeat of their sprint race win before the incident gave the win to Team Italy and Enrico Toccacelo. Completing the podium were Oliver Jarvis for Great Britain and Karl Reindler for Australia.

A number of spins and crashes saw the intervention of the safety car throughout the race, beginning on lap two when Team Pakistan crashed at turn three.

Team Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen led from the start, leading until pitting on lap 20, the stop followed almost immediately by a safety car period for the spun Swiss car of Neel Jani.

Canada's James Hinchcliffe led the middle part of the race before taking its pit stop in the later stages of the race, returning the lead to the Netherlands.

But an error by Bleekemolen ended their race, handing the lead to Germany's Nico Hulkenberg temporarily before a gearbox problem ended his race.

This gave the lead and the victory to Team Italy's Enrico Toccacelo.

Pos Team Time
1. Italy 1:10:15.919
2. Great Britain + 4.508
3. Australia + 5.917
4. France + 12.900
5. South Africa + 13.278
6. Czech Republic + 13.684
7. Brazil + 14.839
8. Singapore + 16.486
9. New Zealand + 17.005
10. Canada + 1 lap
11. India + 1 lap
12. Malaysia + 2 laps
13. Lebanon + 2 laps
14. Netherlands + 10 laps
15. Germany + 10 laps
16. Indonesia + 27 laps
17. China + 35 laps
18. USA + 42 laps
19. Switzerland + 43 laps
20. Mexico + 49 laps
21. Ireland + 60 laps
22. Pakistan + 62 laps

Fastest lap: Canada (James Hinchcliffe), 58.107 on lap 39