Switzerland made a troubled start to the A1GP weekend at Sepang, with Neel Jani facing a range of issues despite ending the day with the second quickest time.

Jani, who took a double pole and double win last season at the Malaysian circuit, was faced with clutch, engine and brake issues on his Powered by Ferrari car – with the team forced to miss the rookie sessions held during the morning after the team worked through the night repairing the clutch.

It meant the team was unable to complete the work planned for the rookie sessions, which included running in brakes on the car, and restricted Jani to just nine laps.

Despite that, Jani ended up only slightly slower than pace-setter Danny Watts although he admitted he was pleased to put the day behind him.

"We have a difficult day behind us," he said. "Along with the clutch problem came other difficulties. At the start of practice, the engine misfired and the brakes worked only for a little bit more than 50 per cent. We just had no time to find a workable set-up.

"In these conditions, we can be happy with what we have achieved. But we have a lot of work to do before qualifying."