In the opening race in the World Series by Nissan, which was watched by 10,000 in rain mixed with sleet, Ryo Fukuda put up a creditable performance to come sixth in the first race and third in the second. Because the first race was the series debut for the Paul Belmondo Racing team to which Fukuda belongs, he came only 17th in the preliminaries, but then subsequently vaulted past 11 drivers in a fine performance that won many points. In the second race, which he started from a position of third place in the preliminaries, Ryo won a hard battle with Heikki Kovalainen (Finland), who is participating in the Norway F1 team rookie program this year for the second time, to secure a place on the winners podium. The winner of both the first and second races was Enrique Bernoldi (Brazil), who began participating in F1 racing from the Arrows team in both 2001 and 2002.

First Race
In the wet conditions, Bernoldi, starting in pole position, got away to a good start and led the early part of the race. Subsequently, Bernoldi temporarily yielded his top position to rookie Tiago Monteiro (Poland), who started in second position, but Monteiro received a pit lane drive through penalty for a regulations violation at the start of the race and fell back to second place. So Bernoldi s win was far from a shoe-in. In the final lap, Juan Cruz Alvarez (Argentina) pulled away from Bruce Jouanny (France) to record the third fastest time, and Narain Karthikeyan (India) trailed Jouanny to come fifth. Sixth place was taken by Ryo Fukuda, who performed impressively in his debut race, pulling ahead of 11 others to finish among the first six.

Second Race
Amid wet conditions as in the first race, Bernoldi put in a fine performance, making another excellent dash and opening up a yawning five-second lead in the first lap. Kovalainen also zoomed up to second place in the first lap from a position of seventh in the preliminaries but a handling error cost him his lead, which was taken by Alvarez. Fukuda, who started from a position of third in the preliminaries, temporarily dropped back to fifth place but rallied in the second half and in the last ten laps fought a tail-to-nose battle with Kovalainen. Finally, in the last two laps Kovalainen made a braking error and Fukuda moved up to third position in a hairpin corner to finish a very fine race on the podium.

Comments by Fukuda
"For the first time in ages before the race I was so tense I couldn t eat. However, when the formation lap was over, strangely enough I settled right down and made a good start. In the rough conditions I managed a calm race, surprising even myself. The battle in the second race in particular (with Kovalainen) was really enjoyable. I am very happy to stand on the podium at the end of my first race in nine months but the best thing was that the whole team who worked so hard to get my machine ready, even although this was my first formula race, was happy with the outcome."

The next round of races will be held on April 25 at the Zolder Circuit in Belgium.