Macau hosted its biggest meeting ever whilst the A1 Grand Prix of Nations moved to Malaysia.

Stand H stood empty yesterday as the A1 cars lined up at Sepang for their first visit to a modern GP circuit. Qualifying had been a washout - or at least two of the four sessions had been more or less abandoned due to the heavy rain that afflicts the tropics - and currently only Sepang - at this time of year.

The decision to put the Malaysian race at this time of year is strange: it's in the middle of the rainy season but the cars don't have enough downforce and the tyres don't have enough grip to cope with monsoon rains. For those that have never been in a monsoon, let's explain: think of standing still whilst someone constantly plays a hose on you and someone else throws buckets of water at you ever second or so. Monsoons are usually accompanied by wind which means that vast quantities of water are usually moving very fast and horizontally. Monsoon rain is big, warm drops but in the wind they can still sting.

Qualifying was in such poor conditions that the general consensus was that, if the race was run at all, it would be run behind the safety car. For that to happen would be an even bigger farce than the 2005 US GP.

The weather at this time of year is unpredictable but it rains most days, and when it does, communications go down, thunderstorms are of such severity that hundreds of PC modems are knocked out each time and, in the worse cases, some computers are fried.

There are two types of storm: those that approach heralded by a big wind: it whistles through the window frames, rattling doors even in rooms with the windows fully closed. Bamboo bends and all the fronds point in one direction. Then, suddenly, the rain comes. Hard, fast, forcing its way through window frames along with the howling wind. Motorcyclists are blown into the path of other vehicles, and vehicles are blown around on the road as they flood within minutes and inexperienced or reckless drivers aquaplane.

The other has no big wind - the rain comes straight from the sky in lumps so big it looks like fast moving snow. But it's accompanied by the most spectacular lightning: forked, sheet, straight, all happen simultaneously all around. In our offices, the lightning is often right outside the window with flash and clap almost simultaneous, showing just how close it is.

So with a better than 50% chance of rain, the fact that the circuit is not directly accessible by public transport from Kuala Lumpur (and it's quite expensive by local standards to get there) the fact that A1 so far has no "inherent buzz" means that promotion of the event would be crucial to get the stands full.

"We didn't have enough time to do promotion," said Alex Yoong, the former F1 driver who is the seat holder for the Malaysian team. It's debatable whether time can be said to be the only reason: KL is banner central: the lamposts are adorned with advertisements for all sorts of events and, in particular, F1, MotoGP, Merdeka Challenge and the Japan GT series events at Sepang. There was no similar push for the A1 event.

Most motorsports events include some promotion in the city's bars, the most commonly used venue being The Beach Club. But "BC" as it's known in KL had a couple of A3 size posters up. On Saturday night, there was no special promotion, no competitions, all of which are the norm for other motorsporting events.

Ticket prices were affordable: the most expensive was half the price of the cheapest stand ticked for F1.

But the emptiness of Stand H was the puzzling factor: the main grandstand was full, the flags of all nations were waved, the cheers for Fairus Fauzi and Alex Yoong, who shared the drive, were impressive indeed. But anyone who knows Sepang knows that the start/finish straight has the most restrictive view of any place around the track. Stand H, on the other hand, is where the action is: it's right on the first two bends and the long, uphill back straight out of turn 3 is one of motor racing's finest bits of track, really sorting the men from the boys.

Yet tickets in Stand H are much cheaper than those in the main stand. So one has to wonder why H was deserted. Was it because the organisers decided to ensure a concentration of fans for the cameras rather then have a smattering here and there? Certainly, the main stand was dominated by the yellow t-shirts given away free by Team Malaysia.

It might have been better if they had given them away in town during the preceding week to raise some profile for the event.

Because the event deserved it. The racing was superb, it didn't rain, pit-stop dramas caused huge upset and the home team did well, although for reasons that we've not yet learned, Russia didn't turn up. It's the second race they've missed out of five so far: the first missed race was because the team was being "restructured." That turned out to mean that it was being sold.

But there was another reason that motorsport fans were not at Sepang: another question-mark over the scheduling of the A1 event. All the big boys were in Macau, the Far East's very own Monaco, except it doesn't have the up-market image.

But Macau has its own very special image, and its own very special racing. Even the commentaries are interesting: commentators are often heard to say "He's going into Hospital and down to Maternity." It's much more entertaining than "he's entering turn one, then two and now he's on the straight heading for turn three."

The Macau event is a mammoth affair. Billed as "The Macau Grand Prix," it's much more than that. Yesterday, the Road Racing World Championship came to town - that's motorcycles. The Asia Porsche Carrerra Cup reached its closest championship climax for years. The inaugural World Touring Cars Championship was decided and the Formula 3 race, which is not a championship race and is actually the Macau GP, was notable for the fact that no one crashed at the start. If you've never been to Macau, you won't have any idea how impressive that is.

Both circuits saw motor racing at its best. But Macau's rainy season is over so it was almost bound to be dry. It's got a massive market on its doorstep - Hong Kong and China guarantee good crowds. Malaysia needs to get the race shifted to a time when rain is less likely and to make sure it doesn't clash with any other major motorsport event in the region. It needs to get its marketing right. And it needs to make sure that its TV coverage provider, ASTRO, gets a system that is not affected by rain.

The A1 series deserves the best chance it can get; Malaysia deserves the chance to put on a good show; the drivers deserve a degree of certainty and to the support of their fan base; and the fans deserve better promotion, better inexpensive public transport and better facilities when they get to the track, for Sepang is notorious for dreadful, expensive food with far too few vendors, restricted beer choice (it's Fosters or nothing at F1) and restrictions on bringing in even your own drinking water. And the series needs to do something about gaining advertising support so as to improve these things. One of the most interesting thing about Sepang yesterday was how bare it was: for those of us used to it as an F1 venue, there was a vast emptiness. It's a strange thing to say but the absence of advertising hoardings made the event look a little like a club event at a back-water circuit. For a city where advertising assaults all of the senses all of the time, a near naked Sepang was an interesting contrast.

No such issue at Macau where advertising adorned everything, including the parade of brolly-dollies. Sepang put on a great show, not "a great show given the limitations," a great show full stop. It's just not got the message across. Yet. Hopefully it will before the next time the A1 circus comes to town. But Macau… well, "it's Macau," as the drivers say every time they hit a barrier. It's the mecca for motorsport fans in this part of the world at this time of year and against that competition A1 didn't stand a chance.

Results:

A1 Grand Prix of Nations

Sprint race:

France

Switzerland

Great Britain

Feature race:

France

Switzerland

Czech Republic

Macau GP - Formula 3

Lucas di Grassi (Brazil)

Robert Kubica (Poland)

Sebastian Vettel (Germany)

World Touring Cars

Race One

Augusto Farfus

Andy Priaulx

Rickard Rydell

Race Two

Duncan Huisman

Andy Priaulx

Alain Menu (excluded in post race inquiry, appeal pending)

Augusto Farfus.

WTC Champion

Andrew Priaulx (GBR)

Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix

Michael Rutter (GBR)

John McGuinness (GBR)

Les Shand (GBR)

(Rutter wins four in a row at Macau)

(pic courtesy A1GP)