Eurocup Race 2
Stripped of his victory in race one on Saturday, Chris Van der Drift demonstrated real strength of character yesterday. Leading from start to finish, the New Zealander was quick to leave Carlo Van Dam (SG Formula) and Bertrand Baguette (Epsilon Euskadi) behind him.
From the start, Chris Van der Drift (JD Motorsport) immediately moved off the front while Carlo Van Dam (SG Formula) and Bertrand Baguette (Epsilon Euskadi) fought it out wheel-to-wheel! But the two were quickly separated by Atte Mustonen (Jenzer Motorsport), who slotted in between them to take third. Unfortunately, the Finn had to abandon on lap two.
Van der Drift, Van Dam and Baguette were followed by Filipe Albuquerque (Motopark Academy), Walter Grübmuller (Twincam Motorsport), Kasper Andersen, Xavier Maasen (JD Motorsport), Sebastien Buemi (Motopark Academy), Martin Plowman (Prema Power Team) and Tom Dillmann (SG Formula), who was engaged in a battle with John Edwards (Motopark Academy).
On lap four, Andersen and Maasen got past Grübmuller, relegating him to seventh. Dillmann span and fell back down the race order. One lap later, Grübmuller lost another place to Buemi.
Meanwhile, there was a superb battle for ninth going on between Plowman, Edwards and Mortara (Prema). As a result of a forced error, Edwards dropped back several places allowing Mortara to get the better of his teammate Plowman. A little further back, the scrap between Brendon Hartley, Pippa Mann, Edoardo Piscopo and Duarte Felix da Costa ended in a collision that put the latter two drivers out of the running!
Dani Clos (Jenzer Motorsport), who was making a fine comeback into the points, then went into a spectacular 360° spin, only to regain full control and take up from where he left off with the bit right between his teeth. Just another incident in this totally engaging race!
On lap fifteen, Kasper Andersen surrendered his fifth place to Maasen and Buemi. Frederico Muggia, who was back in 11th, made a mistake, enabling Dani Clos to move in sight of a points finish with just three laps to go! Now on a roll, Dani went on to steal tenth away from Plowman on the penultimate lap to score a point which could prove very valuable come the end of the season.
Chris Van der Drift: «I got off to much better start than yesterday. I attacked hard right from the outset to open up a little gap over my rivals. Then I just tried to maintain a good pace right to the finish."
Carlo Van Dam: "The performance of the car deteriorated quickly because of vibrations coming through the wheels. Anyhow, it's good to be back on the podium after a few difficult races. We've always been quick but have not been turning that into results."
Bertrand Baguette: "I got off to a good start but it was impossible to get past Carlo. Still, I'm happy to be back up with the leaders after three tough meetings."
Pos Number Driver Team Laps Time GapFirst KPH
1 25 Chris VAN DER DRIFT JD MOTORSPORT 18 27:19.271 - 160.4 2 6 Carlo VAN DAM SG FORMULA 18 27:22.341 +3.070 160.5 3 8 Bertrand BAGUETTE EPSILON EUSKADI 18 27:22.936 +3.665 160.2 4 10 Filipe ALBUQUERQUE MOTOPARK ACADEMY 18 27:25.048 +5.777 160.4 5 26 Xavier MAASSEN JD MOTORSPORT 18 27:25.771 +6.500 160.4 6 11 Sebastien BUEMI MOTOPARK ACADEMY 18 27:26.125 +6.854 160.3 7 24 Kasper ANDERSEN JD MOTORSPORT 18 27:27.993 +8.722 160.5 8 44 Walter GRUBMÜLLER TWINCAM MOTORSPORT 18 27:28.724 +9.453 160.2 9 0 Edoardo MORTARA PREMA POWERTEAM 18 27:36.699 +17.428 159.6 10 22 Dani CLOS JENZER MOTORSPORT 18 27:40.202 +20.931 160.0 11 3 Martin PLOWMAN PREMA POWERTEAM 18 27:42.207 +22.936 159.0 12 14 Brendon HARTLEY MOTORSPORT ARENA 18 27:44.081 +24.810 159.4 13 12 John Michael EDWARDS MOTORSPORT ARENA 18 27:44.724 +25.453 159.4 14 21 Rahel FREY JENZER MOTORSPORT 18 27:46.909 +27.638 159.0 15 1 Pippa MANN COMTEC TEAM UK 18 27:48.274 +29.003 159.8 16 16 Edoardo PISCOPO CRAM COMPETITION 18 27:49.280 +30.009 160.3 17 18 Claudio CANTELLI TEAM JENZER 18 27:49.746 +30.475 160.4 18 2 Henkie WALDSHMIDT PREMA POWERTEAM 18 27:50.787 +31.516 159.0 19 36 Pablo SANCHEZ BVM MINARDI TEAM 18 27:52.396 +33.125 158.7 20 20 Atte MUSTONEN JENZER MOTORSPORT 18 27:59.126 +39.855 161.2 38 Joonas MANNERJARVI MRD MOTORSPORT 15 23:22.999 158.5 37 Federico MUGGIA BVM MINARDI TEAM 15 23:45.725 158.5 30 Anton NEBILTSKIY SL FORMULA RACING 9 18:55.023 157.2 34 Duarte Felix DA COSTA AR MOTORSPORT 7 10:57.809 159.6 7 Bin Rashid AL KHALIFA EPSILON EUSKADI 7 11:01.545 159.2 4 Tom DILLMANN SG FORMULA 7 11:01.929 160.3 15 Jaime ALGUERSUARI CRAM COMPETITION 5 7:54.229 159.0 29 Bruno FECHNER SL FORMULA RACING 1 1:46.915 17 Oliver OAKES CRAM COMPETITION 0
