Jenzer Motorsport's Fabio Leimer raced to victory unchallenged yesterday to become the new International Formula Master champion in the Series' thirteenth round at the Motorsport Arena in Oschersleben, Germany.
The 20-year-old Swiss collected his fifth pole position of the season in yesterday's qualifying session before storming to his sixth 2009 win, the ninth of his two-year IFM career, to become the Series' new champion. Despite a safety car period brought on half way through the 28-lap race to recover Patrick Reiterer's Iris Project car, which was stopped at Turn 1, Leimer raced to the finish line unchallenged. JD Motorsport's Sergey Afanasiev maintained his P2 start position throughout round 13 but was unable to catch the leader and finished ahead of ISR's Erik Janis.
A blistering start allowed the ISR driver to make up three places, before taking the chequered flag ahead of team-mate Alexander Rossi. The pair fought closely during the race with Rossi unable to make the most of a good restart against Janis, after the safety car period. Jenzer Motorsport's Pål Varhaug kept his fifth place finish, despite pressure from JD Motorsport's Josef Kral in the closing stages of the race. The Czech driver finished just 0.479 seconds behind in sixth. Having started ninth, Iris Project's Simon Trummer climbed to a seventh-place finish, ahead of JD Motorsport's Vladimir Arabadzhiev. Arabadzhiev will now start tomorrow's race, round 14, on pole position thanks to the Series' reverse grid regulation.
Whilst Leimer is now champion, the runner-up position is still open with Afanasiev, Kral, Varhaug and Rossi all within 11 points of each other. The Rookies' standings are a close fought battle between Varhaug and Rossi with only two points separating the two young contenders. Race two takes place tomorrow, Sunday 06 September, and will be shown on Eurosport International from 10.45 (CET).
Fabio Leimer, Jenzer Motorsport2009 International Formula Master Winner"It means a lot to me because it in the end this is the next step to GP2. Having such a good result means a lot for next year. I'm pretty happy; I didn't think we would do so well this year. I thought we would be at the front because we finished runner-up last year but it was even better. I won all the Saturday races apart from in Budapest so far this season, and I was also on the podium in Spa for the second race... I'm pretty happy!!
"This afternoon, I had a problem just before the formation lap so I was pretty nervous about the start but it went ok. I hit a couple of curbs at the beginning but in the end I was happy to keep Sergey [Afanasiev] behind me to win the race!" Sergey Afanasiev, JD Motorsport"It was a difficult challenge today, I knew Fabio [Leimer] wanted to win the race. We all know this is a hard track to pass in corners so it was all about the start. It was bad for both of us, but I think mine was a little bit worst. We started and I just had to follow Fabio. The key was to avoid the curbs as much as possible and not throw away points by driving carelessly. Now it's all about maintaining my position."
Erik Janis, ISR"My start was pretty good; I worked well with the clutch to get a good start so it was my advantage going into the first corner. Maybe my start should have been better so that I could be second but from then on I focused on keeping my position. "I was quite competitive at the beginning of the race and I tried to attach Sergey [Afanasiev] but he was able to pull off. I then focused on not making any mistakes as Alexander [Rossi] was close behind and I wanted to keep third place! I'm happy to finish in that place and collect the points... We'll see what happens tomorrow!"
International Formula Master - Oschersleben Round 13
1. Fabio Leimer (SUI), Jenzer Motorsport (#6)2. Sergey Afanasiev (RUS), JD Motorsport (#2)3. Erik Janis (CZH), ISR (#20)4. Alexander Rossi (USA), ISR (#16)5. Pål Varhaug (NOR), Jenzer Motorsport (#7)6. Josef Kral (CZH), JD Motorsport (#3)7. Simon Trummer (SUI), Iris Project (#8)8. Vladimir Arabadzhiev (BUL), JD Motorsport (#1)9. Kelvin Snoeks (NED), AR Motorsport (#31)10. Frankie Provenzano (ITA), Cram Competition (#5)11. Tiago Petiz (POR), Cram Competition (#4)Not classifiedPatrick Reiterer (ITA), Iris Project (#9),
IFM drivers' classification - top eight
1. Fabio Leimer (SUI), Jenzer Motorsport (#6), 92 points2. Sergey Afanasiev (RUS), JD Motorsport (#2), 53 points3. Josef Kral (CZH), JD Motorsport (#3), 46 points4. Pål Varhaug (NOR), Jenzer Motorsport (#7), 44 points5. Alexander Rossi (USA), ISR (#16), 42 points6. Erik Janis (CZH), ISR (#20), 36 points7. Arabadzhiev (BUL), JD Motorsport (#1), 26 points8. Alessandro Kouzkin (RUS), Cram Competition (#47), 18 points
IFM teams' classification
1. Jenzer Motorsport, 122 points2. JD Motorsport, 115 points3. ISR, 73 points4. Cram Competition, 23 points5. Hitech Junior, 18 points6. Iris Project, 19 points7. AR Motorsport, 18 points8. Team JVA, 4 points9. ADM Motorsport, 4 points10. Trident Racing, 2 points
IFM rookies' classification
1. Pål Varhaug (NOR), Jenzer Motorsport (#7), 89 points2. Alexander Rossi (USA), ISR (#16), 87 points3. Alessandro Kouzkin (RUS), Cram Competition (#47), 39 points4. Patrick Reiterer (ITA), Iris Project (#9), 38 points5. Tiago Petiz (POR), Cram Competition (#4), 28 points6. Kelvin Snoeks (NED), AR Motorsport (#31), 27 points7. Dennis Retera (NED), AR Motorsport (#32), 25 points8. Paul Meijer (NED), AR Motorsport (#33), 15 points9. Jonathan Kennard (GBR), Team JVA (#29), 6 points10. Duncan Tappy (GBR), Team JVA (#30), 6 points11. Matteo Davenia (ITA), Cram Competition (#12), 4 points
