Frederic Vervisch has won the second round of the Superleague Formula Championship at Zolder, taking home with him the prestigious 100,000 Euro prize winnings. After an action packed two and a half hours behind the wheel of his Luxembourg car, Frederic finished ahead of the gaggle, in a race which saw the top 4 drivers cross the line separated by only 1 second.
The Belgian driver fought hard in both races to secure himself a podium position in the first race and, after starting from the rear of the grid in race two, he fought his way up to 4th place to secure the pole position for the 5 lap dash-for-cash Super Final. Vervisch made a brilliant get away as the lights turned green and drove away from the pack, but as the rain started to fall on the very last lap his lead diminished considerably, bringing the pack up to the rear of his car. Under considerable pressureVervisch prevailed to cross the line in first, taking his and the team's first win of the Superleague Formula season."That was one of the hottest races I have ever raced in Superleague Formula! It was very close." Vervisch stated. "At the end I slowed down too much when I heard from my engineers that it was raining, maybe a little bit too slow and then I almost lost it in the first chicane. I was really lucky that there was an escape route there so I could continue. In the end it was really exciting. I am really happy to have won this race."
Robert Doornbos had a solid weekend of results. After qualifying in the top 5 yesterday, the Dutchman managed to stay out of trouble to finish 5th in race one and 7th in race two."This weekend was pretty straight forward." Doornbos stated. "We qualified well and were always up there with the front runners but we were slightly off the pace. Still, I made it into the Super Final and finished 6th so we will try to improve for the next race."Kiwi racer Chris van der Drift was promoted to pole position for the first race of the day after a steward decision declared England driver Craig Dolby broke the rules after receiving outside assistance during qualifying yesterday. That said, van der Drift held on for the first half of the race but fell back to fourth after his pit stop. Still managing to qualify for the Super Final along with team mates Robert Doornbos & Mikhail Aleshin to finish 5th, 6th and 8th respectively.Despite having no push to pass in the Super Final, Mikhail Aleshin managed to keep up with the pack. As a new entrant to the series, the young Russian secured a podium in the second race to final step on the podium."After the start of my weekend I am really happy to have taken a podium on my first weekend. "Aleshin stated. "By no means did I think that it would be easy but, the team made a good call with the pit stop and we secured a podium so its great. Also to qualify for the Super Final on my first outing was also very exciting I cannot wait until the next race!"After a promising start to the weekend Filip Salaquarda finished 12th in race one and, after a very big moment at the rear of the circuit in the second race the Czech driver managed to keep the car in one piece and on track to finish in 10th.
"I started the weekend okay after qualifying in the top 10. We had potential to have some good results this weekend but, the cards did not fall our way but that's racing. Salaquarda stated. "We will now be working over the break in between races and continue the pace that I know is in the car."The Superleague Formula championship will take a break and will continue in October. Stay tunned on the official Facebook and Twitter pages for all the latest news from Atech Reid GP.