AC MILAN BOOST TITLE HOPES WITH RACE 1 WIN AT THE “RING”

 

Buurman became the first driver this season to win three races as he jumped from fourth into the lead by the first corner and then managed his advantage to RSC Anderlecht’s Davide Rigon for the remainder of the 45-minute race.

The rolling start was a little messy and worked out badly for front row duo Julien Jousse (AS Roma) and Robert Doornbos (Corinthians) who were immediately passed by Buurman and Rigon.

 

While Buurman eked out a small lead in the opening laps, Rigon pegged the advantage to around 2.3 seconds as the pit window opened. The Anderlecht car came in first, with Milan following a lap later.

 

As the stops shook out, Rigon had narrowed Buurman’s lead, but the Dutch driver was never seriously threatened by his Italian rival and pulled away to a 7.7secs victory at the chequered flag.

 

Some way behind the front two, Chris van der Drift scored his third consecutive race 1 podium with another fine drive for Greek club Olympiacos. The Superleague Formula rookie held his starting position of fifth in the early laps but jumped Flamengo and AS Roma in the pit stops.

 

Franck Perera was fourth for Flamengo, just a couple of seconds adrift of Olympiacos and well clear of a five-car scrap for fifth led by Jousse. After his bad start from pole, the AS Roma driver lost two more places during the pit window and then couldn’t repeat his qualifying pace in the second half of the race as a chain of cars formed behind him. However, the Frenchman defended superbly to take fifth, despite several passing attempts from Liverpool’s James Walker, who ended sixth, and Doornbos, who was seventh.

 

Title contender FC Basel was also in the train behind Jousse, Max Wissel having set the race’s fastest lap as he tried to recover from his poor qualifying. The German rewarded his team, who had changed his car’s engine since Saturday, with eighth.

 

Just behind was Tristan Gommendy for Galatasaray in ninth. The Frenchman lost a stack of places after being pushed wide at turn 1 on the first lap and spent the rest of the race fighting back through the field.

Completing the top ten was league leaders Tottenham Hotspur, for whom Craig Dolby salvaged a handful of points after starting last following yesterday’s nightmare qualifying session.

 

Elsewhere, Sebastien Bourdais had another tough race for Olympique Lyonnais. Bourdais had a massive sideways moment on the grass at the Schumacher S on the first lap and, after dropping to the back of the field, couldn’t fight his way back any higher than 14th.

 

Alvaro Parente (FC Porto) and Franck Montagny (Bordeaux) both saw their chances of strong points disappear with problems during their pit stops, while last weekend’s race 1 winner John Martin (Beijing Guoan) didn’t even start the race as he pulled off on the parade lap with right rear wheel failure.

 

Yelmer Buurman, AC Milan: “I managed to overtake Robert (Doornbos) at the start and that left me on the inside line into turn 1 and I was able to stay there. I pulled out a gap, but it got close again after the pit stops because I accidently switched on the pit lane speed limiter at the wrong time. But after that everything was fine and it was a great race for me. It’s a good result for the championship, but Craig (Dolby – Tottenham Hotspur) will be further up the field in race 2 and I’ll be at the back. You can overtake here though so that’s what I hope to do.”

Davide Rigon, RSC Anderlecht: “It was quite an uneventful race for me! I pushed a lot in the first half hour, but congratulations to Yelmer as he was just too fast, so in the end I started to save the tyres and the car for the next race. I’ll start at the back for the next race now, but it’s important to score points and the car is not too bad so we’ll see.”

 

Chris van der Drift, Olympiacos: “It’s a good points haul, that’s for sure. The start was a little bit messy, Yelmer came right down the middle and I got stuck in behind Rigon. We had a stable pace that was very consistent, but we weren’t electric off the start. The pit stops turned out really well and we had a good race to the end. Top ten would be good in the second, and making the Super Final is the overall goal.”