Formula BMW

D: Nick de Bruijn Nurburgring summary

TRAFFIC HINDERS NICK DE BRUIJN AT NÃœRBURGRING NÃœRBURG, MAY 07 2006 - This weekend the fifth and sixth round of the 2006 Formula BMW Deutschland championship took place as part of the support programme of the F1 European GP at the NÃ¼rburgring.

Published: May 7, 2006, 10:52 PM

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TRAFFIC HINDERS NICK DE BRUIJN AT NÜRBURGRING

NÜRBURG, MAY 07 2006 - This weekend the fifth and sixth round of the 2006 Formula BMW Deutschland championship took place as part of the support programme of the F1 European GP at the Nürburgring. At the 5.148 kilometer track located in the German Eifel, Nick de Bruijn unfortunately could not repeat his podiumfinish from last week at the Eurospeedway Lausitz as traffic impeded him from setting a topresult in both qualifying and races. Determined as ever, the only Dutchman in this series did manage to score nine important championshippoints by finishing in sixth and eigth spot in respectively Saturday's and Sunday's races.

The Formula BMW is worldwide the leading series for young talented drivers who get their first taste of formula racingcars. Drivers such as Ralf Schumacher, Christian Klien and most recently Nico Rosberg all graduated from Formula BMW before making their F1 break. In 2006 Formula BMW Championships will be organised in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and Asia. After an impressive rookie season last year, Nick de Bruijn will also be supported by BMW in 2006 as one of their 'Formula BMW Junior drivers'.

QUALIFYING

Where normally all Formula BMW Deutschland racemeetings have scheduled a Free Practise session on Friday, all drivers had to start this event immediately with qualifying as a result of the busy timeschedule this weekend. The first session on Fridaymorning went somewhat more hectic as usual, as all 21 drivers tried to get maximum tracktime on from the start. As yellow flags were shown several times, and he did net get a traffic-free lap, De Bruijn had to settle for fifth position on the grid for Saturday's race.

As the trackconditions (griplevel, etc.) changed throughout the day, also the second qualifying session at 17:30 hours did not bring the desired result for De Bruijn. An unwilling car set-up denied De Bruijn to fight for pole but made the sixth starting position for Sunday's race the best possible result instead.

NICK DE BRUIJN: "Though it's great to be able to demonstrate your talents in front of all Formula One teambosses, the miss of a Free Practise session pretty much had its result on the outcome of my qualifying sessions. Not only did we had to (re)learn the track and set up the car, but we also had to set a fast laptime right away. I realise that I was not the only driver who had to cope with this, but as I also did not get a single free lap, it was impossible to get the max out of the car today. In the evening session we started with a wrong set-up, but we just did not have the time to fix this. Fifth and sixth on the grid isn't fantastic, but I'm confident that we still can get good results in the races."

RACE 01 + 02

The first race on Saturday afternoon went encouraging for De Bruijn. After he had lost one position at the start, De Bruijn set fast and consistent laptimes while charging his predecessors hard. A safety-car phase halfway the race brought less fortune though as De Bruijn could not select the right gear once the safety-car was deployed. After twenty minutes of tough but fair racing, De Bruijn also finished in sixth position.

At the start of the second race on Sunday morning, De Bruijn enjoyed a better start in which he won one position. But as some drivers behind him outbraked themselves in the first corner, De Bruijn had no choice but to go through the dust at the outside of this hairpin, by which he lost seven positions. After an impressive race including some good overtaking manouvres, De Bruijn ended his advance in eigth position.

NICK DE BRUIJN: "A weekend with both memorable moments but unfortunately also some less enjoyable ones. It was great to visit the pitbox of the BMW Sauber F1 Team and to talk to Nick Heidfeld, but the results this weekend, where we are here for after all, doesn't satisfy me. If we would have had somewhat more luck by having some free laps in qualifying, I would have qualified myself c loser to the front and raced there as well. We had the speed to do so, so I'm getting eager already to show that in the next races at Oschersleben!"

-www.nickdebruijn.com.

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