Formula BMW

EU: Series Hungaroring preview

Series Goes Into Second Half of the Season In The Hungaroring. Munich. With half the Formula BMW Europe season over things could not be tighter in the points' battles. Felipe Nasr (BR/Eurointernational) currently leads the drivers' table by three ...

Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:40 PM

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Series Goes Into Second Half of the Season In The Hungaroring.

Munich. With half the Formula BMW Europe season over things could not be tighter in the points' battles. Felipe Nasr (BR/Eurointernational) currently leads the drivers' table by three points from Michael Christensen (DK/Mu cke Motorsport), although the Dane did briefly snatch the lead after race one in Germany. Meanwhile Eurointernational has a ten point lead in the teams' standings, having overtaken its rival, Josef Kaufmann Racing, after race two at the Nu rburgring.

The one thing about the next race in Hungary is that no team or driver will have home advantage, as there are no locals racing in the series. However, there are many drivers who don't have a home event and would like to do well at the Hungaroring. Just two of these are Rumania's Doru Sechelaru (Fisichella Motor Sport International SPA) and Greece's George Katsinis (Eifelland Racing).

With Budapest airport an hour's flight from his home, which is 800 kilometres down the road, Sechelariu is probably the one driver who will expect his home fans to make the journey there. As this is his second year in the series, he has raced on the track as well as spent two days testing there in May with the rest of the series' drivers. His comments ahead of the weekend were: "I like the circuit very much, especially as it is a technical and tricky track where the driver is important, in fact more important than the car. It has some fast fifth gear corners, but the first corner is slow. I am hoping my family will be coming to watch me race here and I am also hoping for a podium."

For Rookie Katsinis this will be his first racing visit to the track, which made an impression on him at the test.:"I like both the track and the environment round it. It is a difficult track for new drivers who don't have experience. You need a lot of time to find out the correct lines and the correct braking points. It is going to be quite difficult to overtake as there are not so many hard braking points and you need these for overtaking."

The tally of wins to date in the series after the first eight rounds are three wins each for Nasr and Christensen, and one each for the Rookies, Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing) and Jack Harvey (GB/Fortec Motorsport). However, a driver to watch this weekend will certainly be Daniel Juncadella (ES/Eurointernational) as last year he started from pole for both races, and went on to win them. His comment after the second race was that he had learnt the winner gets a real champagne soaking from the other guys and that it stung his eyes!

Success in the series has obviously brought Nasr to the attention of many influential people in the sport. This was obvious from the fact that in the Nurburgrin g he was sporting the Red Bull Junior Team livery on both his driving suite and Eurointernational car.

Joining the series this weekend will be Matt Bell in the Motaworld Racing Europe Ltd number 29 car. The 19-year-old Brit has previously competed in Formula BMW UK in 2007. Meanwhile Formula BMW Pacific regular, Gary Thompson (IR/Raikkonen Robertson Racing), is back for his second appearance as a Guest driver.

The Hungaroring is 4.381 kilometres long, and this will be the 24th Grand Prix there. The track has been constantly modified since the first race there in 1986 when it was just 4.014 kilometres long. It lies about a 20 minute drive north east of Budapest city centre. The Formula BMW Europe drivers will go out onto the track for the first time on Friday for free practice from 08.50 to 09.15, followed by qualifying later that day from 12.50 to 13.15. On Saturday the first of the two 13 lap races will start at 17.40, while the second race on Sunday will be at 09.15. All times are local CET.

-credit: fbmw eu

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