Formula BMW

EU: Series Silverstone race two report

Mexican Gutierrez extends lead with two victories. Silverstone. Esteban Gutierrez (MX/Josef Kaufmann Racing) will now be able to say that Silverstone is his favourite race track. The 16-year-old Mexican won the fifth and sixth rounds of the ...

Published: Jul 7, 2008, 2:14 AM

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Mexican Gutierrez extends lead with two victories.

Silverstone. Esteban Gutierrez (MX/Josef Kaufmann Racing) will now be able to say that Silverstone is his favourite race track. The 16-year-old Mexican won the fifth and sixth rounds of the season in Formula BMW Europe. He dominated the competing drivers almost at will and won with a big lead on Saturday ahead of Michael Christensen (DK/Double R Racing) and Adrien Tambay (FR/Eifelland Racing). On Sunday, he gained a victory at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix ahead of Pedro Bianchini (BR/FMS International) and Adrien Tambay (FR/Eifelland Racing). This means that Gutierrez has had a podium place in all six rounds and was unbeatable in the last four races.

Typical British rainy weather made conditions on the race track more difficult for the young drivers. Ramon Pineiro (ES/Fortec Motorsport) lost the advantage of his pole position after going into a spin in the first lap. Gutierrez benefited from this setback, took the lead and built up his lead to ten seconds by the end of the race. Bianchini in second place was continually being attacked by Mihai Marinescu (RO/FMS International), who was confident of being at least in third place until shortly before the end of the race. But Tambay adopted a very strategic approach and waited until the last lap to overtake the Romanian. The yellow flag precluded him from mounting a direct counter attack and consequently he came in fourth.

Bianchini in second place notched up his best result to date in the FB02 after the 2007 season in Formula BMW Germany. As the most successful rookie, David Mengesdorf (DE/Mucke Motorsport) had an impressive race. The 17-year- old started the race in 14th place on the grid. Unfortunately, the six British drivers were unable to take any podium places to delight the home crowd. The ranking: 9th place Rupert Svendsen-Cook (Double R Racing) from Ipswich, 10th place Ollie Millroy (FMS International) from Claygate, 11th place Kazeem Manzur (Josef Kaufmann Racing) from Milton Keynes, 14th place Thomas Hillsdon (Motaworld Racing) from Luton, 21st place William Buller (Fortec Motorsport) from Islip and 23rd place for Jordan Williams (DAMS Team) from Tavistock.

The Silverstone races demonstrated the evenly balanced competition between the teams in the Formula BMW Europe: Six different racing teams were in the top 10. In the lead for the overall placings after six out of 16 rounds Gutierrez (164 points) ahead of Tambay (132) and Marco Wittmann (DE/Josef Kaufmann Racing, 110).

1st place Esteban Gutierrez (MX/Josef Kaufmann Racing):

"Directly after the start, I attempted to overtake Ramon but that was simply too risky. I decided to hold back a little and he was unlucky enough to go into a spin. When I was in the lead, I enjoyed racing in the rain because these are my favourite weather conditions. All in all, this was an almost perfect weekend and the only thing missing was the two poles."

2nd place Pedro Bianchini (BR/FMS International):

"I'm happy to take second place. This is the best result so far in Formula BMW. I live close to my team in Italy and that makes a huge difference. I have a really good line to my engineer. I had trouble with my dry set-up in the race on Sunday. That's why I couldn't brake as late as I wanted to."

3rd place Adrien Tambay (FR/Eifelland Racing):

"That was really a last-minute decision. Mihai was right in front of me the whole time and I decided not to attack him until the last lap. I considered the ideal sections of the track to carry out this manoeuvre. When I saw yellow flags being waved in one of the corners ahead, I launched the attack. I overtook him and he couldn't mount a counter attack at the next corner because of the yellow flag. I took some important points this weekend."

-credit: fbmw.eu

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