SF
: Series Estoril race two report
AL AIN SCORES FIRST SUPERLEAGUE WIN AGAINST FOOTBALL'S TOP GUNS United Arab Emirates club Al-Ain pulled off a giant-killing performance to score its first Superleague Formula victory against some of the biggest names in world football. New ...
Edited: May 1, 2010, 12:58 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
AL AIN SCORES FIRST SUPERLEAGUE WIN AGAINST FOOTBALL'S TOP GUNS
United Arab Emirates club Al-Ain pulled off a giant-killing performance to score its first Superleague Formula victory against some of the biggest names in world football.
New driver Paul Meijer started from position six on the grid and made a great start to emerge in fourth place at the first corner.
The Dutchman moved up to third on lap seven before making his pit stop on lap nine. He settled into second place in the second half of the race behind Borussia Dortmund -- the car Meijer piloted at Zolder.
New BVB driver Enrico Toccacelo looked set to take his first victory before oil pressure problems struck with four laps to go -- causing an intermittent engine cut-out problem for the Italian.
Meijer shared the podium with AC Milan's Robert Doornbos in second and Galatasaray's Alessandro Pier Guidi in third.
The performance by Doornbos mirrored that of RSC Anderlecht's Craig Dolby at Nurburgring who also finished second in the opening race, then stormed from the back of the pack to finish second in the reverse grid race.
Antonio Pizzonia scored fourth place for Corinthians -- his second top four of the day while Toccacelo held on to finish sixth behind championship leader Beijing Guoan (Davide Rigon).
Race one winner Adrian Valles (Liverpool) tangled with fellow race one podium finished Franck Perera (AS Roma) on lap six -- Perera spinning into retirement while the Liverpool driver had to made an additional stop to replace his front wing.
The Liverpool problems enabled Beijing Guoan to extend its championship lead from 14 points to 35 with two rounds remaining.
"The weekend started off really tough for me and I had problems with the set up. The track was new for me and the car wouldn't go as well as I would like," Meijer said.
"I made a few mistakes in race one and we made more changes in race two. I made no mistakes in race two and that is what kept me up front.
"I was settling in for second place then all of a sudden I really started catching the BVB car really quickly. After I was leading it was an amazing feeling. It is great for Al-Ain and hopefully this is the first of many for us.".
-credit: sf
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article : Series Estoril qualifying report
Next article : Franck Perera Estoril summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari “didn’t expect” #50 to win Austin WEC as #51 pitstop issue revealed
WEC
WEC
COTA
Ferrari “didn’t expect” #50 to win Austin WEC as #51 pitstop issue revealed
Ferrari “thinking race by race" about WEC title fight after scoring ‘equal’ pole in Austin
WEC
WEC
COTA
Ferrari “thinking race by race" about WEC title fight after scoring ‘equal’ pole in Austin
Ferrari explains where Toyota gained the upper hand in Imola WEC opener
WEC
WEC
Imola
Ferrari explains where Toyota gained the upper hand in Imola WEC opener
Latest news
On this day: Fernando Alonso wins the world title, Michael Schumacher retires from F1
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Brazilian GP
50 min
On this day: Fernando Alonso wins the world title, Michael Schumacher retires from F1
Raul Fernandez still compromised after Indonesia finger injury: “I’m not at 100%”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
1 h
Raul Fernandez still compromised after Indonesia finger injury: “I’m not at 100%”
MotoGP can’t simply copy F1’s Drive to Survive success – Chase Carey
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
2 h
MotoGP can’t simply copy F1’s Drive to Survive success – Chase Carey
Marc Marquez's mind games with Jorge Martin: "If you're fast, you don't need team orders"
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
2 h
Marc Marquez's mind games with Jorge Martin: "If you're fast, you don't need team orders"
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe