Zolder: Series event summary

Home win for RSC Anderlecht in Zolder Super Final Davide Rigon netted Belgian club RSC Anderlecht a home victory in the Super Final at round 6 of Superleague Formula by Sonangol at Zolder. The Italian grabbed the & ...

Published: Jul 19, 2010, 10:25 PM

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Home win for RSC Anderlecht in Zolder Super Final

Davide Rigon netted Belgian club RSC Anderlecht a home victory in the Super Final at round 6 of Superleague Formula by Sonangol at Zolder.

The Italian grabbed the €100,000 prize from the five-lap dash-for-the-cash, completing a fine weekend which also saw him take second and ninth place finishes in the two 45-minute feature races to boost his championship hopes.

Rigon's Super Final triumph was sealed in the first corner on the opening lap as he dived down the inside of pole sitter Chris van der Drift (Olympiacos) and then held the New Zealander at bay for the remainder of the race.

Van der Drift's second place remains provisional as the stewards investigate him overshooting his grid slot before the start.

Julien Jousse guided the AS Roma car to third ahead of Tristan Gommendy (Galatasaray), Yelmer Buurman (AC Milan) and FC Basel (Max Wissel).

However the big news is that Tottenham Hotspur and the London club's driver Craig Dolby have lost their place at the top of the league table to Buurman and AC Milan after the Brit was taken out in race 2 and failed to score any points.

That action-packed second race saw Jousse bounce back from a disastrous start to his weekend to take the win.

Gearbox problems had plagued the French driver in practice, qualifying and race 1, but his team solved the issue and Jousse drove faultlessly to win by more than ten seconds.

The key to Jousse's victory came during the pitstop window as he opted to make his compulsory stop one lap later than Duncan Tappy (Flamengo), who had led the first 15 minutes of the race from pole. The AS Roma car rejoined the track just ahead of Tappy and although the Brit made a dive down the inside at the next turn, he put two wheels on the grass and the chance was gone, despite him brilliantly holding the resulting slide.

Tappy spent much of the remainder of the race looking in his mirrors as Alvaro Parente (FC Porto) closed in, but he had managed to ease out a comfortable margin when the Portuguese driver retired with suspected system pressure failure with just a few minutes remaining.

Parente's misfortune promoted Gommendy to the podium places, the Frenchman surviving a wheel-banging moment with Maria de Villota (Atletico Madrid) early on and then holding off a determined challenge by Wissel, who came home fourth.

Buurman was fifth ahead of Andy Soucek (Sporting Lisbon), while John Martin (Beijing Guoan) nursed his car home in seventh after suffering a problem which saw him struggle for pace after the pit stops and lose several places.

The remainder of the top ten was made up of race 1 winner van der Drift, Anderlecht's Rigon and series debutant Jaap van Lagen (Bordeaux).

Perhaps the most crucial moment of the race came right at the start as Dolby was the innocent victim of a tangle between James Walker (Liverpool) and Marcos Martinez (Sevilla).

Walker's touch from behind on the Spaniard's car sent Martinez lurching into Dolby's, with the Brit losing his front wing, which folded under his car sending him tobogganing into the wall and retirement. The chaos wasn't over yet though as Martinez, who didn't know he'd lost his rear wing in the collision, headed towards turn 1 at full speed and slid straight into Robert Doornbos' Corinthians car, pitching the Dutch driver into a barrel roll through the gravel trap. Thankfully he was unhurt in the incident.

Buurman's fifth place, coupled with his points from the Super Final, means that Dolby and Spurs have lost the championship lead they've held since the opening round at Silverstone in April, with AC Milan now eight points ahead at the top of the table.

Superleague Formula resumes on 31 July - 1 August with round 7 at Brands Hatch.

Driver quotes:

Davide Rigon, RSC Anderlecht: "We were fast in both the feature races and then I made a fantastic start to the Super Final to get into the lead at the first corner. It's been a great weekend for me, the team and of course Anderlecht and I'd like to say thank you to everyone. For the next round, I don't really know Brands Hatch at all other than it's a difficult circuit and that it will be important to learn the track in practice and find a good set-up. But I don't think that will be a problem."

Chris van der Drift, Olympiacos: "I was too cautious into the first corner of the Super Final and Davide was straight up the inside. We've been the fastest two cars all weekend, so I didn't have a chance to pass him. I'm happy to have scored a lot of points for Olympiacos though, because that was the goal. I'm now looking ahead to the next round because I really like Brands Hatch and I have raced there before."

Julien Jousse, AS Roma: "We had a very difficult start to the weekend. We had problems with the gearbox in practice, qualifying and race 1 but it was much better in the second race and I'm really happy with the win. For the Super Final I didn't have any new tyres left, while both Davide and Chris did, so third was the best I could do."

-source: sf

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