Zolder: Series Friday report

Evenly-matched draw points to thrilling qualifying session at Zolder

The Group Stages of qualifying for round 6 of Superleague Formula by Sonangol look set to be closely fought at Zolder tomorrow after the draw threw up two evenly-matched groups.

Championship leaders Tottenham Hotspur will go up against home favourites RSC Anderlecht and the in-form Olympiacos in Group B, while the second and third placed teams, AC Milan and FC Basel, have both been placed in Group A.

Milan will also take on fellow Serie A giants AS Roma as well as Brazilian clubs Flamengo and Corinthians, while Superleague Formula returnee, Virgin F1 test driver and reigning Formula 2 champion Andy Soucek, who is driving for Sporting Lisbon, will join series debutant Jaap van Lagen of Bordeaux in Group B.

Earlier, in two eventful free practice sessions, both of which were disrupted by red flags, Davide Rigon (RSC Anderlecht) and Yelmer Buurman (AC Milan) set the quickest times.

Buurman was one of just three drivers to break the one minute 19 seconds barrier in FP2, topping the timesheets with a 1:18.851, just over a tenth of a second faster than Robert Doornbos (Corinthians) in second and Tristan Gommendy (Galatasaray), who continued the improvement he showed in the last round at the Nurburgring with the third-best time.

In the first session, Rigon's best effort of 1:20.694 put him top, with Max Wissel (FC Basel) second and Beijing Guoan's John Martin third.

The session was interrupted when FC Porto's Alvaro Parente went off, while FP2's red flag flew when the AS Roma car of Julien Jousse ground to a halt with a mechanical issue on the Frenchman's out lap.

The challenging circuit also proved problematic for several other drivers. Rigon was fastest again in the early part of FP2 before his session ended in the turn 2 gravel trap, while Narain Karthikeyan (PSV Eindhoven), Jaap van Lagen (Bordeaux) and Buurman all had small spins.

Dolby was tenth and ninth in the two sessions for Superleague Formula league leaders Tottenham Hotspur and will be hoping to show improved pace in tomorrow's qualifying session, while series returnee Soucek showed impressive pace in the second session with fourth best time for Sporting Lisbon.

The Group Stages of Qualifying will take place tomorrow at 2:25pm local time, immediately followed by the knockout stages.

-source: sf