Chris van der Drift claimed his first Superleague Formula by Sonangol feature race win to give Olympiacos maximum points in the opening race of round 6 at Zolder.
The New Zealander, who has taken back-to-back Super Final wins for the Greek club in the last two rounds, led from pole position on his way to victory in the weekend’s first 45-minute event, producing a mature display which saw him keep his cool despite being pushed hard by Davide Rigon of home favourites RSC Anderlecht.
After making a strong getaway from pole position, van der Drift maintained a lead of around 1.5 seconds during his first stint before making his compulsory pit stop a lap after the pit window opened 15 minutes into the race.
After the stops, Rigon closed van der Drift’s advantage to nothing, but the 24-year-old kept his nerve and withstood the pressure, before pulling away to a 1.8 second victory.
Rigon collected a strong points haul for second place, while Robert Doornbos (Corinthians) scored his first podium of the season after jumping Max Wissel (FC Basel) at the start.
Doornbos was almost denied his top-three finish by the hard-charging Yelmer Buurman (AC Milan), who started seventh, jumped James Walker (Liverpool) and Wissel at the stops and then passed Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspur) with a superb move into the Gilles Villeneuve chicane. He was right on the tail of Doornbos with ten minutes remaining, but a downshift issue saw him run off the track and drop too far behind the former F1 driver to make a challenge for the podium.
Series leader Dolby limited his losses in the league table by finishing fifth, while Walker pinched sixth from Wissel after the latter locked up while making a move on the Spurs car ahead.
Marcos Martinez finished eighth for Sevilla ahead of series returnee Andy Soucek (Sporting Lisbon), while Narain Karthikeyan (PSV Eindhoven) completed the top ten.
The only retirement came towards the end of the race when the clutch on Duncan Tappy’s Flamengo car exploded, but he can console himself with pole position for the fully-reversed grid race 2.
Chris van der Drift, Olympiacos: “It’s good to turn the pole into a win. When you start at the front half the work is done and you just have to get the second part sorted. It’s a fantastic result and we’ve scored good points. The Atletico Madrid car blocked me a bit at the end while I was lapping it, so I was a little worried that Davide would catch me, but I had kept a couple of push to passes just in case.”
Davide Rigon, RSC Anderlecht: “It was very close and I was a little bit faster than Chris but I was losing some time behind him in the fast corners and it wasn’t possible to overtake. It is very hard to pass here so that will make things tough for race 2.”
Robert Doornbos, Corinthians: “I can’t believe I am so happy with a podium! It’s been a long time since I was up there and I’ve missed it. This one is for the boys in the team. We had a terrible start to the season but we turned a corner at the Nurburgring so now it’s time to get some good results.”
Race 2
That action-packed second race saw Julien Jousse bounce back from a disastrous start to his weekend to take the win.
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 (8th), Anderlecht’s Rigon and series debutant Jaap van Lagen (Bordeaux).
Super Final
Van der Drift finished the super final of the weekend in second place after Rigon dived down the inside of him into turn one of the opening lap. These positions stayed the same for the remainder of the race.
Van der Drift’s Olympiacos team is fifth on the championship table with six round to complete.
Championship Points
1 AC Milan 410
2 Tottenham Hotspur 402
3 RSC Anderlecht 365
4 FC Basel 360
5 Olympiacos CFP 351
SF by Sonangol Round 6 Belgium - Zolder
Super Final
1 RSC Anderlecht
2 Olympiacos
3 AS Roma
Race 2
1 AS Roma
2 Flamengo
3 Galatasaray
Race 1
1 Olympiacos
2 RSC Anderlecht
3 Corinthians
