Dolby had qualified on pole position for the first race, but was demoted to second on the grid for a pitlane infringement from his team in qualifying. The England driver went on to take the lead from polesitter Chris van der Drift (New Zealand) during the pitstop phase, as his ADR pitcrew serviced him quicker than the Kiwi’s Atech Reid team.

From here Dolby opened up a comfortable advantage to race to his first win of the season, finishing three seconds ahead of Belgium/Anderlecht driver Neel Jani. The Swiss driver also got the jump on van der Drift during the pitstops as the New Zealander paid the price for a slower stop.

Van der Drift would lose his podium place before the end of the race as Vervisch found a way through for third position on the final lap.

In the second race Australia’s Martin stormed through from seventh on the reverse grid to win. He took advantage of a problem for race leader Andy Soucek in the pitstops, then passing Duncan Tappy before going on to win.

Series returnee Max Wissel finished some five seconds behind for South Korea, with debutant Mikhail Aleshin finishing a fine third. Vervisch meanwhile came through from the penultimate row of the grid to finish fourth.

There was despair for Dolby meanwhile, who retired with gearbox problems that also ruled him out of the superfinal.

Vervisch’s drive through the field in the second race combined with his Race 1 podium handed him pole position for the five lap dash-for-cash superfinal. He opened up a good lead early on as second-placed Martin found himself defending the position from Jani.

Rain began to fall in the second half of the race though, and this saw Vervisch’s lead disappear, with Martin applying the pressure on the last lap. Despite losing control under breaking and having to cut the chicane he held on to win, with Martin and Jani right behind.

“I am really happy to win the Superfinal,” said Vervisch. “I thought I had a comfortable lead, but when it started to rain my engineer was saying over the radio to be careful and not go off. In the end I slowed down a bit too much, and it became very close with John, so I decided to drive the way I was before and I almost lost it in the first chicane.

“It was really exciting at the last corner, but fortunately nobody did anything crazy. My other Superfinal win was also tight, but this was one of the closest finishes of my whole career. I will have a big party tonight with the team to celebrate.”

Martin said: “The entire weekend went well for us: we’ve been fast since Friday. We made a small mistake in qualifying, but today was almost perfect, so I can’t complain too much. I tried my best to overtake Frederic on the last lap of the Superfinal, but there was nothing I could do and I did not want to crash into him. When the rain started, the circuit became very slippery, so I decided to be careful and see what happened. Then I caught him, but he did a good job to keep me behind. Overall, to be on the Superfinal podium, win race two and extend our championship lead is great.”

Jani added: “I am delighted to put Belgium on the podium for their home event. As a Swiss this is the closest I can get to a home race, as we do not have any circuits in Switzerland! In the Superfinal, we were running well and putting a lot of pressure on John. Obviously he and I have a little history from Assen, where I was running third before he took me out, so I was careful to avoid another incident. Still, it is great for us to be on the podium this weekend.”

Martin has moved Australia into the stadnings lead ahead of Japan and Luxembourg. The next round takes place at Goiania in Brazil on 9^th October.

Race 1 results:

Race 2 results:

Superfinal results:

Standings after 2 of 8 events:

1. Australia, 158 points
2. Japan, 136
3. Luxembourg, 134
4. Netherlands – PSV Eindhoven, 130
5. Belgium – RSC Anderlecht, 125
6. England, 124

England driver Dolby topped Group A, with Japan’s Robert Doornbos, Belgium-Anderlecht’s Neel Jani and New Zealand’s van der Drift also qualifying for the quarter finals.

In Group B, Australia’s John Martin was quickest. Netherlands-PSV Eindhoven’s Yelmer Buurman, Luxembourg driver Frederic Vervisch and Spain-Atletico Madrid’s Andy Soucek joined Martin in proceeding through to the quarter finals.

Dolby beat Soucek by four tenths in their quarter final, while van der Drift knocked out fellow Antipodean driver Martin. Local driver Vervisch got the better of Doornbos, while Jani posted the quickest time of the round to defeat Buurman.

In the first semi-final series returnee van der Drift bettered Vervisch by seven tenths of a second, while Dolby defeated Jani, even though the Swiss-born driver was quicker than the Englishman in the first two sectors of the lap. Jani’s time was good enough to give him third on the grid ahead of Vervisch.

Rain began to fall just before the final got underway, as van der Drift ran first ahead of Dolby. Dolby was nearly a second up in the tricky conditions through the first sector, before van der Drift locked up and ran off the road during the second sector. This allowed Dolby to overtake his rival and beat him by 5.2s.

“It was an interesting session,” said Dolby. “The group stages went to plan but in my semi-final I made a mistake at the start of the lap. Fortunately I was able to make the time up later on, but Neel Jani was very fast. We then spent a long time in the pitlane before the final and it began to rain. Being second on the road for the final was a good thing because it allowed me to see what Chris was doing and that made my life a lot easier. It’s great to be on pole – I’m very happy.”

Van der Drift said: “Being the one leading the way in the final I had to judge the grip on the track, which was difficult. Conditions were tricky, and halfway around the circuit I locked the rears and went straight on. But it’s still really good to be back at the front and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. Weather-wise I don’t mind if it’s wet or dry, so long as it’s one or the other.”

Qualification results and full grid

The Russian will race a car in his nation’s own colours prepared by the AtechReidGP squad.

The 24-year-old won last year’s Formula Renault 3.5 Series title, and began 2011 racing in GP2 with Carlin. However, budget issues restricted him to just two events. He has also made one-off entries in FR3.5 and German F3.

“It is great to be coming to Superleague Formula and to race for Russia,” said Aleshin. “I’ve watched the series on TV and I’ve been told how good the cars are to drive.

“I know some of the guys on the grid and there are some very good racers in the championship. I’m confident that I will be quick straight away, and I hope to be challenging from the very beginning.”

Team Manager Anthony Reid said: “Mikhail is a great signing for AtechReidGP and Superleague Formula. Anyone who can match results with, and then beat a driver of the calibre of Daniel Ricciardo is certainly going to be a contender. It’s great that as a championship we can attract drivers like Mikhail, who is young, hungry, fast and ambitious.”

The German has raced in the series since its inaugural year in 2008, representing FC Basel for three years. He finished third in the standings in both 2009 and 2010.

Now 21, he was not on the grid for the opening round of the season at Assen following the departure of the Swiss team, but he will return to race the South Korea car, run by the Spanish De Villota squad.

“I can’t wait to get back out on the track again, it feels like a really long time since Navarra last year,” he said. “I’ve been working hard on my strength, stamina and overall fitness and I feel really ready for this.

“I’ve had some good results in the past and now I think that I’m better prepared as a driver. The level of drivers in the championship is getting higher and higher and I know that I´ve also improved as a driver. I am looking forward to the higher level of competition.”

Robin Webb, Superleague Formula Competitions Director said: “It’s good to have Max back in the championship. His results speak for themselves as to his ability and we consider him to be very much a home grown talent. For a driver of his age he has performed fantastically and it will be fascinating watching his progress in what is a very tough championship.”

Following his huge accident at the Brands Hatch race last year, van der Drift recovered in time to appear at the final round of the season at Navarra.

He started 2011 in Formula Renault 3.5, but he will now return to Superleague to race the Atech Reid-prepared ‘Black Beauty’ New Zealand car that was driven by Earl Bamber at the season opener at Assen.

“At least I know that I’m coming to Superleague race-ready,” said the 25-year-old. “I’m really looking forward to this, the Superleague cars are certainly the most enjoyable racing car that I´ve ever driven, they’re big for one thing, and they have all that horse power. You have so much under your right-foot to play with, and then you have the ‘Push-to-Pass’ as well. Add in lots of pit stops, and it#s all there to make great racing.”

“It’s pretty special to be back driving the All Black car, I watched the first round live on-line and on TV, and the car looks stunning in that livery. I know that fans back in New Zealand will be keen to get behind it. It will be great to get behind the wheel of Black Beauty.”

“It will also be good to catch up with a few of the guys and to race against them too. They are a good bunch of guys and you have good racing, everyone respects each other and it’s a great place to race.”

Team principal Anthony Reid said: “I’m delighted to have Chris back in the car, he’s an entertainer and a very good driver. He was leading the championship when he had his accident and you would expect him to be a real contender. We have a great relationship with him as a racing driver, and also throughout the business, he’s a very nice person.”

No longer are all the entries affiliated to football clubs. Instead, the cars all carry the colours of different nations, though six clubs do continue to have their logos on a car as well.

Last year’s champion club was RSC Anderlecht, and the Belgian club are amongst the football teams to remain in the series. With double champion Davide Rigon having forayed into GP2, only to suffer an injury at the first round of the season, his place in the team is taken by Neel Jani. The Swiss driver will hope to repeat the success he enjoyed in A1 Grand Prix where he won the title for his nation in 2007-08, albeit now representing Belgium.

Yelmer Buurman is one of two drivers racing in the colours of the Netherlands. His entry is tied to PSV Eindhoven, while Robert Doornbos drives a Dutch entry minus a football club. Tristan Gommendy lines up for France – Girondins de Bordeaux, with Filip Salaquarda racing the Czech Republic – Sparta Prague car.

The remaining two football club entries are from Spain – Atletico de Madrid and Turkey – Galatasaray SK, which will be driven by Spaniards Maria de Villota and Andy Soucek respectively.

Drivers representing their home nations on the Superleague Formula grid are New Zealand‘s Earl Bamber, China‘s Ho-Pin Tung, Brazil‘s Antonio Pizzonia, Australia‘s John Martin and England‘s Craig Dolby. Now without the support of Tottenham Hotspur, Dolby will hope he can still finally claim the title having gone close in the previous two seasons.

Two drivers who are racing in the colours of nations other than their own are Belgian driver Frederic Vervisch who will drive the Luxembourg entry and Briton Duncan Tappy who will race for Japan.

The race weekend begins on Friday with two free practice sessions. This be followed later in the day with street show in the town of Assen. Qualifying takes place on Saturday. On Sunday, Race 1 begins at 13:10, with Race 2 at 14:20. The top eight placed cars from those two races will then take part in the five-lap Super Final.

The winner of the Super Final will walk away with €100,000, with the runner-up getting €50,000 and the third-placed driver €40,000. The prize money extends down to the driver in sixth spot who will win €10,000.

Full entry list:

Neel Jani – SF Belgium – RSC Anderlecht
Yelmer Buurman – SF Netherlands – PSV Eindhoven
Tristan Gommendy – SF France – Girondins de Bordeaux
Filip Salaquarda – SF Czech Republic – Sparta Prague
Frédéric Vervisch – SF Luxembourg
Earl Bamber – SF New Zealand
Duncan Tappy – SF Japan
Robert Doornbos – SF Netherlands
María de Villota – SF Spain- Atlético de Madrid
Andy Soucek – SF Turkey – Galatasaray SK
Ho-Pin Tung – SF China
Antonio Pizzonia – SF Brazil
John Martin – SF Australia
Craig Dolby – SF England

Vervisch has now re-signed with the same Atech Reid GP team that ran his car last year. He will race in the colours of Luxembourg in the eight-round season.

“I am really happy to have secured a deal to race with Atech Reid GP to race in the Superleague Formula Nations Cup for the full series this year,” said Vervisch. “Even though I only raced in selected rounds at the end of the 2010 season, we still managed to finish in the top 10 in the championship, take 3 race podiums and a Super Final win. This year I will have the chance to race from round one and I am sure there will be more podiums to celebrate.”

Team principals Anthony Reid and David Hayle are pleased to have secured Vervisch’s services ahead of the opening round of the 2011 season at Assen this weekend.

“We are anticipating a positive start to the 2011 Superleague Formula Nations cup season and are really excited to have re-signed Frederic,” said Reid. “He is a real talent and we enjoyed working with him last year.”

Hayle added: “Everyone in the team has been working really hard over the winter months to prepare the cars ready for round one and we are pleased that Frederic will be with us in Assen.”

Jani will hope to repeat the success he enjoyed in the now-defunct A1 Grand Prix series, where he won the title in 2008. He has also driven in Champ Car, GP2 and was a test driver for the Toro Rosso Formula 1 team.

“I’m really happy to compete in Superleague Formula with Azerti,” said Jani. “I drove in a couple of races last year and the Superleague Formula car is a fantastic car to race. The level of competition of teams and drivers is very high and I’m looking forward to getting the season underway at Assen. I will certainly try to defend the championship crown and match the success Davide Rigon.”

Jani joins Yelmer Buurman at Azerti, with the latter racing for Netherlands – PSV Eindhoven. Azerti’s Wim Coekelbergs is delighted to have Jani join his team.

“It’s fantastic news that we have been able to make a deal with Neel,” said Coekelbergs. “I have complete confidence in the season ahead, because together with Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands – PSV Eindhoven) we once again have a great line-up.”

The Superleague Formula Nations Cup gets underway at Assen in the Netherlands this weekend (4/5 June).

‘To be honest everyone was very fast! But in the last races my biggest rivals were Craig Dolby, Yelmer Buurman and John Martin. It was a very close end to the season and ever point really counted.’ The Italian stated. The title could have gone to a number of drivers in 2010 but it was Rigon who held his never to close the gap on Dolby and Buurman over the last few races an take the title in amazing fashion in one of the closest championship battles you are likely to see.

It was a good year for Rigon and the Belgium Anderlecht team after suffering highs and lows to take the title and when asked what his highlight of the season was, Davide responded, ‘There were three major highlights for me last year, thebest moments of the season were at Assen after my first win, and then afterwards at Portimao when I went first in the championship, but certainly the biggest moment was in Navarra for me and my whole team,  when we managed to win the championship!’

Having won the Championship in 2010, Rigon signed as a Ferrari simulator driver, something he is looking forward to as he stated, ‘To be honest I have some time that I am available to Scuderia Ferrari for the development of their cars, mainly on the simulator. As an Italian, and a racing driver, it is good to work with Ferrari’. But the GP2 series is the ultimate target for Davide, ‘This year I’m looking at making the GP2 series but I still have not found all of the budget.’ he stated.

Davide Rigon Contemplates his Title Challenge after an off in Practice at Brands Hatch

Having spent the off season training hard to keep in shape and to be ready just in case one of the formula one teams came knocking, Davide is keen to be prepared for the 2011 season whatever it throws at him but it’s not all hard work as he spoke of what he has been up to over the winter break. ‘I continued working with my trainer to try to be in as good shape as can be, just in case the chance to drive in Formula 1 came along. But not just for that, it is really important to be in my best possible shape for the 2011 season.’ He said, before continuing ‘The week before Christmas I was in the mountains with my girlfriend and friends to ski and relax a bit. It was great to unwind.’

Finally, when asked if there was any message he had for fans of the Superleague Formula, ‘Of course!Continue to follow this beautiful and spectacular series. This is one of the highest level categories of motorsport in the world now.’ Came the response.

Fans were given the opportunity to learn more about the series, based on a football theme, which heads into its fourth year. The Superleague’s stand was certainly popular too, with last season’s runner up, Brit Craig Dolby, who led the Tottenham Hotspurs team to just two points from championship glory on hand to sign autographs on the Saturday. The hi-tech pit wall perch used by the Spurs team was also on display, to give an insight into what goes on behind the scenes during a race as well as the V12 750bhp engine fitted to all the cars used in the series.

Yelmer Buurman, the Dutch championship contender also dropped by the show on the Thursday to help promote the Assen round of the championship to be held on the weekend of the 4^th & 5^th June. Plans for the new season are stepping up a gear as 2011 is set to be the biggest and best yet for the Superleague Formula.

David Bean

Moment Of The Year – Ferrari team orders in Germany
The relationship between driver pairings was a big theme that ran throughout Formula 1 in 2010, but there was one moment that captured the intra-team rivalry best of all. The blatant and merciless manner in which Ferrari implemented an obvious team order in the German Grand Prix caused outrage amongst watching fans, pundits, and their competitors. The incident turned Fernando Alonso into a pantomime villain, and is an episode that will be referred to regularly in the future. The moment Mark Webber’s Red Bull finally got its wings in Valencia deserves and honourable mention

Driver Of The Year – Sebastian Vettel
He won the championship of the top racing series! He kept his nerve to come from behind and, with a dominant display in the final four races, sealed an improbable championship. All of the contenders made mistakes throughout the season, but Vettel had the edge over his team-mate at most races, and was a deserved champion. Lewis Hamilton showed some excellent overtaking manoeuvres and some strong drives. He is undoubtedly one of the most talented drivers on the F1 grid, but needs to cut out the mistakes.

The accolades keep coming for Vettel - youngest winner, youngest F1 champion and now driver of the year, according TCF's regular F1 scribe

Race Of The Year – Chinese Grand Prix
This was a race that had everything. Intermittent rain, overtaking, drama, and controversy. Crucially, it also gave us the first British one-two finish in F1 for over a decade. Also the Korean Grand Prix. It was a shambles, took nearly three hours to complete the required laps, and finished in complete darkness. However, it provided some exciting action, and had a huge impact on the title battle.

What To Look For In 2011 – The rise of Mercedes GP
The squad from Brackley seem to be promising big things for 2011. Last year was their transition season, and in the New Year the MGP W02 should be competing at the front. This could lead to some interesting rivalry between Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, and we may even see a 92nd race victory for the seven-time world champion. Plus a conclusion in the battle over which team can use the Lotus name – but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Simon Paice

Moment Of The Year – Paul O’Neill’s Rockingham podium
The best moment of the year for me was seeing Paul O’Neill on the podium at Rockingham after finishing second in Round 6 of the BTCC. The true underdog had once again taken on the big boys and beaten them to record a terrific podium finish and once again let it show how much it meant to him. Every time he gets to step foot on the podium, there isn’t a dry eye in the crowd.

Driver Of The Year – Gordon Shedden
Has always been a quick driver and won races in the BTCC, but managed to step up a level, add real consistency to his driving and become a title contender in 2010. Only a couple of early season retirements cost him a real shot at the title in the end.

Ginetta Juniors at Silverstone - "Ingram, Richardson and Hill fought a superb battle at the front"

Race Of the Year – Ginetta Juniors, Round 13, Silverstone
In 2010, the Ginetta Juniors produced some thrilling, entertaining races, with their opening race at Silverstone one of the very best. With the season reaching its critical point, Ingram, Richardson and Hill fought a superb battle at the front, running nose to tail throughout and switching places every lap, while behind, there was brilliant racing throughout the field.

What To Look For In 2011 – Formula One 2011
After arguably the tightest Formula One season ever, 2011 could be even better, as the new regulations could make things even closer between the front runners, as well as making the racing more exciting. Hope the Mercedes boys and Kubica can challenge the Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren boys for the top honours.

Kevin Ambrose

Moment Of The year – Hendrick’s Pit Cew Swap
Towards the end of the 2010 season Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, were concerned that their tardy pitstops were costing them time and places. At Texas in November Johnson’s teammate, Jeff Gordon, crashed under caution with Jeff Burton, precipitating their trackside fisticuffs which could be a contender for the moment of the year. But that award would have to go to Knaus’s instantaneous decision to dismiss his pit crew mid race and replace them with the now redundant crew of Jeff Gordon, a tough, uncompromising and brave choice emphasising his commitment to do whatever was needed to win the title and face the consequences afterwards.

Jimmie Johnson - an easy choice for driver of the year for Kevin Ambrose

Driver of the year – Jimmie Johnson
An easy one to decide although this has to be shared by two men. Jimmie Johnson‘s fifth consecutive championship is a phenomenal achievement but credit has to be shared with his crew chief, Chad Knaus. They are both currently the best at what they do and together make a formidable and, so far, unbeatable working partnership. This year, for the first time, Johnson had to come from behind entering the last race and he and his crew chief remained calm, doing just what needed to be done whilst his title rivals, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick fell short. When talking of Johnson’s mighty accomplishments the names used for comparison these days are Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Johnson really is that good and we are watching the birth of a NASCAR legend even if we don’t always realise it or appreciate it.

Race Of The Year – Aaron’s 499, Talladega
Another easy choice. Talladega, April 25th. The Aaron’s 499 race. Whilst Formula One had just over thirty lead changes at the start finish line across the year NASCAR had 88 changes for the lead in this one race, and that was just at the startline. Of the forty-three drivers who started the race twenty-nine led at some point. With bump-drafting, multi vehicle wrecks and attempts at a green-white-checker finish the race with a bit of everything finished with Kevin Harvick ending a 115 race winless streak, beating Jamie McMurray by just 0.011 seconds. And to prove it was no fluke in the fall race at the end of October they had to settle for just 87 lead changes.

What To Look For In 2011 – A sixth title?
What to look forward to next year is simple – can Jimmie Johnson possibly take a sixth consecutive Sprint Cup Series championship, leaving him just one title short of the two legends, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt? Or can one of the other drivers really bring an end to his dominance? Based on this year’s racing Denny Hamlin has to be favourite to do it – he has more self-belief than the other competitors but the reality with NASCAR is that there are at least ten drivers on track who could reasonably take the title.

Scott Wilkes

Moment Of The Year – Jorge Lorenzo’s title
I could list so many! But for me, it has to be seeing Jorge Lorenzo cross the line in 3rd at the Malaysian MotoGP to take his maiden MotoGP World Championship. The elation he showed was epic, and it just showed that all the hype surrounding him was justified.

Driver (or Rider) Of The Year – Ben Spies
He has taken to MotoGP like a duck to water. He hasn’t grabbed that elusive first win, but a podium or 2 and an impressive pole at home in Indianapolis showed he has the promise. 2011 sees him move to the factory Yamaha squad, so this could be his year.

Scott Wilkes: "He has taken to MotoGP like a duck to water" - Ben Spies that is, not Scott

Race Of The Year – MotoGP, Motegi
Has to be the Motegi MotoGP. Stoner took a long awaited victory, but it was the scrap between the two FIAT Yamaha‘s that will live in the memory. Rossi was never going to let Lorenzo past. The two riders even touched once. A proper battle of young versus old!

What To Look For In 2011 – MotoGP 2011
Well, the whole of the 2011 MotoGP season should be a thriller. Rossi at Ducati, Stoner moving to Honda and a new Brit to cheer on in the shape of Cal Crutchlow and the exciting partnership of world champ Lorenzo and this years Top Rookie Ben Spies, should make the season a classic.

Pete Allen

Moment Of The Year – Nico Hulkenberg’s maiden pole position at the Brazilian Grand Prix
Certainly the most excited I got all year (in motorsport terms) was when Nico took pole position in Brazil. The Williams rookie, who’s future at the team looked in doubt due to financial reasons, stole the show in the penultimate qualifying session of the year, where all the build-up had been surrounding the five title contenders. Hulkenberg mastered the damp conditions on slick tyres, first setting a lap that nobody would go on to top, before improving on that time with pole already in the bag to finish up over a second ahead of the next best drivers.

Driver of the year – Petter Solberg
Once again, Sebastien Loeb dominated World Rallying in 2010. However, with the Fords struggling, it was quite often Solberg in his privately-run Citroen who was pushing the Frenchman to the limit. A struggle to ninth in Sweden and crashing out of that crazy battle for victory on the final day in New Zealand were his only low points, finishing in the top five on every other event including eight podium finishes. A shame he couldn’t come out on top against Loeb on his ‘home’ rally in Wales to finish a great season, in which he even had to change co-drivers half way through.

Race Of The Year – Australian Grand Prix
Following the dull spectacle that was the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Albert Park provided another of its fantastic races. It was full of close racing and overtaking, both towards the front amongst the big names and further down the field. It also had mistakes from the likes of Webber and Hamilton, and the drama of race leader Vettel crashing out with yet another mechanical failure on his Red Bull. Amongst all that, Jenson Button played the conditions perfectly and used his own radical tyre strategy to win the race, only his second start for McLaren.

What To Look For In 2011 – World Touring Car Championship
BMW’s withdrawal as a factory team leaves just Chevrolet as the only fully-fledged manufacturer outfit. New engine regulations and the promise of a strong privateer lineup in both SEATs and BMWs could keep them on their toes though, as well as a full-time one-car entry from Volvo. Teenager Pepe Oriola will join other quick youngsters such as Norbert Michelisz, while Colin Turkington and WSR could be in for a full campaign. Things will certainly look different in Brazil in March, yet it could actually be for the better.

No BMW works team for the 2011 WTCC, but could the new season still better 2010?

James Broomhead

Moment Of The Year –Mark Webber’s Valencia Flight
Mark Webber taking flight off Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus at Valencia. Not only did it ignite what could have been a very boring race, but it was a reminder of the danger (and sheer speed) of the racing in a year which has been punctuated with ‘Hollywood accidents’. Also, the engine in Franck Montagny’s lead Peugeot 908 deciding to expire in the only 20 minutes of the Le Mans 24 Hours I decided to sleep.

Driver Of The Year – Kamui Kobayashi
Erk, so many to pick from. Obviously every driver who won a championship really deserves a mention, but Kamui Kobayashi has had another great year in F1. Shaky start but getting better all the time, his final few laps at Valencia are all you need to know about the man who was contemplating a 2010 working in a sushi restaurant before his drive was confirmed..

Race Of The Year – Britcar 24 Hours, Silverstone
Entirely a personal choice this. TCF covered the entire weekend from the track (with the necessary sleep deprivation) and we were rewarded with a great race. After a day of penalties, rain, fog, and rain the result came down to the final hour. David versus Goliath with MJC beating JetAlliance and a great story for winners after a great weekend. Did I mention rain?

The hours of darkness during the Britcar 24 Hours, but the TCF team were still awake

What to Watch For In 2011 – The ILMC
With the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup there is magnificent potential, truly global sports car racing and the latest chapter in the Peugeot and Audi rivalry that has epitomised the modern era at Le Mans. Also the BTCC – more teams and marques joining all the time should make for another great year of domestic Touring Cars.

James Warnette

Moment Of The Year – Audi winning Le Mans
Plain and simple. Against all odds, Audi dragged victory from the jaws of a drubbing by the rapid Peugeot 908s and ended up notching up a one-two-three – The atmosphere at the circuit was totally different to the year before, but I was smiling on the inside!

Driver of the year – Jean-Eric Vergne
A superb year in F3, and scoring a win in WSbR in a matter of races shows his ability. He will be a F1 Champion.

Jean Eric Vergne dominated the year in British F3

Race of the year – British GT Silverstone Enduro
Nine marques going head to head for victory. Darren Turner, Richard Westbrook, Allan Simonsen et all on one of the UK’s best circuits and a title up for grabs. A great race, with lots of drama.

What To Look For In 2011 - The 2011 British GT Championship
2011 promises to be amazing. Audi, Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin all squaring up makes my mouth water!

Chris Gurton

Moment Of The Year – YourRacingCar and Phil Glew at Silverstone
There are many moments that stick out for me for example Menasheh Idafar‘s superb drive at a rain soaked Brands Hatch to take overall third place in the British F3 National Class. Also on a personal note, my first trip to Le Mans where the dominant Peugeot’s dropped out of the race one by one to hand Audi a famous 1-2-3 finish. However, my favourite moment came at the Silverstone Round of the BTCC where the YourRacingCar.com team took to the grid in their Seat Leon with Phil Glew behind the wheel. Had it not been for a controversial race control decision leading to a drive through penalty then the team would have picked up points too. This is all very impressive for a team founded at the Autosport Show in 2009. Let’s hope 2011 brings them even more fortune.

Driver Of The Year – Davide Rigon
Everyone will be looking at the obvious candidates for this one. The youngest F1 champion Sebastian Vettel seven time World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb, and BTCC champion Jason Plato. All worthy of this accolade but I’m going to go for someone a little less well known. Davide Rigon takes my plaudit for a fantastic year in Superleague Formula. A series dominated early on by Craig Dolby and Yelmer Buurman, but some fantastic drives saw the Italian guide the RSC Anderlecht car back into contention to take the title fight right down to the very last lap of the season to win it by a single point.

Superleague Formula champ Davide Rigon - Chris Gurton's driver of the year

Race Of The Year – Britcar 24 Hours, Silverstone
Where do you start with this one? So many incredible battles and season defining moments throughout all series but for me, my favourite has to be the Britcar 24 hour race at Silverstone. Covered extensively by The Checkered Flag, it had it all, well know drivers, awesome cars, adverse weather conditions and battles galore. Particularly the battle for first place overall. With the Aquilla dropping out as night time set in, and a number of problems for the various Moslers it was left to the MJC Ferrari 430 GTC and the Jet Alliance Racing Porsche 997 to fight tooth and nail for the honours With tyre choices critical and pitstop times vital the two cars were swapping for first place throughout the second half of the race. After hours of battling it was the Ferrari that took the win, 24 hours after the start by less than a minute. An incredible feat of endurance. Also, a worthy mention must go to the Production class winning Ginetta G40. Reliably racing around against much faster opposition after being driven to the circuit from the factory in Leeds, only to be driven back again after the finish. This just goes to show what a great series Britcar is.

What To Look For In 2011 – Audis
Well, there is certainly a lot to look forward to over the next twelve months but here are a few things I will be looking forward too. It’s going to be a big year for Audi in British motosport the German car manufacturer will be back on the BTCC grid and also will be lining up alongside the likes of Porsche and Ferrari in the British GT Championships. Also, the new Audi Le Mans race car is looking awesome and I cannot wait to see it battle against the Peugeot contingent who will be out for revenge at the next Le Mans 24 hour race. I’m looking forward to another great season of Britcar racing. If it’s a series you haven’t been to see then believe me, it is well worth checking out. Tickets are cheap and you are also able to get up close to the cars and drivers in the paddock. Superleague Formula. A very closely fought championship based on a football theme with reversed grids and big prize money all streamed live on the internet.

Vince Pettit

Moment Of The Year - Paul Di Resta, Brands Hatch
Paul di Resta at Brands Hatch taking a dominant victory in the DTM race, untouchable from start to finish.

DTM champion-to-be Di Resta celebrates a home win at Brands Hatch

Driver of the year – Tom Onslow-Cole
Battled on despite complaints from rivals over the speed of the LPG powered Ford Focus and team orders. Tim Harvey also deserves a mention for taking his second Porsche Carrera Cup GB title after a season long battle with Michael Caine.

Race of the year – Ginetta Juniors, Snetterton
Louise Richardson fighting back from a spin to take her maiden win, great race and certainly a future star in the making.

What to look for in 2011 – Frank Wrathall
The Ginetta G50 champion in BTCC making the move up to the ‘main event’ of the weekend. Also keep a look out for Jason Mills who looks set to take part in the Clio Cup after making an impressive debut at Brands Hatch last year.

Many thanks to everyone who has visited The Checkered Flag in the past twelve months, read reports or left comments. We hope you have enjoyed 2010, and enjoy all that 2011 has to offer – both in racing terms and otherwise. We look forward to bringing you reports and images from another fantastic season of racing.

And don’t forget to leave your highlights of 2010.

Happy New Year from all at The Checkered Flag

A big development in the calendar comes in the form of three flyaway events to be held outside of Europe which is to build on the success of the Chinese events last October. However, the Asian races held at the Ordos circuit and Beijing will still form part of the calendar and will be bought forward to make room for the brand new events at the end of the season.

The first half of the season will provide a European based championship, kicking off in Monza, Italy in April which last held a Superleague race in 2009. Portimao will host the following round in Portugal before the teams head to Holland and the Assen circuit. The Nurburgring in Germany plays host for round four with Navarra and Spain and Zolder in Belgium hold events in July. The European leg finishes off at Donington Park which returns to the series after missing out last year to Brands Hatch.

After a five week break, the teams jet off to China to take on the two Asian rounds in September whilst October will hold two of the yet to be named new rounds before the season finale in November.

Superleague Formula Competitions Director Robin Webb said: “Having successfully doubled our number of rounds last year, we believe a 12-event calendar – which don’t forget comprises 36 races in total – is the perfect number to stick with moving forward. The Chinese rounds taught us a lot this year so I think Superleague Formula’s fourth season of competition is the right time to be visiting more countries further afield and introducing the series to new fans and markets. The combination of seven European and five flyaway events is the perfect ratio.”     

Provisional 2011 Superleague Formula Calendar:

Round 1 – Autodromo di Monza, Italy – April 16/17
Round 2 – Autódromo do Algarve, Portugal – May 7/8
Round 3 – Circuit TT Assen, Holland – June 4/5
Round 4 – Nürburgring, Germany – June 18/19
Round 5 – Circuito de Navarra, Spain – July 2/3
Round 6 – Circuit Zolder, Belgium – July 16/17
Round 7 – Donington Park, UK – August 6/7
Round 8 – Ordos International Circuit, China – September 10/11
Round 9 – Beijing International Street Circuit, China – September 17/18
Round 10 – TBC Non-European – October
Round 11 – TBC Non-European – October
Round 12 – TBC Non-European – November

The drivers will once again fight for the €280,000 up for grabs in each of the 12 races next year, which sees €100,000 go to the winning driver of the five lap super final, or ‘Dash-for-Cash’ contested between the weekends top six drivers. In addition to the large cheques available each weekend, a further €1,000,000 is awarded to the seasons champion, €500,000 for the runner up and €250,000 for the seasons third placed driver.

This will maintain the Superleague Formula’s unique format where drivers are awarded prize money in recognition of their on-track performance. This year’s champion, Davide Rigon of the RSC Anderlecht team topped the money list after earning the one million euro winner’s cheque supplemented by a further €680,000 for his race weekend performances. Championship runner up, Tottenham Hotspurs Craig Dolby netted a cool €860,000 ahead of third placed Max Wissel of the FC Basel team who pocketed a tidy €575,000.

Beijing Guoan’s Aussie driver John Martin was the highest earner of those not picking up prize money for their final championship position by taking home a total fund of €365,000 thanks to some superb performances towards the end of the season. Thanks to the reverse grid system over the two races to make the series as competitive as possible, meant a total of 19 drivers went home with prize money.

Robin Webb, Competitions Director of Superleague Formula said, “these days it’s becoming increasingly difficult for talented drivers to earn money racing in single-seaters – but Superleague Formula now gives them that opportunity. Our cars are all equal so each driver wins money based solely on their own performances and the hard work they put in with their teams. We attracted some of the best professional racing drivers in the world this year and with the prize fund maintained for next season, we’re expecting our best-ever grid in 2011.”

Hanley was signed by the Greek team to replace Chris Van Der Drift after his huge accident at Brands Hatch. It was a good debut for the young Brit as he managed to take fourth on the grid at Adria during the Italian round. But due to other commitments, Ben missed the last round at Portimao.

Back behind the wheel, Hanley left it late in the final head to head in qualifying when he came up against the in-form Australian driver John Martin in the home team car of Beijing Guoan. Having trailed Martin in the first to sectors of the one lap head to head, Hanley pulled out all the stops to set a blistering final sector time to beat the Beijing driver by over a second at the line.

Leaving it late seemed to be a feature throughout the qualifying session for Hanley as he only managed to sneak into the top four of group B and into the knockout stages thanks to his very last flying lap.  Again he came me from behind to beat Robert Doornbos of Corinthians and Flamengo driver Andy Soucek in the quater and semi final rounds respectively.

John Martin continued his fine form by making it into the last two in qualifying for his fourth round in a row after topping the group A times and thus giving the home fans something to cheer about with his car on the front row. Martin beat FC Basel’s Max Wissel in the quarter finals and Frank Perera of Bordeaux in the semi finals on his way to second place.

On his return to the series, Perera will line up in third place ahead of Soucek who had set the fastest time of all in the group stages before losing out to Hanley in the semi final shootout. Doornbos takes fifth ahead of the impressive Fredric Vervisch in the red Liverpool car. Wissel and FC Porto debutant Earl Bamber will line up in seventh and eight places.

This strong qualifying will help boost the chances of Olympiacos in the championship standings as Hanley’s last gasp lap in the group stages meant Series leader Davide Rigon in the RSC Anderlecht car missed out on progressing to the shootout by just one tenth of a second. The other title hopefuls Craig Dolby of Tottenham Hotspurs and AC Milan’s Yelmer Buurman both suffered technical issues in practice and subsequently dropped out in the group stages of qualifying along with Marcos Martinez for Sevilla and reigning champion Adrian Valles on his return in the Sporting Lisbon car. This means the three top drivers in the championship table will be grouped together with Rigon and Dolby side by side on row five and Buurman just behind ready to pounce.

Afterwards, Ben Hanley spoke of his pleasure in taking the pole position by saying, “I’m really delighted. We had a few problems in practice but the team did a great job and we’ve now got a well balanced car. John (Martin) made a mistake in the last corner of the final so I really pushed and managed to get pole. Tomorrow it’s important to score as many points as we can so we can close in on the four clubs above us.”

John Martin told the awaiting media, “Unfortunately I made a mistake in the final corner, but it’s a fourth consecutive front row start so I have to be pleased with that! The team has been outstanding again and the car has been quick all morning. I really like the circuit. The first part is quite slow and technical but the last sector is really quick. Hopefully we can win the race tomorrow to give the Beijing Guoan fans something to cheer about!”

Vallés, a former F1 test drive for Spyker, took the Superleague title last year for the Liverpool team after a hard fought season long battle with current championship contender Craig Dolby. He also took fourth place in the 2008 championship for the premier league team so is not short on experience.

Having taken four career victories and a further six podiums in the football based series, Vallés is sure to be challenging amongst the front runners and will be looking to get his hands on one or two large cheques awarded in the Super Finals.

Speaking out about his delight of returning to the spectacular series, Adrián Vallés said: “I’m very excited to be taking part in Superleague Formula again! After winning the 2009 championship with Liverpool I had an opportunity to go into F1, but that dream didn’t become reality. Despite this disappointment, I continued training and now I can say that I’m in the same physical condition as last year. I’m very pleased to be driving with a Spanish racing team (De Villota Motorsport) and this opportunity will be a big adventure. I’m also looking forward to going to China and Navarra. It’ll be great to finish the season at a Spanish circuit because lots of Spaniards will be there to support us.”

Superleague Formula Competition Director, Robin Webb, was also pleased to see the return of Vallés as he told the media, “We’re delighted to welcome Adrián Vallés back to Superleague Formula for our first-ever trip to China in what looks set to be one of the strongest grids in our three-year history. During his two years with us, Adrián showed what a talented and professional driver he is and I’m sure he’s looking forward to mixing it at the front of the field with the title contenders in Ordos.”

Round Ten of the Superleague Formula will take place in China at the new Ordos circuit over the weekend of the 2^nd and 3^rd of October.

The Impressive John Martin, driving for Beijing Guoan had the upper on his counterparts at the start of race one has he was sitting pretty in the pole slot. The in form RSC Anderlecht driver Davide Rigon was to line up alongside, and with his recent surge up the championship table, wasn’t going to give Martin an easy run. Championship leader Craig Dolby had put is Tottenham Hotspur car sixth on the grid but took comfort in the fact that his main rival Yelmer Buurman in the black and red car of AC Milan was way down the order in 13^th.

At the lights, a good start from John Martin enabled him to hold the lead and keep the chasing pack behind him. Thankfully this enabled the Australian to have a quiet race out front whilst the drama was unfolding behind.

Buurman got off to a flyer and had taken four places by the end of the first lap and he was able to snatch another two before the pit window opened. Craig Dolby also made a good getaway and exited turn one two places better off in fourth. He briefly took third position from Andy Soucek in the Glalatasaray car, only to be repassed the following lap.

As the pit lane window opened, John Martin was still in a comfortable lead and was able to exit the pits ahead of Rigon with his first position intact. Whilst behind the leader, Buurman had made a phenomenal stop rejoining the race three places better off in fourth. More importantly, he was now ahead of Dolby, who thanks to the Dutchman’s flawless pitstop, was now relegated to fifth. But the Brit was not going to go down without a fight and began to attack. Unfortunately, this led to a spin at turn four which instead of taking fourth spot from Buurman, had lost him three places. Dolby had to now make the most of what seemed like a probably bad result, compounded by the fact he was passed by Corinthians driver Robert Doornbos, whilst rivals Rigon and Buurman looked set for big points in their quest for the championship title.

With five minutes of the race remaining, the race took an unexpected twist. Whilst Buurman was challenging Soucek for the final podium position, both drivers were issued with a drive through penalty. Only minutes prior to this, they were both given the black and white warning flag for not respecting the track limits at turn five. A warning both drivers overlooked to their cost as the penalties were to be issued after they repeated the offence. The drive through penalty dropped Soucek to ninth and Buurman to tenth. This promoted Alvaro Parente (FC Porto) into third at his home circuit, whilst the impressive Belgium driver Frederic Verisch in the Liverpool car now found himself in fourth after battling through the field. Of course, this was all good news for Dolby too as he was now up to fifth place and ahead of his main rival.

These positions were to remain as Martin took a comfortable win at the chequered flag, closely followed by Rigon. Sixth place went to Doornbos ahead of Max Wissel for FC Basel whilst eigth place was claimed by Brit Duncan Tappy driving for Flamengo. Davide Rigon had now taken the championship lead by a single point over Dolby with an angry Buurman 18 points behind the new championship leader.

Elsewhere, a collision on the first lap between Bordeaux’s Celso Miguez and Athletico Madrid’s Maria de Villota saw both retire to the pits, but will line up on the front row for race two. Hywell Lloyd was battling for a top ten finish when his engine blew towards the end but third on the grid for race two will be some consolation.

After the first race John Martin spoke of his delight at winning his third race of the season. “The boys have done an absolutely amazing job again. It was an amazing pit stop and the car was just so easy to drive. It’s a bit different today because the wind was quite strong in qualifying. It’s good that the car was so easy to drive because I’ve got a bit of a cold and I’m feeling it! I’m sure in the second race we’ll be passing some cars and the adrenaline will take over. We’ve got some really good tyres left over too.”

There were more good starts to come in race two as there were in the previous race and this time it was the Olympiacos driver Neel Jani on his debut who made one of the biggest impacts. Starting from fifth on the grid, a dive down the inside of the first turn saw the debutant exit in the lead. From here he managed to build a comfortable lead ahead of the pit stop window. This was a lead he was able to build further after his stop which saw him take the flag nearly ten seconds ahead of his closest rival.

That rival was to be Frenchman Tristan Gommendy driving for Olympique Lyonnais who got an even more impressive getaway. Starting from eighth, he completed lap one in second place behind Jani. Although he was unable to match the pace of the leader, he still managed to take a well earned second place at the end.

Robert Doornbos took the last podium spot and with it, pole position for the Super Final as the highest points scorer from the two races. Wissel finished fourth ahead of Soucek, Vervisch and Tappy. Lloyd crossed the line in eighth, whilst Rigon had battled from the back to take ninth place ahead of AS Roma driver Julien Jousse.

Craig Dolby finished a disappointing 13^th place after losing his front wing thanks to contact in the first corner with Lloyd, but it was worse for Buurman. Having moved from ninth on the grid to third into turn one, he lost places after pole man Miguez spun in front of him leaving no option but to run off track to avoid a collision. Rejoining near the back, the Dutchman put on a superb display of driving by passing others to move up the field. However, eight laps in, he was to lose drive and retire leaving his dreams of Championship glory in ruins. Alvaro Parente was also to retire on lap eight when his left rear tyre came off on the fast final corner.

These results meant that behind Doornbos on pole for the Super Final, was John Martin, Davide Rigon, Frederic Vervisch, Max Wissel and Tristan Gommendy in sixth.

Vervisch in just his second race weekend took the lead into the first corner after a fantastic start behind the wheel of the Liverpool car. Doornbos was slow to get away and contact from Gommendy was to end both of their races soon after the start.

Out front, Vervisch was battling hard on used rubber to keep Martin and Rigon behind him but managed to cross the line less than half a second ahead to take the cheque for €100,000 and in the process, making him the 13^th different driver to take a win this season. It was Martin who looked favourite for second place but was adjudged to have passed Rigon under yellow flags following the first lap incident on lap one. He gave the place back to Rigon on the penultimate lap to avoid incurring any penalty. Martin had to be helped from his car at the end as he was drained and exhausted from suffering a flu bug over the weekend underlining his fight and determination.

This Result meant Rigon now had a 14 point lead in the championship over Craig Dolby. A good weekend for Max Wissel saw the FC Basel Team leapfrog AC Milan in the standings to sit in third place, and the Olympiacos team are now just five points behind Buurman’s team in fifth.

Frederic Vervisch told the awaiting media, “I’m speechless. This is the best result of my career and more importantly the money I have won means that I can continue in Superleague Formula for the next rounds. I’m really, really happy because I knew I wouldn’t be the fastest in the Super Final and I didn’t expect to win because I had no new tyres left. But I made a great start, tried to use the push-to-pass at the right moment and just hold on.”

New Championship leader Davide Rigon said, “In the Super Final Beijing overtook me under yellow flags and I had to use my push-to-pass to get back ahead. Unfortunately that meant I had none left to try and pass Liverpool so it spoilt my race. However, second isn’t bad and it’s fantastic for me and the team to be leading the championship. We had some bad luck at the start of the season so to now be ahead is fantastic.”

Finally, John Martin spoke about the final race, saying, “I’m definitely feeling a lot better now! Even when I was in the medical centre I was feeling the effects of the cold or fever or whatever it is. Normally I go really well in these conditions because it’s the same as at home. It was a bit unfortunate in the Super Final because I thought it was the last lap and backed off. I couldn’t believe it! With the yellow flags, I got a call from the pit but honestly believe that I was past Davide (Rigon) far enough back on the straight that it was my corner. I didn’t move back across to block him but took the normal line.”

So as it looked like a two horse race after round seven at Brands Hatch, there is now five teams in the title hunt as the Superleage Formula heads to Ordos in China on October 2^nd and 3^rd for round ten.

FC Basel’s Max Wissel will start the first race in third position. He topped Group B and then beat Duncan Tappy of Flamengo in the quarter final, before losing out to Martin in the semis. Andy Soucek (Galatasary) will start alongside Wissel on the second row after defeating Robert Doornbos of Corinthians to reach the semi-final, where he lost to Rigon.

Doornbos will start fifth, ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s Craig Dolby, who had been knocked out by Martin in the quarter-final. Tappy will start seventh, sharing the fourth row with FC Porto driver Alvaro Parente, who was beaten by Rigon at the same stage.

The time that Wissel set to top Group B would not have been enough to get out of Group A, such was the competitiveness of that group, which was topped by Rigon, ahead of Martin, Soucek and Tappy. Losing out at the first hurdle were series newcomer Neel Jani of Olympiacos as well as Friday pacesetter Frederic Vervisch of Liverpool FC and AC Milan’s Yelmer Buurman. The Dutchman, who currently sits second in the points, will have to start down in 13^th place.

After the session, Martin said: “I couldn’t let Davide have two pole positions in a row could I? I knew it would be a tough final against him as he was so quick yesterday, but I didn’t make any mistakes and when I saw the time come up on the dashboard I was just praying it would be good enough. I’m really happy with pole because I’m not feeling too well today. It started yesterday and was worse this morning, but hopefully I’ll feel a bit better for the race on Sunday.”

Heading into the weekends race, it was Yelmer Buurman of AC Milan who topped the table with Brit Craig Dolby in the Tottenham Hotspur car just two points behind. The Italian Rigon lay in third 34 points behind second placed Dolby.

Rigon on home soil took the advantage over his rivals by claiming pole position with an in form John Martin in the Beijing Guoan car alongside in second. Alvaro Parente in the Porto car took third alongside the impressive Olympiacos debutant, Ben Hanley who was in for the injured Chris Van Der Drift. Hanley wasn’t the only new face on the grid as the Liverpool team had drafted in Frederic Vervisch to replace James Walker, Olympique Lyonnais had Spaniard Celso Miguez behind the wheel and British driver Hywel Lloyd was piloting the PSV Eindhoven car. The biggest shock of the qualifying session was seeing Buurman and Dolby only achieve eighth and ninth place on the grid respectively, just behind Vervisch in seventh.

From the rolling start it was Davide Rigon who lead the field away and set about building a lead over the chasing pack ahead of the pit stop window. Further back, Championship rivals Buurman and Dolby had both passed new boy Vervisch and Dolby attacked Buurman down the inside of turn three on the first lap to get ahead. But the tyres on the Tottenham car were wearing quickly and the Dutchman in the AC Milan car was all over him behind.

As the pit window opened Rigon was three seconds ahead of Martin when they came into take their stops. A superb stop by the Alan Docking Racing team who run the Beijing car saw the Aussie take the lead from Rigon as they exited the pit lane. However, Martin couldn’t pull off the victory as he did at Brands Hatch and pressure from the Anderlecht driver behind forced him into an error at turn two and Rigon ceased the advantage to pass up the inside. From here on in the Italian was untroubled in front of his home fans as he pulled away from Martin who was now dropping into the clutches of debutant Ben Hanley in the red and white Olympiacos car in third.

Meanwhile, the Battle between Dolby and Buurman had taken an unexpected turn. Buurman had pitted as soon as the window had opened and Dolby was to head in a lap later. Has the Englishman headed back out he rejoined alongside Buurman and Alvaro Parente in the FC Porto car. All three headed into turn one and it was Parente who had the advantage to take Dolby up the inside. Buurman tried to use this opportune moment to follow the Porto car through the narrowing gap causing contact between the two. Buurman had broken his front wing whilst he hit Dolby’s left rear tyre causing a puncture. Both were left limping back to the pits to repair the damage and despite both climbing a few places afterwards, 11^th place for Buurman and 13^th for Dolby left them both disappointed with Rigon dominating.

It was indeed Davide Rigon who took the flag in first to close in on the championship lead whilst just over three and a half seconds behind, Martin had held off the attack from Ben Hanley for second place. It was a fantastic podium finish for Hanley on his debut.

Fourth place was taken by Max Wissel for FC Basel who had picked up a place during the pit stops and set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:06.580. Julien Jousse finished fifth for AS Roma ahead of Parente whilst The Liverpool car of Vervisch finished a creditable seventh. Tristan Gommendy (Galatasaray) had experienced a problem which allowed Robert Doornbos driving for Corinthians to snatch eighth from him at the line. Flamengo driver Duncan Tappy rounded out the top ten.

Debutant Celso Miguez was to take pole in the fully reversed grid for race two thanks to retirement a few laps from the end and fellow Spaniard Marcos Martinez was set to line up alongside him who struggled home in 14^th place.

Newbie Ben Hanley spoke to the media after the first race saying, “A podium’s good, but it was a great result for the team more than anything. They’ve worked really hard and had a new car here which they only got last week and had to prepare it. The most important thing for Olympiacos is scoring points and I think we got quite a few in that race. If we stay on the track in the second we’ll hopefully make the Super Final. It was good fun. They’re big, heavy cars which are difficult to drive when you’ve not raced for a year. I’ve been doing some testing, which has helped, but it was a good result. The track’s a bit busy, like a go-kart track, so it’s tough, but I’m happy with the result.”

It was Marcos Martinez who took the advantage from the off in race two by beating Miguez into turn one to take the lead. Dolby had held is third place from the start and was then gifted second place after Miguez suffered gearbox problems which would end his race early.

Martinez was flying and had a seven second lead by the time the pit stop window had opened after 15 minutes and was able to rejoin the pack after his stopped with only a slightly narrowed advantage leaving him to take the chequered flag ahead of Dolby in second who couldn’t close in on the leader. Duncan Tappy took the final podium slot keeping his record of taking at least one podium place in each round he’s competed in intact.

Yelmer Buurman kept the championship points close by taking fourth place after battling it out with Robert Doornbos and Frederic Vervisch. The Liverpool driver settled with fifth place ahead of Doornbos with just a second splitting the three. Max Wissel took seventh ahead of a good drive from the back of the grid from Rigon in eighth who led home his fellow podium winners from race one, Martin ninth and Hanley tenth. Alvaro Parente had battled through the field to challenge Tappy for third place after the pit stops only to be slapped with a stop/go penalty after his team didn’t change his tyres during the compulsory stops which dropped him down to 11^th place.

So with these results Davide Rigon was to line up on pole for the super final race three with John Martin alongside him in a repeat of the race one front row. Third spot was claimed by Max Wissel and Marcos Martinez fourth ahead of the two rookie drivers, Ben Hanley and Frederic Vervisch in fifth and sixth respectively.

German Max Wissel was on new tyres for the final five lap sprint and he got a great start passing Martin for second place and kept the pressure on Rigon throughout. The impressive Hanley was also on new rubber and it showed. He had passed Martinez at the start and had also passed John Martin to put Wissel under pressure himself in the closing stages. However Rigon was to take the win and the €100,000 cheque that went with it. Wissel held off Hanley for second place with Martin finishing fourth. Martinez and Vervisch were to complete the shootout in fifth and sixth place.

Despite not taking part in the final shootout, Craig Dolby’s second place in race two was enough to retake the championship lead by just three points from Yelmer Buurman. But the big winner from the weekend was Davide Rigon. His super final win had took his race winnings to €525,000 making him the highest earning driver and his all round performance had put him within 9 points of Buurman.

“This weekend has been fantastic for us and I’d like to say thank you very much to the team.” Rigon said. “The Super Final was really difficult as the others were on new tyres and I wasn’t. Max (Wissel) was very quick but my car was great. If the car continues to work like this and I don’t make any mistakes then we really have a chance to win the championship.”

Max Wissel told the waiting press, “I expected to win the Super Final on new tyres but I only really had one lap to overtake Davide and he did a great job to defend from me. €75,000 is not bad though! We’ll still do our best to close the gap to the leaders (in the championship). We have a brilliant team, a fantastic car and hopefully we’ll have more weekends like this.”

Impressive rookie Ben Hanley said “We couldn’t ask for much more from this weekend other than perhaps a win! We took a gamble in race 2 by running our qualifying set-up but we got through it to make the Super Final. This is a good result for Olympiacos and we’ve scored good points. Realistically I didn’t expect things to go this well, but I definitely wanted to make an impression.”

Superleague Formula heads to the Portuguese circuit of Portimao on the weekend of September 18-19 where the now three way championship battle will resume.

Current championship leader Buurman entertained his fellow countrymen and women in his AC Milan car whilst the other Dutch Superleague driver, Doornbos of Corinthians got behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car before taking the Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende out for a spin in a two-seater Minardi F1 car.

This was a part of a number of events held for Bavaria City Racing week for pleased racing fans in and around the Rotterdam area.

Buurman and Doornbos will be back in Superleague Formula action next weekend as they head to the Italian circuit of Adria after the four week break since they were seen at Brands Hatch at the beginning of the month.

Walker is currently eleventh in the Superleague Formula championship but has previously tested for the Triple Eight Vauxhall team earlier this year.

“Whether we’ll be at the next one, I’m not sure” Walker told Autosport of the Superleague series.

“We needed to get into the money race [at Brands] because we’ve spent the Magny-Cours and Assen prize money. So we’ll have to see if we can continue.”

The Olympiacos driver suffered a broken ankle, two broken ribs, a broken right little finger, a fractured shoulder blade and severe damage to his left index finger after the incident. Chris told the media, “I remember using my push-to-pass, went to overtake on the right hand side and (Jousse) moved once, but I kept my foot hard in it and then he moved again, I went on the grass and we touched,” he continued, “I was committed to it as you need to keep the momentum up to get past. The first time he moved was close but the second one left me no room and I was already going for it. It was a racing incident, just one of those things really. I’m still alive, so that’s good.”

Onboard footage has so far proved inconclusive as to the cause of the accident, however, Van der Drift believes Jousse changed positions twice. He wanted to make it clear though, the accident that resulted was just an unfortunate event that happens in motorsport.

“I remember when I started to fly, that was all, and then waking up again when I was stuck (in the car). I woke up, saw my hand and then knew my ankle was busted and in another direction. It was in serious pain so I undid the buckles and got out myself.”

Van der Drift spent two nights in Dartford Hospital before being moved to a specialist centre in Northampton where the severity of his damaged index finger will be assessed. It is this injury that he believes will dictate when he will be back in a racing car rather than the broken bones.

“I’m feeling a bit bruised and banged up but it’s not too bad,” he said. “I’ve got lots of pain killers so they’re helping. My ankle was operated on yesterday so now I need to get my finger sorted. It depends on my hand. I’m going to do my best to get back up to speed again. I don’t know how long I’ll be out, I just have to see how it goes in the next few weeks and how quickly I heal.”

John Martin who started race one from second on the grid, gained the advantage on pole man Marcos Martinez of Sevilla after the Rolling Start and took the lead going into the first corner on lap one. British driver and crowd favourite Craig Dolby, in the Tottenham Hotspur car also made a good start passing Sporting Lisbon driver Andy Soucek around the outside of Paddock Hill bend to take third on lap one. Martin wasn’t going to hang about as he pulled away from the pack and by the time the pit window had opened he had a 3.5 second advantage. The first retirement of the day saw Narain Karthikeyan of PSV Eindhoven take to the gravel on lap 6, but he could console himself with pole position in race two thanks to the fully reversed grid.

The pit stop window opened and John Martin came in for new rubber with a faultless stop allowing him to press home his advantage. There were no significant changes of position by the time the pit window had closed so it was down to racing ability to make up any positions. James Walker in the red Liverpool car was slowly clawing up the field after a poor qualifying session had seen him start 15^th but had finished the race in 10^th position. This was helped by Julien Jousse experiencing mechanical trouble in the AS Roma car and dropping out. Also it was heartbreak for Martinez as he too suffered mechanical issues and had to retire whilst running second with only 2 minutes left.

As the chequered flag dropped it was Martin who took the win with a lead of 7.438 seconds over the now second placed driver Dolby much to the fans delight. Virgin F1 reserve driver Andy Soucek took the final podium position after holding off championship leader Yelmer Buurman in the AC Milan car who came in fourth. Frenchman Franck Montagny bought home the Bordeaux car in fifth from eighth on the grid well ahead of the youngster Max Wissel (FC Basel). The Olympiacos car of Chris van der Drift finished seventh ahead of Tristan Gommendy of Galatasaray whilst the two remaining Brits of Duncan Tappy for Flamengo and James Walker rounded out the top ten.

This result meant Craig Dolby had retaken the lead of the Championship by a single point from Yelmer Buurman. The Olympique Lyonnais car on its return to the series after missing the last round, still seemed to be struggling a bit as Franck Perera guided it home to twelfth place.

After the race, John Martin spoke to the media saying, “I made a mistake yesterday in quail but made up for it today. The last half of the race I was literally on cruise control; just a case of maintaining the gap and not get caught up while lapping cars. The only bit I was worried about was the start. I knew if we got away well we had a good car. I was hoping to drive right round the outside at turn one but crossed to the inside instead. Pretty sweet! I need some more points in the second so I’ll just push hard and see how high up we can get.”

Having taken a solid second place and the championship lead, Craig Dolby said, “We knew we had the pace. The first set of tyres weren’t too good. They were brand new but out of balance so we need to have a look at that. The start was good though, to get into third round the outside and nearly touch! As soon as I put the second set of tyres on I closed back in on Martinez and maybe made him make a little mistake into turn one. Me and John were on cruise control at the end and there was no point in trying to close down the gap on someone who’s running the same pace.”

Thanks to his early retirement in race one, it was Karthikeyan who was on pole with Julien Jousse alongside. After his disappointing retirement earlier, Marcos Matinez was looking to make amends starting from third. Dolby and Martin had their work cut out starting from the back row.

As the cars came down Brabham straight on the rolling start, Karthikeyan was off like a rocket having saved 2 sets of new tyres after race one’s early exit. Martinez had got past Jousse on the first lap and these positions stayed the same until the pit stops, by which time, Karthikeyan had a massive lead of over ten seconds. Dolby had moved up two spots by now and was two places behind Buurman who was looking to retake the championship lead. John Martin was having a lonely race at the back after having to pit for a new nose cone on lap one as it had been ripped off after driving through the gravel at Druids hairpin.

After the pit stops it was the PSV Eindhoven car pressing on thanks to the new rubber and was steadily increasing its lead. Martinez had now dropped down the order in what was a disappointing day for the Sevilla team after grabbing pole on Saturday. Davide Rigon of Anderlecht was now in third place with Duncan Tappy fourth. Chris van der Drift was having a great run and was moving up the order to help his points haul.

Julien Jousse had dropped to fifth in the closing stages which meant Chris van der Drift was now behind him and keen to pass. It was at this point disaster occurred. Van der Drift had got a good run out of Surtees and used his ‘Push to Pass’ device to take the advantage. He was closing rapidly on Jousse and moved to the right to pass him. In an error of judgement, Jousse also moved slightly right and van der Drift collided with the Rear offside wheel of the AS Roma car. Van der Drift was now a passenger has his car launched into the air at 180mph and smashed into the side of the bridge at Hawthorn Hill. Splitting in half, the remains of the car was sent spinning up the track briefly bursting into flames before coming to a halt at the entrance to Hawthorn bend.

The race was stopped immediately as paramedics tended to the driver and Marshalls cleared the mass of debris scattered across the track. Amazingly, the conscious Chris van der Drift was taken away for treatment with only a suspected broken leg.

With the race ended, and results taken from the positions on the previous lap it was Narain Karthikeyan who took the win by nearly 13 seconds over second placed Davide Rigon. Brit Duncan Tappy finished third for Flamengo ahead of Alvaro Parente in the Porto car fourth and Jousse fifth. Van de Drift had sixth with the Spanish pair of Maria de Villota for Athletico Madrid and Marcos Martinez seventh and eighth respectively. The top ten was rounded out Franck Perera for Olympique Lyonnais in ninth and James Walker taking his second tenth place of the day. The Battle for the championship lead was now in Buurman’s hand after finishing twelth, one place ahead of Dolby, meant he now had a one point lead over the Tottenham Hotspurs driver.

With his two good results, it was Flamengo driver Duncan Tappy on pole for the Super final with John Martin alongside in second. Dolby lined up third ahead of Davide Rigon, with Alvaro Parente and Yelmer Buurman in the final two spots. Buurman had been handed a chance of more points as it was Chris van der Drift who was supposed to line up in the Final, but for obvious reasons could not take his spot.

It was Beijing driver Martin who again took the lead at the first corner and Rigon followed dropping Tappy down to third. At Druids hairpin, Craig Dolby out braked himself slightly whist alongside Parente, which forced the Porto driver in to the gravel and dropping him down to last whilst Yelmer Buurman took the opportunity to pass both Parente and Dolby for fourth place. These positions remained throughout the 5 lap race giving the Australian Martin a second win of the day for Beijing Guoan and the €100,000 winners cheque. Rigon finished second head of Tappy in third and Buurman fourth. Craig Dolby came in fifth and Parente took the final place.

It was all smiles in the Beijing garage afterwards as John Martin told reporters, “The first race felt so easy but in the second I made a good start and then had nowhere to go and just touched the front end plate on Craig’s (Dolby) car and it was enough to break the front wing. It stuck under the car and I thought I was going straight into the wall, but luckily it broke off as I went through the gravel and I was able to get back to the pits to get a new nose box. I absolutely love it here at Brands Hatch, it’s one of my favourite circuits in the world, so to win twice is fantastic. I was annoyed to miss pole position on Saturday, but today we’ve made up for it.”

Davide Rigon spoke after the race saying, “The weekend started very badly. I crashed the car and it was difficult to have it ready for qualifying. In race 1 it wasn’t very good either even though I pushed to the maximum. We had two good sets of tyres for the second race though and I started to be much quicker and I was very happy with second place. In the Super Final, John (Martin) was just a bit faster than me but second again is a great result considering where we were this morning.”

British driver Duncan Tappy reflected on the weekends work, “I’m quite shocked to be here (on the Super Final podium) really! I was really down after qualifying because I didn’t think I’d got on top of the car and that there was a lot more to come. I was on the phone talking to my engineer at 10.30pm last night thinking about what we could do. The car still didn’t feel that great in the first race and we just did what we could to get ninth, but the second race was much better and I just kept pushing and climbing through the field. P3 was the aim and we got it. I’m a bit disappointed with the Super Final, but I’ve never done a standing start in a Superleague Formula car before. It’s something I will need to work on as I’m hoping to be in a lot of Super Finals from now on.”

After this result, Yelmer Buurman had doubled his one point championship advantage at the end of the day, but Dolby had closed in by six points. With just 2 points separating AC Milan and Tottenham Hotspurs at the top and Anderlecht close behind, it is still all to play for when the Superleague Formula heads to Italy and the Eighth round at Adria on 4^th and 5^th September,

The qualifying session was always going to be tight after both practice sessions showed, with the top 10 drivers being separated by less than a second. The draw for the qualifying rounds threw up some interesting matchups, with five of the top six championship drivers placed in group B together, giving a few teams down the pecking order in group A chance of a good grid place for the first race.

Group A consisted of the last round Super Final winner Davide Rigon in the RSC Anderlecht car along with Athletico Madrid, Bordeaux, Sevilla, Sporting Lisbon, Galatasaray, Corinthians, Beijing Guoan and Flamengo with Brit Duncan Tappy behind the wheel.  This left home favourite Craig Dolby in the Tottenham Hotspur car in the same group as Championship leader Yelmer Buurman of AC Milan. Joining them was the third British driver James Walker with Liverpool, Olympiacos, AS Roma, PSV Eindhoven, Lyon, FC Porto and FC Basel.

It was the top four drivers from the first group who all progressed with times under the 1minute 14 seconds barrier and split by just 0.149 of a second. John Martin was quickest, ahead of Martinez, Virgin F1 team reserve driver Andy Soucek of Sporting Lisbon in third and Bordeaux driver Frank Montagny taking the last quarter final spot. After hitting the tyre wall at Druids in second practice, Davide Rigon struggled in qualifying and failed to make it through to the knock out stages.

Meanwhile in Group B it was a day of mixed fortunes for the home clubs, with last year’s champions Liverpool struggling, James Walker only managed eighth fastest in the group ahead of Frank Perera in the Lyon car on their return to the series after missing the last round. However, it was Craig Dolby who dominated and guided the Tottenham Hotspurs car to the top of the timesheets with the fastest time of both groups. Following Dolby into the knock out stages were, Chris van der Drift in the Olympiacos car, Championship Leader Buurman and Julien Jousse of AS Roma.

Quarter final one saw Dolby paired with Frank Montagny, a match up which Dolby eased through with a comfortable margin of 0.807 seconds. John Martin had an even easier quarter final as Julien Jousse suffered mechanical trouble on his flying lap and ended up parking up on the side of the circuit before Hawthorn bend. Andy Soucek beat Chris van der Drift in the third pairing and the last quarter final saw Yelmer Buurman run wide at Paddock Hill bend and visit the gravel before rejoining the track, leaving Marcos Martinez to take a comfortable win.

In the first of the semi finals, it was Martinez who produced a stunning lap to beat Craig Dolby by a quarter of a second, who despite being British, had never raced on the GP loop at Brands Hatch before thanks to predominantly racing in Belgium in his early career. John Martin continued to impress on a circuit he likes a lot by beating Andy Soucek in the second Semi Final leaving a somewhat surprising Final between the Australian and the Spaniard Martinez.

It was a close run final between Beijing Guoan and Sevilla, vying for the all important pole position. Unfortunately, a slight mistake at Surtees by Martin gave Martinez a very slight advantage which he held on to and took the win by just two hundredths of a second.

A delighted Martinez told the waiting media afterwards, “This is a very special moment for me. We had a lot of bad luck at the beginning of the season and lots of problems, but now we are on pole and we have a really fast car. This is my first time at Brands Hatch, but already this is one of my favourite circuits! I love fast, flowing tracks like this one and I think we have a set-up that really suits them too. It’s not easy to win a Superleague Formula race, but I’ll concentrate on making a good start tomorrow and then just push and push!”

John Martin was left to reflect, saying “I’m a little bit disappointed because I messed up going into Surtees in the final, so to only miss out on pole by two hundredths is a bit frustrating! Second is still good though and for sure we have got a really good race car – we showed that in practice where we were quick on old tyres. Brands Hatch is a very special place and this circuit as always been one of my strongest, so hopefully tomorrow will be good to us.”

After today’s action, the drivers will line up on tomorrows grid like this:

1.   Martinez – Sevilla                      2.  Martin – Beijing Guoan
3.   Soucek – Sporting Lisbon                4.  Dolby – Tottenham Hotspur
5.   Buurman – AC Milan                      6.  Van der Drift – Olympiacos
7.   Jousse – AS Roma                        8.  Montagny – Bordeaux
9.   Wissel – FC Basel                       10. Gommendy – Galatasaray
11.  Karthikeyan – PSV Eindhoven             12. Tappy – Flamengo
13.  Parente – FC Porto                      14. Rigon – RSC Anderlecht
15.  Walker – Liverpool                      16. Doornbos – Corinthians
17.  Perera – Olympique Lyonnais             18. De Villota – Athletico Madrid

With Chinese Club Beijing Guoan present in the line up of Superleague teams, it will hopefully provide appeal to locals keen to show their support. This has also fuelled speculation that the other Chinese round will be held in the nation’s capital.

The circuit cost £66 million to build and has be given FIA level 2 status. It will host a warm up car race before the arrival of the Superleague Fomula, the first international event to be held there, in the shape of a Chinese Touring Car Championship event in September.

The decision to hold the tenth round of the Superleague Formula at Ordos has delighted Guang Zhong Yun, the Mayor of Ordos City, who told the media, “Ordos City welcomes Superleague Formula in 2010. We are working hard to ensure that China’s first SF event is a successful and memorable one, which we believe will encourage the area’s development of culture, sport and economy. We invested nearly 80million Euros to build a FIA Grade 2 circuit in 2009 and that brand new venue will be ready before September, making SF the first international racing series to compete at the Ordos International Circuit. I hope the championship, teams and drivers enjoy their time and hospitality on offer in Ordos this October.”

Robin Webb, the Competitions Director for the Superleague Formula said in a statement, “We’re extremely excited to be announcing these groundbreaking events in China. The Ordos International Circuit is a magnificent, brand new facility and we’re proud to be the first international series to visit. Our debut outside Europe will be a significant moment in the championship’s history and one which we hope will bring the Chinese football and motorsport fans out in force.”

If the two Asian rounds this year prove to be successful then it could mark the start of more non-european Superleague races taking a place in the future and expanding the appeal of the unique racing format worldwide.

British drivers Graig Dolby, James Walker and Duncan Tappy will be looking to perform well in front of their home crowd for round seven of the series. Dolby will be particularly keen for a good performance after losing the championship lead last time out to AC Milan driver Yelmer Buurman. With only a few points separating the pair, Dolby could claim back the lead in the championship race on home soil.

Former F1 driver Franck Montagny will return for the Bordeaux team at Brands Hatch having missed the last round in Zolder, being replaced by Jaap van Lagen. Montagny will be looking to add to his first victory earlier in the season at Jarama.

A full complement of 18 cars will take to the tarmac on Saturday, with the French team of Olympique Lyonnais run by LRS Formula returning after withdrawing from round six to work on the car having experienced a number of problems since the season opener. Franck Perera will be behind the wheel for Lyon, taking over from ex F1 and Champ car driver Sebastien Bourdais. Perera has already raced in four events this season for Brazilian team Flamengo.

Elsewhere, Virgin F1 team test driver and current Formula 2 champion Andy Soucek will again take his place in the Sporting Lisbon car after an impressive display at Zolder saw him take a ninth and sixth place in race one and two respectively on his first return to the series since 2008.

Olympiacos team and driver Chris van der Drift will count themselves lucky, after no punishment was handed to them for starting in front of their pole position grid slot for the Super Final last time out in Belgium.

Jonathan Palmer, boss of Motorsport Vision, who own the Brands Hatch circuit has vowed to investigate the safety of the GP loop after a collision in a WTCC support race saw a Seat Leon flip over the barriers landing in the spectator area earlier this month. Thankfully no one was hurt. He stated that there will be no knee jerk reaction but will see what can be learnt from the incident. There were a number of possibilities mentioned as to how the circuit could respond, but putting up debris fencing around the loop was instantly ruled out as being commercially unviable. Another option which seems unpopular among fans was to ban spectators from the GP loop, but this may be unlikely. With investigations still ongoing, there is no news yet of what the outcome may be. Therefore fans will probably not see any changes in the current set up this weekend and should be free to view the racing as normal from this area.

Chris van der Drift continued his good form of late with a lights to flag victory. It was a mature drive from the New Zealander, who has won back to back Super Final races in the last two rounds, despite being pushed all the way by home favourite Davide Rigon in the RSC Anderlecht car.

Van der Drift got a good start from the front of the grid and held a steady lead going into the pit stop window. During the compulsory stops Rigon had closed the 1.5 second advantage to almost nothing. However van der Drift kept composed to withstand the pressure and steadily eased away to take the win by 1.8 seconds. Another good starter, Robert Doornbos for Corinthians, managed to get the jump on the FC Basel Car of Max Wissel. This enabled Doornbos to take his first podium of the year for third place. It was not all plain sailing for the Dutchman as he came under increasing pressure from Yelmer Buurman of AC Milan, eager to gain as many points as possible to close the gap on Championship Leader Craig Dolby. Buurman had started the race from 7^th but had managed to pass James Walker in the Liverpool car and Wissel of FC Basel during the pit stops. An inspired move on Dolby in the Tottenham Hotspurs car at the Gilles Villeneuve chicane meant he was up into fourth position and hunting down Doornbos for the final podium position. With ten minutes remaining Buurman was right on the tail of the Corinthians Driver, but a mistake saw him run off the track briefly and drop too far back to mount another attack.

This had left Dolby to finish in fifth whilst Walker had snatched sixth from Wissel after he out broke himself trying to take the Fifth place off Dolby, enabling the Liverpool driver to capitalise. Marcos Martinez finished in eighth for Sevilla in front of Andy Soucek on his return to the series in the green Sporting Lisbon car. The top ten was rounded out by Former F1 driver Narain Karthikayen for PSV Eindhoven. The only retirement of the race came when the clutch on Brit Duncan Tappy’s car failed, leaving the Flamenco team with pole in race two thanks to the reversed grid.

At the end of the race Chris van der Drift was quoted as saying: “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.”

A delighted Robert Doornbos said: “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.”

So on to race two and the big story here was the unfortunate end to the Tottenham Hotspur car of Craig Dolby right at the very start. Dolby was unfortunately caught up in a tangle between James Walker (Liverpool) and Marcos Martinez (Sevilla). Contact between these two sent Martinez into the path of Dolby which damaged his front wheel and removed the front wing leaving him to roll to a stop on the pit straight. Martinez, however was unaware the collision had ripped off his rear wing and continued charging down to the first corner, mid pack. The lack of downforce under braking sent the Sevilla car straight into Robert Doornbos who pitched into the gravel and rolled over. Thankfully no one was hurt in the incidents but it lead to the safety car being called.

Duncan Tappy was leading the field when the pit stop window opened. After coming in to change tyres, Tappy rejoined to find Julien Jousse in the AS Roma car had opted to stay out a lap longer. This was a stategy that paid off for Jousse as he exited the pit lane just ahead of Tappy, who tried to pass on the inside of turn 2. The Brit put two wheels on the grass trying to snatch first spot causing a slide which was well held, but meant the Flamenco car had lost ground on his competitor and let third placed FC Porto’s Alvaro Parente close in on him.

As Jousse pulled away from the pack Parente, in third, retired with what is believed to be a system pressure failure. This pushed Tristan Gommendy of Galatasaray into the remaining podium place who had earlier been lucky to survive banging wheels with Maria de Villota in the Athletico Madrid car as she tried to block Gommendy when he passed her. After this de Villota dropped down the places and out of the top ten. Max Wissel charged up the field to put pressure on Gommendy for third but it was too little, too late.

Yelmer Buurman who was making the most of the retirement of Craig Dolby took fifth ahead of Andy Soucek. John Martin struggled with a car lacking pace to bring it home in a respectable seventh whilst race one winner van der Drift and runner up Rigon took eighth and ninth respectively. The top ten was completed by Superleague Debutant Jaap van Lagen in the Bordeaux car.

After race 2, Olympiacos took pole in the Super final. They were joined by AC Milan, RSC Anderlecht, Basel, As Roma and Galatasaray. All teams were hungry for the €100,000 prize for first place.

As they lined up on the grid from the formation lap van der Drift took up his pole slot but had over shot his mark by half a car’s length. Confusion ensued within the pits as to what will happen regards to punishment as the cars headed off to turn one. Rigon dived up the inside of van der Drift in a move which was to seal his victory and give him the lead to the finish of the five lap sprint. The front two broke away from the chasing pack leaving Julien Jousse of AS Roma to take third. The remaining places were filled by Galatasaray, new championship leader AC Milan and FC Basel.

Van der Drift’s second place remains provisional at the time of publishing as the stewards are still investigating the start line incident.

A good weekend’s work from AC Milan and Yelmer Buurman saw them overturn a 30 point deficit going into round 6 and finishing with an eight point advantage over their nearest rivals Tottenham Hotspurs and Craig Dolby.

Super Final winner Davide Rigon, who was pleased to get a win for the Home fans cheering on the Belgium RSC Anderlecht team, spoke to the media afterwards and said: “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.”

Round Seven of the Superleague Formula takes place at Brands Hatch on the weekend of July 31^st to August 1^st.

The 24 year old rookie continued the good form show last time out with the Greek Team to beat the home favourite Davide Rigon of RSC Anderlecht in the final of the unique knockout stages. A time of 1:18.721 was good enough for van der Drift’s first Pole in just his sixth outing. The New Zealander had finished with the quickest time in group B, which led to a quarter final head to head against another in form driver in the shape of AC Milan’s Yelmer Buurman. Having dispatched Buurman in the Quarter final, van der Drift then beat Max Wissel of FC Basel to reach the Final round.

Loosing finalist Rigon, easily dispatched Liverpool’s James Walker by over half a second in his quarter final stage before coming up against Robert Doornbos in the Corinthians car, who had set the quickest time of everyone in the group stages. A close fought battle here saw Rigon snatch the final place by just three hundredths of a second.

Championship leader Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspurs) set Group B’s second fastest time and came up against Wissel in the quarter final stages in what proved to be a tight battle. The German took the lead in sector one before the Brit went head after sector two. Unfortunately a slight mistake from Dolby at the hairpin handed the win the FC Basel car. The fourth quarter final was a match-up between Doornbos and Marcos Martinez of Sevilla.

Yellow flags were bought out towards the end of Group A’s session thanks to Duncan Tappy, who was just shy of a top four time, had beached his Flamenco car in the Gravel. This scuppered the chances of the remaining cars to improve their times. Group B also finished with a car visiting the gravel as Jaap van Lagen span off on his Superleague Debut. However he was pleased to set a sixth fastest time in his group. Mechanical trouble put an end to Porto’s Alvaro Parente chances of setting a good time, and after a win at the Nurbergring in round five, he was the only driver not to break one minute 20 seconds.

So at the end of the qualifying sessions, tomorrow’s grid will line up like this:

Pole:    van der Drift – Olympiacos                2^nd:       Rigon – RSC Anderlecht

3^rd:       Wissel – FC Basel                                4^th:       Doornbos – Corinthians

5^th:       Walker – Liverpool                             6^th:       Dolby – Tottenham Hotspurs

7^th:       Buurman – AC Milan                          8^th:       Martinez – Sevilla

9^th:       Perera – Flamengo                             10^th:     Martin – Beijing Guoan

11^th:     Soucek – Sporting Lisbon                    12^th:     van Lagen – Bordeaux

13^th:     Jousse – AS Roma                               14^th:     Karthikeyan – PSV Eindhoven

15^th:     Gommedy – Galatasaray                    16^th:     Parente – FC Porto

17^th:     de Villota – Atletico Madrid

Chris van der Drift was delighted at the end of the session and was quoted as saying: “Finally we’ve got our pole position! This is really great for the team and starting from the front always makes things easier on race day. I got faster and faster in the knockout stages as I pushed more and found better lines. The plan for tomorrow is for a first feature race win. We want to get some good points to climb further up the league table and after that the Super Final is just a bonus.”

Home Favourite Davide Rigon was also very pleased after putting his Belgium teams car on the front row. “It’s fantastic to be on the front row in Anderlecht’s home race. The car is good, a bit better than in free practice, and I am sure we will be fast in the races. I’m very happy and looking forward to tomorrow as it’s a chance to close the gap to the teams at the top of the table, but it will be important not to make any mistakes.”

Race 1 takes place on Sunday at 11:30am local time (10:30 GMT) and can be seen streamed live online at www.superleagueformula.com

The session is divided into two groups of eight or nine cars with drivers picking a ball to determine which group they are in. Group A go out on their 15 minute qualifying session first with Group B going out second. The group with the fastest overall driver after these 15 minute sessions will line up on the odd numbered grid slots with the other group lining up on the even numbered grid places with the slowest drivers at the back. The top four drivers from each group will then compete in a head to head style shootout of one lap.  This being a quarter-final, semi-final and final style format. The eventual winner will take pole.

With the group draw having taken place, current championship leaders Tottenham Hotspur have been matched against the home team and favourite’s RSC Anderlecht along with form team Olypiacos in Group B. The championships second and third placed teams AC Milan and Basel have been drawn in Group A alongside AS Roma and the two Brazilian teams of Flamengo and Corinthians.

On his series debut, Jaap van Lagen of Bordeaux will be in Group B, joined by the Virgin F1 test driver and current F2 champion Andy Soucek who returns to the Superleague in the Sporting Lisbon Car.

After free practice today, it was the Anderlecht team showing why they are favourites for round 6 with driver Davide Rigon setting the quickest time. A 1:20.694 was good enough to put him top of the time sheets ahead of Max Wissel (FC Basel) and third placed John Martin for Beijing Guoan. The session was interrupted by and off from FC Porto driver Alvaro Parente, although this was not the only incident encountered in the practice sessions.

The red flag was out in FP2 when Julien Jousse ground to a halt on his out lap when his AS Roma car developed some mechanical problems. Rigon was again fastest early on, however a visit to the gravel trap on turn 2 finished his session early. Meanwhile, Narain Karthikeyan in the PSV Eindhoven car and Yelmer Buurman driving for AC Milan both had minor spins, as did Jaap van Lagen.

The spin hadn’t effected Buurman as he became the quickest of only three drivers to break the one minute 19 second barrier with a 1:18.851 to top the time sheet at the end of the second practice session. The Corinthians car of Robert Doornbos finished one tenth behind in second place and Tristan Gommendy for Turkish team Galatasaray set the third fastest time just ahead of series returnee Andy Soucek.

Brit Craig Dolby continued a disappointing run of form with the Tottenham Hotspurs team with a tenth and ninth fastest times over the two sessions. Dolby will be hoping to improve during qualifying tomorrow to get his championship hopes back on track.

With 50 points up for grabs for a race win and everyone driving the same spec cars, the title is still anyone’s and the results at Nurburgring last time out just go to show that. With a different winner in each of the 3 races and the championship leading Tottenham Hotspur car driven by Craig Dolby suffering some poor results by his standard, allowed the chasing pack to close the championship points gap.

Dolby suffered a lack of traction during qualifying which left him at the back of the grid for race one. A tenth place and a sixth in race two were good damage limitation but not enough for him to make it into the Super Final Shootout. This handed an opportunity to Yelmer Buurman in the AC Milan car to capitalise on the Dolby’s poor points haul. An opportunity Buurman took with gusto by winning the first race from fourth on the grid. A good Eighth place in race two after starting at the back due to the fully reversed grid, meant a place in the final Shootout Race.

Race two saw Alvaro Parente take the spoils in the FC Porto Car, capitalising on a second place grid slot after retiring from race one with a misfire on lap 12. However this was not enough for him to line up in the Final race. These places were filled by Franck Perera for Flamenco, Tristan Gommendy for Galatasaray, Max Wissel with FC Basel, Yelmer Buurman for AC Milan, Anderlecht’s Davide Rigon and Chris Van Der Drift in the Olympiacos car.

With Franck Perera Stalling at the start of race 3 and Gommendy being handed a post race penalty of 25 seconds for leaving the pitlane late, Van Der Drift took the Flag for Olympiacos with Rigon 2nd and Buurman 3rd.

So heading to Belgium the Anderlecht team run by Azerti will be looking to build on their strong performances in front of their home fans. With the Italian Davide Rigon at the wheel who has achieved two race wins and four other podium finishes this season, along with a win at Zolder in 2008, the odds of a race win for the team, who are based only a few miles from the circuit, seem to be stacked in their favour.

But, Dolby will be looking to tighten his grip on the Championship lead at a track he knows well having driven in the Belgium junior formulae and taking his first Superleague win here last year. The Championship leader is looking forward to the challenge having declared his love for the place and the excitement it brings.

Unfortunately, one team who won’t be at Zolder this weekend is the Olympique Lyonnais team run buy LRS and driven by Ex Formula 1 driver Sebastien Bourdais. The team were hotly tipped at the start of the season to take the championship this year, but despite a win at Silverstone in round one, they have experienced a number of problems which has seen them drop to 17th in the standings. In a bid to overcome these problems the French outfit has therefore decided to miss the next round to work on improving reliability and hope to be back soon challenging for the podium places.

Everything is set for what should be an exciting and close fought event and fans can watch the races streamed live on the web thanks to the Superleague Formula’s online service. Just head over to www.superleagueformula.com.

The 2010 Championship kicks off at Silverstone on the 3^rd and 4^th April, the first of 12 rounds for this season. The organisers have entered into negotiations with several countries about hosting a race in 2011.

The Superleague Formula is looking to follow in the footsteps of Formula One and GP2 and break into the Asian market, as Asian states have viewed Motorsport a key tool of promotion during the last decade. China, South Korea and Indonesia have all started negotiations about hosting a race in the near future.

Korea has already started its promotion of the series, by showing races from the 2009 season on giant LCD screens in the capital Seoul, while Indonesia could make its debut in the Superleague Formula at the end of the season, as talks are ongoing about hosting the season finale on a street track near the capital Jakarta in November.

Another area that the Superleague Formula is looking at for expansion is Brazil, with its heritage in both Football and Motorsport, and with 2 tracks vying to host the countries maiden Superleague Formula race in 2011, Brazil is the ideal location for the first South American round.

Australia is also under consideration to host a race, on one of their street race programmes alongside the V8 Supercars Championship.

It’s not just new countries to race in that the organisers are pushing for; they are also looking out for new teams to join the grid, alongside the current 18 title contenders.

In China, the two pronged expansion plan is linked, the promoters and the largest state run investment company, CITIC Guoan Group, are helping with the negotiations of a street race at Beijing or at Ordos, while pushing for the return of the inaugural Champions from 2008, Beijing Guoan FC.

Alex Andreu, the Chairman of the Superleague Formula said: “Although we’re working hard finalising details for the forthcoming season, it’s vital that we continue to keep one eye on the future and that means planning ahead to improve the championship further for 2011.

“I think we’ve reached our maximum in terms of European races, what with the eleven confirmed for this season, and to continue our growth we need to be looking further afield. Therefore, it’s important to add clubs and races from outside of motorsport’s traditional heartland and to that end; we’re making a great deal of progress.”