Fortec Motorsports' Jack Harvey made it two wins out of two from the Formula BMW Europe weekend at Valencia.
“It has been a perfect weekend. It is a street circuit, so every mistake gets punished,” he said. “You have to concentrate more so than at other circuits so you don't hit the walls. Every race is difficult because there are a lot of good drivers out there just waiting for me to make a mistake. I am really happy with the win and also because it was my mum's birthday on Thursday so hello to her.”
Only having a slightly less perfect weekend was DAMS driver Fahmi Ilyas, who followed up his race one second place with a third in race two, once more leading home his teammate Javier Tarancon, who finished the race fourth despite setting the fastest lap.
Ahead of both of them was Robin Frijns, improving on his race one fourth place. “The key point in racing is qualifying and I am not a qualifying king, and never was,” he said. “In this race I lost one position at the start and by the time I got to second Jack had already got a big gap so I could not close it. I am disappointed. I know I am fast as I did the quickest race lap yesterday, but always in qualifying there is something wrong with me. I am sure it is me as the car is okay, but I am just never on pole.”
Carlos Sainz Jr, shackled by a gird penalty that meant he started last, lost his perfect record of wins in the series' rookie class. Despite contact with his Eurointernational teammate Michael Lewis on the opening lap Sainz had climbed to tenth at the end of the first lap. However, he was unable to progress any further, remaining there at the end of the race, third among the rookies behind Maciej Bernacik and Daniil Kvyat in the third Eurointernational car who took the class win, his first of the season.
“This was a very good and interesting race,” enthused Kvyat. “The start didn't go very well as I lost some positions due to collisions in front of me. I was very close to George on the last lap, but not close enough to overtake him. It was a nice race and thanks to the Eurointernational team as the car was very good.”
Harvey leads the points standings by a commanding 33 points from Frijns with Timmy Hansen in third, the Swede losing ground on the two ahead, only managing a sixth place in the race.
