Beijing win Superleague race two
Davide Rigon consolidated Beijing Guaon's lead in the Superleague Formula championship after scorching to victory in the reverse-grid race two at Zolder
The Spa 24 hours GT2 victor had seen his lead slashed to just four points after a disastrous first race, where he collided with AC Milan's Robert Doornbos and failed to finish for the first time this season.
But Rigon made amends with a supreme performance in worsening rain and wind later on.
Rigon made the decisive move at the first corner - sweeping around the outside of polesitter Doornbos (and avoiding contact) to take an early lead. He was itching to break away and build a gap, but the next five laps were lost to the safety car after Antonio Pizzonia beached his Corinthians car in the gravel at the Klein chicane.
At the restart, Rigon streaked away and never looked back. Helped by his rivals squabbling over the minor placings, the Italian led by over six seconds at the end of lap seven.
He stayed smooth and calm and, despite a slight delay at his mandatory pitstop, ran out a comfortable winner by 23.436secs.
Behind, Tottenham's Duncan Tappy scored his best result of the season by clinching the runner-up spot.
The 2007 Formula Renault UK champion ran seventh early on, but slowly moved up the order by both taking advantage of his rivals mistakes and executing some ballsy passing manoeuvres. The most impressive of which came on lap 23, when he dived down the inside of the ailing Enrico Toccacelo (Roma) at turn two to steal second place.
Toccacelo was rapid in the early stages of the race, but his car became a mobile chicane as the track got wetter in the latter stages. The Italian eventually fell to seventh as the chasing pack gobbled him up, led by the hard-charging Yelmer Buurman whose wet-weather prowess carried him to the podium and consolidated second in the championship for PSV Eindhoven.
Doornbos finished an eventful race in fourth spot; just three seconds clear of mightily impressive teenager Max Wissel (Basel).
Race one winner Adrian Valles (Liverpool) drove superbly from the back of the grid, worked his way gradually through the field and demoted the hapless Toccacelo on the last lap of the race to complete the top six.
Anderlecht's Craig Dolby looked strong again in race two, but pulled off at the end of the pit straight on lap 19.
Ranger's Ryan Dalziel also had problems and pulled into the pits to retire at the end of the first lap.
Pos Driver Team Gap 1. Davide Rigon Beijing Guoan 47:23.624 2. Duncan Tappy Tottenham Hotspur + 23.436 3. Yelmer Buurman PSV Eindhoven + 24.504 4. Robert Doornbos AC Milan + 26.176 5. Max Wissel FC Basel + 29.097 6. Adrián Vallés Liverpool + 31.260 7. Enrico Toccacelo AS Roma + 34.194 8. Borja García Sevilla FC + 34.270 9. Kasper Andersen Olympiacos + 34.742 10. Bertrand Baguette Al Ain + 50.926 11. Paul Meijer Borussia Dortmund + 50.948 12. Alessandro Pier Guidi Galatasaray + 51.286 13. Andy Soucek Atletico Madrid + 55.993 14. Tuka Rocha Flamengo + 1:13.191 15. Tristan Gommendy FC Porto + 1:21.368 Retirements Craig Dolby Anderlecht 18 laps Ryan Dalziel Rangers 1 laps Antonio Pizzonia Corinthians 0 laps Fastest lap, Soucek 1:37.370 on lap 11
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