Liverpool wins Estoril race one
Despite only starting from fourth position, Adrian Valles scored his second race win of the Superleague Formula season for Liverpool FC at Estoril in Portugal, on Sunday morning
Valles moved up to third at the start, as fellow second row man Kasper Andersen struggled away in his Olympiakos car. Valles stalked second place man Robert Doornbos of AC Milan in the early stages, but neither could hold a candle to poleman Franck Perera, whose AS Roma car shot off into the lead.
Perera and Valles pitted at the first opportunity, and would encounter drastically different fortunes. Perera had a rear wheel stick, costing him his lead, while Valles had a super-quick turnaround from his Hitech-run crew and rejoined ahead of him.
Doornbos pitted from the lead a lap later, and although he did so ahead of Valles, the Spaniard managed to outbrake him into Turn 6 - the crucial move of the race.
"I had one more lap of heat in my tyres," said Valles. "I think that was crucial."
Doornbos admitted: "He had better momentum and he passed me fair and square."
Perera chased Doornbos home in third, but was never close enough to attempt a passing move of his own. Corinthians' Antonio Pizzonia was the fastest man on the track in the closing stages, and passed Davide Rigon (Beijing Guaon) for fourth at Turn 7 with a handful of laps remaining.
Rigon, whose car lost pace in the closing laps, just held fifth from Andy Soucek, who set fastest lap for Atletico Madrid as he charged up from the sixth row of the grid.
Series leader Beijing Guaon has now lost a heap of points to Liverpool, and will be hoping to stay ahead in this afternoon's reverse grid race.
Pos Driver Team Time 1 Adrian Valles Liverpool 46:44.582 2 Robert Doornbos AC Milan + 0.948 3 Franck Perera AS Roma + 2.067 4 Antonio Pizzonia Corinthians + 3.108 5 Davide Rigon Beijing Guoan + 8.918 6 Andy Soucek Atletico Madrid + 9.243 7 Alessandro Pier Guidi Galatasaray + 20.472 8 Borja Garcia Sevilla FC + 37.745 9 Yelmer Buurman PSV Eindhoven + 38.932 10 Kasper Andersen Olympiacos + 41.163 11 Tuka Rocha Flamengo + 1:14.376 12 Paul Meijer Al Ain + 1:14.914 13 Ryan Dalziel Rangers + 1:29.690 14 Craig Dolby RSC Anderlecht + 1 lap 15 Dominik Jackson Tottenham Hotspur + 1 lap Not classified Driver Car Laps Tristan Gommendy Porto 25 laps Enrico Toccacelo Borussia Dortmund 6 laps Max Wissel FC Basel 0 laps
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