Van der Drift gives Olympiacos pole

Olympiacos driver van der Drift dipped into the 1m18s bracket to defeat the local Anderlecht car of Rigon by 0.411 seconds around the former grand prix venue, a sensational effort given the fact that his tyres were getting less effective with each run.

"Finally! I'm ecstatic to get pole," said van der Drift. "The group session went well, and then I kept getting quicker and quicker, which I think was just me getting more and more out of the car."

Rigon said: "It's the home race for the club, so I'm happy to get to the final. It's a fantastic result for us today, and I think we'll be quick tomorrow too."

In the first semi final, Rigon scraped through by 0.03s, after giving away a tenth of a second to Robert Doornbos (Corinthians) in the first sector. He had reversed that to a 0.05s advantage in sector two, and just held on to progress to the final.

"We're team-mates, so we copied each other's set-ups," revealed Doornbos. "I ran a bit wide at Turn 1, and got a bit of dirt on the tyres for Turns 2 and 3, but three hundredths over a lap is nothing. We had a pole position car."

In the second semi, van der Drift shaded Max Wissel (FC Basel) with a stellar lap that was almost two tenths of a second faster, the Kiwi beating the German in every sector of the lap.

In the first quarter final, Doornbos beat Marcos Martinez (Sevilla) with ease by over three quarters of a second. The second was a thriller, as van der Drift gave away two tenths in the first sector, but aced the remainder of the lap, and overturned the deficit into a 0.048s advantage to knock out Yelmer Buurman (AC Milan), who appeared to slide at Bolderbergbocht, perhaps enough to make the difference.

Championship rivals Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspur) and Wissel went head-to-head in the third quarter-final, and the contest did not disappoint. Wissel was up by 0.02s in sector one, but Dolby turned that into a 0.075s advantage in sector two, only for Wissel to strike back to win by 0.152s after Dolby admitted he got too much wheelspin exiting Bolderbergbocht.

The final quarter was the most routine, as the ultra-smooth Rigon dispatched James Walker (Liverpool) by 0.841s.

In the group stages, Doornbos topped the first session, despite a grassy moment on the exit of Turn 1, ahead of Wissel, Walker (who escaped a quick trip through the Turn 1 gravel) and Buurman. Out at this stage went Duncan Tappy, who spun the Flamengo car into the gravel at Bolderbergbocht.

This caused consternation among his fellow non-qualifiers, who could not improve their times, and who included series returnee Andy Soucek (Sporting Lisbon), Julien Jousse (Roma), Tristan Gommendy (Galatasaray) and Maria de Villota (Atletico Madrid).

"It's very unlike me to put a car in the gravel like that, I'm really disappointed with myself and maybe I overdrove it," said Tappy.

Gommendy added: "We were quick in practice, I was pushing like hell, but I couldn't do better. I had massive understeer and touching [bottoming] at the front-end."

In Group B, van der Drift headed the times from Rigon, Dolby and Martinez. Knocked out were John Martin (Beijing Guoan) - who had an on-track spat with Narain Karthikeyan (PSV Eindhoven) who also went out - as well as Alvaro Parente (Porto) and newcomer Jaap van Lagen (Bordeaux), the latter spinning off at Kanaalbocht right at the end of the session.

"I don't know what he [Karthikeyan] was doing, I was on my first flying lap, which is the best one on new tyres, and he screwed us over really," said Martin. "We needed that first lap and didn't get it."

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time       Session
 1.  Chris van der Drift  Olympiacos             1m18.721s  Final
 2.  Davide Rigon         RSC Anderlecht         1m19.132s  Final
 3.  Max Wissel           FC Basel               1m19.055s  Semi 1
 4.  Robert Doornbos      Corinthians            1m19.075s  Semi 2
 5.  James Walker         Liverpool FC           1m20.137s  Quarter 4
 6.  Craig Dolby          Tottenham Hotspur      1m19.181s  Quarter 3
 7.  Yelmer Buurman       AC Milan               1m19.104s  Quarter 2
 8.  Marcos Martinez      Sevilla FC             1m19.416s  Quarter 1
 9.  Duncan Tappy         Flamengo               1m19.774s  Group 1
10.  John Martin          Beijing Guoan          1m19.377s  Group 2
11.  Andy Soucek          Sporting Clube         1m19.793s  Group 1
12.  Jaap van Lagen       Girondins de Bordeaux  1m19.718s  Group 2
13.  Julien Jousse        AS Roma                1m19.852s  Group 1
14.  Narain Karthikeyan   PSV Eindhoven          1m19.931s  Group 2
15.  Tristan Gommendy     Galatasaray            1m20.026s  Group 1
16.  Alvaro Parente       FC Porto               1m20.164s  Group 2
17.  Maria de Villota     Atletico de Madrid     1m20.881s  Group 1