Van der Drift wins for Olympiacos
Dutch-Kiwi Chris van der Drift won his first Superleague Formula race for Greek giants Olympiacos in race two at Assen in Holland
He started from the second row of the reversed grid, after gearbox failure took him out early in race one. He trailed poleman Borja Garcia of Sporting Lisbon until the pitstops, when a super-quick stop put him five seconds clear of Garcia.
Craig Dolby (Tottenham) was on a typical charge, and took full benefit of having saved two fresh sets of tyres for this race. He battled his way through to second, passing Garcia at Turn 1 at half-distance.
Dolby chased down van der Drift, but failed by 2.4s to overcome him, but retains his series lead, extending it substantially as many of his rivals failed to score heavily.
"It's absolutely awesome, especially after this morning's race," said van der Drift. "I'm flabbergasted really. It's the home race for me in Europe, so a Dutch guy won the race for the home fans. It was difficult, as I hadn't completed the first race, so I didn't know how I'd last in the race."
Franck Montagny finished third for Bordeaux after another slow pitstop, but at least his clutch did not explode this time, so he finished well clear of Marcos Martinez (Sevilla), Garcia and James Walker (Liverpool).
Sebastien Bourdais failed to start for Lyon due to a seized gearbox.
Results - 31 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Chris van der Drift Olympiacos 45m21.763s 2. Craig Dolby Tottenham Hotspur + 2.457s 3. Franck Montagny Girondins de Bordeaux + 11.395s 4. Marcos Martinez Sevilla FC + 17.578s 5. Borja Garcia Sporting Lisbon + 20.330s 6. James Walker Liverpool FC + 21.522s 7. Yelmer Buurman AC Milan + 24.433s 8. Tristan Gommendy Galatasaray + 25.273s 9. Narain Karthikeyan PSV Eindhoven + 33.683s 10. Davide Rigon RSC Anderlecht + 37.804s 11. Franck Perera Flamengo + 38.858s 12. Julien Jousse AS Roma + 44.914s 13. Max Wissel FC Basel + 50.714s 14. Maria de Villota Atletico de Madrid + 1 lap Retirements: Robert Doornbos Corinthians 0 laps Alvaro Parente FC Porto 0 laps John Martin Beijing Guoan 0 laps Sebastien Bourdais Olympique Lyonnais 0 laps
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