Kiwi wins in Assen

Previous

Next

Chris van der Drift has won his first Superleague Formula race for Greek giants Olympiacos in race two at Assen in Holland

Van der Drift 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 but I have have won and thats the main thing."

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).

Results - 31 laps:
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