2008 Nürburgring Superleague Formula round

2008 Nürburgring Superleague Formula roundSuperleague Formula round Germany Nürburgring - Grand-Prix Stecke.svg September 21 2008 GER Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany Permanent racing facility 3.199 5.148 26 & 25 ITA A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos by default ITA A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos BEL R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby TUR Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi NED PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman 1:43.890 14 NED PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman BEL R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby CHN Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon BRA SC Corinthians Antônio Pizzonia 1:43.463 13 The 2008 Nürburgring Superleague Formula round was the second round of the inaugural Superleague Formula championship, with the races taking place on September 21, 2008. Eighteen football teams were represented on the grid, one more than at the opening round at Donington Park, with the introduction of the car representing Atlético Madrid driven by Andy Soucek. Other driver changes saw debuts for James Walker (replacing Ryan Dalziel in the Rangers F.C. car) and Antônio Pizzonia (replacing Soucek in the SC Corinthians car - with the Spaniard moving to the new Atlético Madrid car as mentioned above). The meeting saw wins for A.C. Milan and PSV Eindhoven, while Beijing Guoan extended their championship lead to 24 points. Report Qualifying After the random draw which split the eighteen-car field into two groups, the fastest four qualifiers from each progressed into the knockout stages to decide places 1 to 8 on the grid. For the second race in succession, two drivers missed out on places in the knockout stages, despite setting a faster time than the fourth-placed qualifier in the slower group. On this occasion, Group A was the faster group, and saw Olympiacos CFP (Kasper Andersen) and for the second time Borussia Dortmund (Nelson Philippe) miss out on qualifying for the knockout stages, despite recording a time nearly two tenths of a second faster than fourth-placed Group B qualifier CR Flamengo (Tuka Rocha). Having qualified fastest in their respective groups, FC Basel 1893 (Max Wissel) and A.C. Milan (Robert Doornbos) were expected to meet in the final, but Wissel was eliminated by Galatasaray S.K. (Alessandro Pier Guidi) in the semi-final stage, after the German didn't set a time. This semi-final was also the end of the Turkish side's participation in the session, as Pier Guidi had run out of fuel in his machine, thus handing Superleague's second pole to Milan by default.Scuderia Playteam locks out front row with AC Milan on pole superleagueformula.com http://superleagueformula.com/superleague/SF-Clubs/AC-Milan/Local-News/Scuderia-Playteam-locks-out-front-row-with-AC-Milan-on-pole 2008-09-20 2008-10-04 usurped https://web.archive.org/web/20080923044930/http://www.superleagueformula.com/superleague/SF-Clubs/AC-Milan/Local-News/Scuderia-Playteam-locks-out-front-row-with-AC-Milan-on-pole September 23, 2008 Race 1 The race began with a rolling start, just like at Donington but this race saw the introduction of pitstops to the Superleague fray. From the start, the A.C. Milan car of Robert Doornbos got a fantastic jump and would leave Alessandro Pier Guidi's Galatasaray S.K. car behind to battle with the cars of Antônio Pizzonia (SC Corinthians) and Craig Dolby (R.S.C. Anderlecht). Dolby held second for a few yards before Pizzonia took second into turn one. Pizzonia would close up rapidly to the back of Doornbos' car, nearly colliding at some points of the circuit and he led the chasers by a couple of seconds. Following them was the Borussia Dortmund car of Nelson Philippe and the FC Basel 1893 car of home driver Max Wissel. Philippe's stay in fifth was short-lived however, as an engine failure on lap three forced him to retire from the race and would not return to the track for the rest of the meeting. Doornbos began to pull away from his challengers by the time of the pitstops. For the pitstops, only two mechanics per wheel are allowed. Pier Guidi was the first to pit, removing his fairly well worn set of boots off the car, with Dolby, Doornbos and the others bar Pizzonia and Yelmer Buurman's PSV Eindhoven car pitting around half-distance. When Buurman did make his stop, he stalled as he was exiting losing valuable time. He would end up 10th, with the only consolation being a fastest lap of the race. Pizzonia had an equally fraught pitstop, losing half a minute with a stall and would go on to finish 7th. When all the dramas had calmed down, Doornbos held on to win by 6.631 seconds from Dolby with Pier Guidi capitalising on the errors by others to take the final podium spot. Debutant James Walker finished fourth for gers F.C. having started on row six, followed by championship leader Davide Rigon (Beijing Guoan), fellow Donington winner Borja García (Sevilla FC), Pizzonia, Tristan Gommendy's F.C. Porto machine, Wissel, Buurman and Andreas Zuber completed the finishers for Al Ain. Race 2 Following their first race retirement, A.S. Roma (Enrico Toccacelo) was on pole for the reverse grid race. Toccacelo led away, with the Liverpool F.C. car of Adrián Vallés tucking into second place behind the Italian, at the expense of Tuka Rocha in the CR Flamengo machine. His race would be concluded early along with Kasper Andersen (Olympiacos CFP) in a final-corner incident on lap one. Another first lap retiree was Duncan Tappy in Tottenham Hotspur's car having been hit by Zuber at the opening hairpin. Again, there was drama in the pitstops with race leader Toccacelo narrowly avoiding a stray wheel from the car of Walker. Walker would also cause the series' first safety car period when he spun in the Mercedes Arena. From the restart, Toccacelo led away from Buurman, Dolby and Rigon. However, a box of neutrals exiting the opening hairpin saw those three pass the unlucky Italian driver. It would finish in that order, with Buurman holding off Dolby by 0.611 seconds. Gommendy would finish 5th followed home by Doornbos, Pier Guidi, García, Andy Soucek (Atlético Madrid), Pizzonia and again, Zuber completed the finishers. In the championship, Beijing Guoan extended their lead to 24 points over PSV Eindhoven with Sevilla a further seven points behind. Results Qualifying In each group, the top four qualify for the quarter-finals. Group A Pos.TeamDriverTime 1 CHE FC Basel 1893 DEU Max Wissel 1:42.652 2 BRA SC Corinthians BRA Antônio Pizzonia 1:42.960 3 TUR Galatasaray S.K. ITA Alessandro Pier Guidi 1:43.363 4 POR F.C. Porto FRA Tristan Gommendy 1:43.662 5 GRE Olympiacos CFP DEN Kasper Andersen 1:43.690 6 DEU Borussia Dortmund FRA Nelson Philippe 1:43.718 7 SCO Rangers F.C. GBR James Walker 1:44.214 8 ESP Atlético Madrid ESP Andy Soucek 1:44.223 9 ITA A.S. Roma ITA Enrico Toccacelo 1:45.601 Group B Pos.TeamDriverTime 1 ITA A.C. Milan NLD Robert Doornbos 1:42.920 2 BEL R.S.C. Anderlecht GBR Craig Dolby 1:43.181 3 ENG Liverpool F.C. ESP Adrián Vallés 1:43.320 4 BRA CR Flamengo BRA Tuka Rocha 1:43.888 5 NLD PSV Eindhoven NLD Yelmer Buurman 1:43.950 6 ENG Tottenham Hotspur GBR Duncan Tappy 1:43.987 7 CHN Beijing Guoan ITA Davide Rigon 1:44.114 8 ARE Al Ain ARE Andreas Zuber 1:44.185 9 ESP Sevilla FC ESP Borja García no time Knockout stages Quarter-Finals Semi-Finals Pole Shoot Out 70 A1 FC Basel 1893 1:42.481 B4 CR Flamengo 1:44.626 A3 Galatasaray S.K. 1:42.726 B2 R.S.C. Anderlecht 1:43.239 A2 SC Corinthians 1:42.207 B3 Liverpool F.C. 1:42.534 A4 F.C. Porto 1:43.350 B1 A.C. Milan 1:42.338 A1 FC Basel 1893 no time A3 Galatasaray S.K. 1:43.482 A2 SC Corinthians 1:42.637 B1 A.C. Milan 1:42.457 A3 Galatasaray S.K. no time B1 A.C. Milan no time Grid Pos.TeamDriverTime 1 ITA A.C. Milan NLD Robert Doornbos no time 2 TUR Galatasaray S.K. ITA Alessandro Pier Guidi no time 3 BRA SC Corinthians BRA Antônio Pizzonia 1:42.637 4 CHE FC Basel 1893 DEU Max Wissel no time 5 BEL R.S.C. Anderlecht GBR Craig Dolby 1:43.239 6 ENG Liverpool F.C. ESP Adrián Vallés 1:42.534 7 POR F.C. Porto FRA Tristan Gommendy 1:43.550 8 GRE Olympiacos CFP DEN Kasper Andersen 1:43.690 9 NLD PSV Eindhoven NLD Yelmer Buurman 1:43.950 10 DEU Borussia Dortmund FRA Nelson Philippe 1:43.718 11 ENG Tottenham Hotspur GBR Duncan Tappy 1:43.987 12 SCO Rangers F.C. GBR James Walker 1:44.214 13 CHN Beijing Guoan ITA Davide Rigon 1:44.114 14 ESP Atlético Madrid ESP Andy Soucek 1:44.223 15 ARE Al Ain ARE Andreas Zuber 1:44.185 16 ITA A.S. Roma ITA Enrico Toccacelo 1:45.601 17 ESP Sevilla FC ESP Borja García no time 18* BRA CR Flamengo BRA Tuka Rocha 1:44.626 * - Flamengo were given a ten-place grid penalty for disobeying flags. Doornbos claims Superleague pole autosport.com http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70739 2008-09-20 2008-10-04 Race 1 Pos No Team Driver Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts.1 3 ITA A.C. Milan NLD Robert Doornbos26 46:13.313 1 502 8 BEL R.S.C. Anderlecht GBR Craig Dolby26 +6.631 5 453 4 TUR Galatasaray S.K. ITA Alessandro Pier Guidi26 +19.978 2 404 17 SCO Rangers F.C. GBR James Walker26 +23.002 12 36 5 12 CHN Beijing Guoan ITA Davide Rigon26 +29.603 13 326 18 ESP Sevilla FC ESP Borja García26 +30.140 17 297 14 BRA SC Corinthians BRA Antônio Pizzonia26 +34.028 3 268 16 POR F.C. Porto FRA Tristan Gommendy26 +42.546 7 239 10 CHE FC Basel 1893 DEU Max Wissel26 +43.436 4 2010 5 NLD PSV Eindhoven NLD Yelmer Buurman26 +53.033 9 1811 6 ARE Al Ain ARE Andreas Zuber26 +53.541 15 1612 9 GRE Olympiacos CFP DEN Kasper Andersen20 Gearbox 8 1413 19 ENG Tottenham Hotspur GBR Duncan Tappy18 Accident 11 1214 21 ENG Liverpool F.C. ESP Adrián Vallés7 Electrical 6 1015 11 DEU Borussia Dortmund FRA Nelson Philippe3 Engine 10 816 7 BRA CR Flamengo BRA Tuka Rocha0 Accident 18 71722 ITA A.S. Roma ITA Enrico Toccacelo0 Electrical 16 6DNS 15 ESP Atlético Madrid ESP Andy Soucek Alternator 14 0 Fastest lap: Yelmer Buurman (PSV Eindhoven) 1:43.890 (110.846 mph) Race 2 Pos No Team Driver Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts.1 5 NLD PSV Eindhoven NLD Yelmer Buurman25 46:41.041 7 502 8 BEL R.S.C. Anderlecht GBR Craig Dolby25 +0.611 15 45 3 12 CHN Beijing Guoan ITA Davide Rigon25 +1.630 12 40422 ITA A.S. Roma ITA Enrico Toccacelo25 +6.574 1 365 16 POR F.C. Porto FRA Tristan Gommendy25 +7.914 9 326 3 ITA A.C. Milan NLD Robert Doornbos25 +8.318 16 297 4 TUR Galatasaray S.K. ITA Alessandro Pier Guidi25 +8.713 14 268 18 ESP Sevilla FC ESP Borja García25 +9.060 11 239 15 ESP Atlético Madrid ESP Andy Soucek25 +9.418 17 2010 14 BRA SC Corinthians BRA Antônio Pizzonia25 +10.075 10 1811 6 ARE Al Ain ARE Andreas Zuber24 +1 Lap 6 1612 17 SCO Rangers F.C. GBR James Walker15 Spin 13 1413 10 CHE FC Basel 1893 DEU Max Wissel13 Throttle 8 1214 21 ENG Liverpool F.C. ESP Adrián Vallés4 Electrical 3 1015 9 GRE Olympiacos CFP DEN Kasper Andersen2 Accident 5 816 7 BRA CR Flamengo BRA Tuka Rocha1 Accident 2 717 19 ENG Tottenham Hotspur GBR Duncan Tappy1 Accident 4 6DNS 11 DEU Borussia Dortmund FRA Nelson Philippe Engine 0 Fastest lap: Antônio Pizzonia (SC Corinthians) 1:43.463 (111.303 mph) References External links Official results from the Superleague Formula website Nurburgring Superleague Formula Nürburgring Superleague Formula round