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.

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 FC Basel 1893 Max Wissel 1:42.652 2 SC Corinthians Antônio Pizzonia 1:42.960 3 Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi 1:43.363 4 F.C. Porto Tristan Gommendy 1:43.662 5 Olympiacos CFP Kasper Andersen 1:43.690 6 Borussia Dortmund Nelson Philippe 1:43.718 7 Rangers F.C. James Walker 1:44.214 8 Atlético Madrid Andy Soucek 1:44.223 9 A.S. Roma Enrico Toccacelo 1:45.601

Group B Pos.TeamDriverTime 1 A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos 1:42.920 2 R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby 1:43.181 3 Liverpool F.C. Adrián Vallés 1:43.320 4 CR Flamengo Tuka Rocha 1:43.888 5 PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman 1:43.950 6 Tottenham Hotspur Duncan Tappy 1:43.987 7 Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon 1:44.114 8 Al Ain Andreas Zuber 1:44.185 9 Sevilla FC Borja García no time

Knockout stages

Grid Pos.TeamDriverTime 1 A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos no time 2 Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi no time 3 SC Corinthians Antônio Pizzonia 1:42.637 4 FC Basel 1893 Max Wissel no time 5 R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby 1:43.239 6 Liverpool F.C. Adrián Vallés 1:42.534 7 F.C. Porto Tristan Gommendy 1:43.550 8 Olympiacos CFP Kasper Andersen 1:43.690 9 PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman 1:43.950 10 Borussia Dortmund Nelson Philippe 1:43.718 11 Tottenham Hotspur Duncan Tappy 1:43.987 12 Rangers F.C. James Walker 1:44.214 13 Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon 1:44.114 14 Atlético Madrid Andy Soucek 1:44.223 15 Al Ain Andreas Zuber 1:44.185 16 A.S. Roma Enrico Toccacelo 1:45.601 17 Sevilla FC Borja García no time 18* CR Flamengo Tuka Rocha 1:44.626 * - Flamengo were given a ten-place grid penalty for disobeying flags.

Race 1 Pos No Team Driver Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts.1 3 A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos26 46:13.313 1 502 8 R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby26 +6.631 5 453 4 Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi26 +19.978 2 404 17 Rangers F.C. James Walker26 +23.002 12 36 5 12 Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon26 +29.603 13 326 18 Sevilla FC Borja García26 +30.140 17 297 14 SC Corinthians Antônio Pizzonia26 +34.028 3 268 16 F.C. Porto Tristan Gommendy26 +42.546 7 239 10 FC Basel 1893 Max Wissel26 +43.436 4 2010 5 PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman26 +53.033 9 1811 6 Al Ain Andreas Zuber26 +53.541 15 1612 9 Olympiacos CFP Kasper Andersen20 Gearbox 8 1413 19 Tottenham Hotspur Duncan Tappy18 Accident 11 1214 21 Liverpool F.C. Adrián Vallés7 Electrical 6 1015 11 Borussia Dortmund Nelson Philippe3 Engine 10 816 7 CR Flamengo Tuka Rocha0 Accident 18 71722 A.S. Roma Enrico Toccacelo0 Electrical 16 6DNS 15 Atlético Madrid 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 PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman25 46:41.041 7 502 8 R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby25 +0.611 15 45 3 12 Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon25 +1.630 12 40422 A.S. Roma Enrico Toccacelo25 +6.574 1 365 16 F.C. Porto Tristan Gommendy25 +7.914 9 326 3 A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos25 +8.318 16 297 4 Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi25 +8.713 14 268 18 Sevilla FC Borja García25 +9.060 11 239 15 Atlético Madrid Andy Soucek25 +9.418 17 2010 14 SC Corinthians Antônio Pizzonia25 +10.075 10 1811 6 Al Ain Andreas Zuber24 +1 Lap 6 1612 17 Rangers F.C. James Walker15 Spin 13 1413 10 FC Basel 1893 Max Wissel13 Throttle 8 1214 21 Liverpool F.C. Adrián Vallés4 Electrical 3 1015 9 Olympiacos CFP Kasper Andersen2 Accident 5 816 7 CR Flamengo Tuka Rocha1 Accident 2 717 19 Tottenham Hotspur Duncan Tappy1 Accident 4 6DNS 11 Borussia Dortmund Nelson Philippe Engine 0 Fastest lap: Antônio Pizzonia (SC Corinthians) 1:43.463 (111.303 mph)

References

External links