The 2008 Donington Park Superleague Formula round was the inaugural round of the Superleague Formula championship, with the races taking place on 31 August 2008. Seventeen football teams were represented on the grid, with a win each for Beijing Guoan and Sevilla FC.
Report
Qualifying The first ever qualifying session for Superleague saw the introduction of a new qualifying system. Following a random draw which split the seventeen-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. This meant that in Group B, fifth placed Al Ain (Andreas Zuber) and sixth placed Borussia Dortmund (Nelson Philippe) would both miss out on qualifying for the knockout stages, despite recording a time some four tenths of a second faster than fourth-placed Group A qualifier Galatasaray S.K. (Alessandro Pier Guidi). After negotiating their way through the knockout stages, Sevilla FC (Borja García) and Beijing Guoan (Davide Rigon) would meet in the final. In the one-lap shootout, Rigon came out on top by 0.822 seconds and would become Superleague's inaugural pole-sitter.
Race 1 The race began with a rolling start, to eradicate a potential chink in the 750 bhp car's armour, and would also delay the introduction of pitstops until the next round. From the start, the Olympiacos car of Kasper Andersen got a fantastic run from fourth on the grid, and was alongside Rigon as the grid headed for Redgate. However, he ran wide and fell back to fourth behind García and a fast-starting Yelmer Buurman in the PSV Eindhoven car. This would become fifth by the end of the lap, as Duncan Tappy also got by, in the Tottenham Hotspur machine. The safety car was deployed on lap three, as A.C. Milan and CR Flamengo had both gone off at Coppice with engine failures on the first and third laps respectively. There were further problems down the field with a midfield incident between Philippe and Andy Soucek in the SC Corinthians car and both would later retire from the race. Enrico Toccacelo would also become a factor in the race, having started sixth in the A.S. Roma car, moving up to third which became second, as García had to shift to manual gear-shifting after developing a problem on down-shifts. Toccacelo did get to within a second and a half of Rigon, but the Italian in the Chinese team's car would hold on, to be the first race-winner of the series. Toccacelo finished 2nd, while Tappy just held off Buurman for the final podium spot. Star of the race though, fell to Adrián Vallés. Having missed qualifying due to an electrical problem, the Liverpool F.C. car charged through from 17th on the grid, to finish fifth ahead of the other finishers Zuber, Tristan Gommendy (F.C. Porto), Ryan Dalziel (Rangers F.C.), Max Wissel (FC Basel 1893) and the troubled García. Of the seven retirees, six were down to technical problems.
Race 2 A storm engulfed the track, before the start of race two. With the reverse grid system in use, A.C. Milan were expected to start on pole, but did not start due to the fuel-system failure that took Robert Doornbos out of the first race. This put Flamengo on the pole, and would give Tuka Rocha an advantage at the start of the race. Rocha sped away into the distance as all hell broke loose behind. Zuber would go off at the Old Hairpin, who would later deploy the safety car and Philippe, who had challenged Rocha at Redgate, spun down to fifth at Coppice, letting Pier Guidi, Wissel and García through. As quickly as the safety car had gone in, it was back out again after Dalziel and latterly Pier Guidi had both gone off at Hollywood and Wissel had run wide at Melbourne in the Basel car. This left García to charge down Rocha at a rate of knots, and with eight laps to go, caught and passed Rocha in the Melbourne Loop and scampered off to a 10.074-second victory over Rocha. The battle for the final podium spot was decided on lap twenty, when Philippe slid sideways and knocked on his pit-lane limiter which allowed Vallés, who started 12th on the grid into third and third in the championship. Tappy, Rigon, Wissel, Buurman, Gommendy, Toccacelo and Andersen completed the finishers as 11 of the 16 starters finished the race. Rigon's first and sixth allowed Beijing Guoan to be seven points clear of Tottenham and Liverpool in the standings.
Results
Qualifying In each group, the top four qualify for the quarter-finals.
Group A Pos.TeamDriverTime 1 Sevilla FC Borja García 1:19.822 2 PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman 1:19.872 3 Olympiacos CFP Kasper Andersen 1:20.035 4 Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi 1:20.087 5 R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby 1:20.685 6 CR Flamengo Tuka Rocha 1:24.359 7 FC Basel 1893 Max Wissel no time 8 Liverpool F.C. Adrián Vallés no time
Group B Pos.TeamDriverTime 1 Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon 1:18.746 2 A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos 1:19.155 3 A.S. Roma Enrico Toccacelo 1:19.562 4 Tottenham Hotspur Duncan Tappy 1:19.580 5 Al Ain Andreas Zuber 1:19.640 6 Borussia Dortmund Nelson Philippe 1:19.671 7 F.C. Porto Tristan Gommendy 1:20.440 8 SC Corinthians Andy Soucek 1:20.511 9 Rangers F.C. Ryan Dalziel 1:20.584
Knockout stages
Grid Pos.TeamDriverTime 1 Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon 1:18.529 2 Sevilla FC Borja García 1:19.351 3 PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman 1:19.565 4 Olympiacos CFP Kasper Andersen 1:20.244 5 A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos 1:20.173 6 A.S. Roma Enrico Toccacelo 1:19.977 7 Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi 1:20.683 8 Tottenham Hotspur Duncan Tappy 1:19.690 9 Al Ain Andreas Zuber 1:19.640 10 Borussia Dortmund Nelson Philippe 1:19.671 11 F.C. Porto Tristan Gommendy 1:20.440 12 SC Corinthians Andy Soucek 1:20.511 13 Rangers F.C. Ryan Dalziel 1:20.584 14 R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby 1:20.685 15 CR Flamengo Tuka Rocha 1:24.359 16 FC Basel 1893 Max Wissel no time 17 Liverpool F.C. Adrián Vallés no time
Race 1
Pos No Team Driver Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts. 1 12 Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon2841:29.425 1 50222 A.S. Roma Enrico Toccacelo28 +2.577 6 453 19 Tottenham Hotspur Duncan Tappy28 +14.909 8 404 5 PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman28 +15.305 3 365 21 Liverpool F.C. Adrián Vallés28 +20.184 17 326 6 Al Ain Andreas Zuber28 +22.996 9 297 16 F.C. Porto Tristan Gommendy28 +23.675 11 268 17 Rangers F.C. Ryan Dalziel28 +24.571 13 239 10 FC Basel 1893 Max Wissel28 +25.449 16 2010 18 Sevilla FC Borja García28 +29.431 2 1811 14 SC Corinthians Andy Soucek14 Alternator 12 1612 9 Olympiacos CFP Kasper Andersen10 Water Temp. 4 1413 4 Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi9 Engine 7 1214 8 R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby7 Engine 14 1015 11 Borussia Dortmund Nelson Philippe6 Acc. Damage 10 816 7 CR Flamengo Tuka Rocha2 Engine 15 717 3 A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos0 Engine 5 6 Fastest lap: Davide Rigon (Beijing Guoan) 1:20.183 (112.243 mph)
Race 2
Pos No Team Driver Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts. 1 18 Sevilla FC Borja García2241:56.268 7 502 7 CR Flamengo Tuka Rocha22 +10.074 1 453 21 Liverpool F.C. Adrián Vallés22 +12.224 12 404 11 Borussia Dortmund Nelson Philippe22 +14.962 2 365 19 Tottenham Hotspur Duncan Tappy22 +23.666 14 326 12 Beijing Guoan Davide Rigon22 +24.681 16 297 10 FC Basel 1893 Max Wissel22 +27.225 8 268 5 PSV Eindhoven Yelmer Buurman22 +42.915 13 239 16 F.C. Porto Tristan Gommendy22 +54.513 10 2010 22 A.S. Roma Enrico Toccacelo22 +57.398 15 1811 9 Olympiacos CFP Kasper Andersen22 +59.946 5 1612 14 SC Corinthians Andy Soucek19 Accident 6 1413 4 Galatasaray S.K. Alessandro Pier Guidi8 Accident 4 1214 17 Rangers F.C. Ryan Dalziel6 Accident 9 1015 6 Al Ain Andreas Zuber0 Accident 11 816 8 R.S.C. Anderlecht Craig Dolby0 Engine 3 7DNS 3 A.C. Milan Robert Doornbos Engine 0 Fastest lap: Yelmer Buurman (PSV Eindhoven) 1:40.926 (89.174 mph) Olympiacos CFP started from the pitlane.
Notes First race: All teams and drivers First pole (Driver): Davide Rigon First pole (Team): Beijing Guoan First win (Driver): Davide Rigon & Borja García Last win (Driver): Borja García First win (Team): Beijing Guoan & Sevilla FC First podium (Driver): Davide Rigon, Enrico Toccacelo, Duncan Tappy, Borja García, Tuka Rocha, Adrian Valles First podium (Team): Beijing Guoan, A.S. Roma, Tottenham Hotspur, Sevilla FC, CR Flamengo, Liverpool F.C. Last podium (Driver): Enrico Toccacelo, Borja García, Tuka Rocha First fastest lap (Driver): Davide Rigon & Yelmer Buurman First fastest lap (Team): Beijing Guoan & PSV Eindhoven World Feed Commentators: Jonathan Green & Bruce Jouanny
References
External links