EU: Series Hockenheim preview

Back to Hockenheim after two years.

Munich. As the German Grand Prix alternates between the Nurburgring and Hockenheim for all but one of the Formula BMW Europe drivers the next races on the calendar will be on virgin territory. Facu Regalia (AR/Eifelland Racing) was a Rookie two years ago, but he is hoping to be fighting for a win when the series starts the second half of the season in Hockenheim.

It will also be a baptism of fire for Indonesia's Dustin Sofyan. He is currently competing in Formula BMW Pacific, but will race in Germany as a guest driver for DAMS. He will actually be the second youngest driver on the grid as he turns 16 four days after the race.

With half the season behind them, it is Jack Harvey (GB/Fortec Motorsports) who is leading the championship standings and has five wins and five poles to his name so far. His nearest competition has come from Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing) who is just 35 points behind, and has two wins to his name. In the Rookie Cup Carlos Sainz (ES/Eurointernational), has won this category in seven of the eight rounds to date, and in Silverstone became the first 15-year-old winner of a European race. His Russian team-mate, Daniil Kvyat, is the only other winner of the Rookie class. Fortec Motorsports is leading the Teams' standings with 316 points, and second is Josef Kaufmann Racing on 274 points.

Regalia is hoping to put to good use his advantage of having raced at the track in 2008 and his comments were: "In Germany there are two really nice tracks at the Nurburgring and Hockenheim and I love both of them. Hockenheim is a really good track and I think one of my favourites in the championship. I think it will be a fun race as there are plenty of places to overtake and it is quite wide for this. In Hockenheim we can have strange weather, either very hot, as it is summer, or very heavy rain showers. We have no idea what will happen, but I would like the weather dry. It was sunny in 2008 with dry conditions, so it would be nice to have this again. Anyway, whatever the conditions are I am really looking forward to it."

While there are no German drivers in the series, this could be called a home race for the one Austrian in the series as it is the neighbouring country even though Salzburg, where BMW Junior driver, Marc Coleselli (AT/Eifelland Racing) comes from, is about 500 kilometres away. Talking about the track where the drivers tested at the beginning of June he said: "I am looking forward to what is the nearest track to my home town. This was the last track we tested at and I liked it a lot. It has some very quick corners, and I have a lot of confidence in these corners. A good qualifying is important here. There is a big arena section at the end of the lap where all the grandstands are and I know it is important to do well here as there are some tricky corners. After my best weekend of the season in Silverstone I am really looking forward to getting some more good results."

The timetable for Hockenheim is back to the usual one for Grands Prix with free practice from 08.50 to 09.15 on Friday, and qualifying a short while later from 12.50 to 13.15. Then the first of the two 13 lap races on the 4.574 kilometre track will be at 09.45 on Saturday and the second on Sunday at 08.30.

-source: fbmw eu