EU: Series Monza race 1 report

Frijns' wins gives him championship lead.

Monza, 11 September 2010. Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing) won the first race of the Monza weekend and turned the championship battle on its head. Going into the race he was nine points behind Jack Harvey (GB/Fortec Motorsports) in the points' battle, but coming out he is 21 points ahead. Second in one of the most exciting and incident packed races of the season was Côme Ledogar (FR/Eifelland Racing), while third was Hannes Van Asseldonk (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing), who was also the leading Rookie for the third time this season.

Oil left on the track from the DAMS car of Dustin Sofyan (ID) that broke down on the formation lap to the grid made the first chicane very slippery. As George Katsinis (GR/Fortec Motorsports) led Harvey, Javier Tarancon (ES/DAMS) and Carlos Sainz (ES/Eurointernational) into the corner the action was going on behind them with a collision between Luciano Bacheta (GB/DAMS) and Daniil Kvyat (RU/Eurointernational) seeing them both retire, with Facu Regalia (ES/Eifelland Racing) another driver failing to make the first lap.

However, it was on lap two that the championship battle took on a different complexion when Harvey and Tarancon collided in Parabolica and the Brit's championship hopes took an enormous knock as he was stranded in the gravel trap. Katsinis was still leading and stayed there until overtaken on lap four and being demoted to fourth as Ledogar led from Frijns, who had made his way up from eighth on the grid, with Tarancon third.

At the end of laps five and six the gap between Ledogar and Frijns was 0.0secs both times and then on lap seven Frijns made it into the lead. However, it was only for a short while as Ledogar was soon back in front and stayed there until the start of lap 12. As Frijns came over the start/finish line 0.2secs behind he knew exactly what he had to do and took the lead going into the first chicane. In the end he was half a second in front. However, the action had not stopped as on the final lap Michael Lewis (US/Eurointernational) and Katsinis collided. While the American, who had started the race from 15th, finished to take the chequered flag in fifth, the Greek driver retired.

1st Round 15: Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing): "In Monza anything can happen and today it did. I made a good start and was fourth after a couple of laps. I didn't see what happened between Jack and Javier but knew Jack was out. Côme was fast on the striaghts, but I knew what I had to do on the last lap and I did it and overtook him. I was actually thinking what to do a few laps from the end when I was up to second. It was a bit crazy out there, but I took my chance to overtake and this worked out fine.."

2nd Round 15: Côme Ledogar (Eifelland Racing): "I think that was the most exciting race of my career. I made a good start and made up some positions. I was fighting a lot with Robin and then on the last lap he overtook me, so he did a better job than me. I also knew during the race he wanted to win the championship and so did not want to crash, but it was still a hard race."

3rd Round 15 and Top Rookie: Hannes Van Asseldonk (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing): "I am obviously very happy, but that was a very difficult race. I started form 12th after a bad qualifying so this is great. My start was okay but not the best, and it was slippery in the first corner because of oil on the track. I braked on the outside and overtook a lot of people. But then I let both Robin and Facu go by. It was pretty crazy out there with the slip streaming, but it was fun. It was sad for Jack for this to happen in a race for the championship, but similar things happened to Robin earlier this year.."

-source: fbmw eu