EU 2000: Donington Park race one notes

Hat-trick for Kobayashi

By taking his third victory of the season, Kamui Kobayashi (Prema Power Team) makes excellent progress in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 standings. Especially given that Michael Ammermoller and Yann Clairay both abandoned! Adrian Zaugg (Jenzer Motorsport) and Ben Hanley (Cram Competition) were the other two drivers on the podium.

Kamui Kobayashi got off to a perfect start. But the same couldn't be said for Ben Hanley who was passed by both Jenzer Motorsport cars. The young British driver soon found himself under pressure from Yann Clairay (SG Formula). Right from the start, Kobayashi lost no time in building a lead of two seconds over Adrian Zaugg. Yann Clairay started to attack Michael Ammermoller after having found a way past Hanley before the end of the first lap.

Daniel Serra (Cram Competition) then span his car right in the middle of the field, but the chasing drivers managed to avoid him. It was Kasper Andersen (Team Formula Sport) who came off worse in the opening laps, as he was forced into the pits. In the main field, Bertrand Baguette (Epsilon Euskadi) made a mistake handing 8th place to Aleshin. Mustonen, Rocha, Raikhlin and Molina also took the opportunity to get past the Belgian driver.

With three laps gone, Kobayashi and Zaugg already seemed to have put themselves out of their rivals reach. But the battle for third between Ammermoller, Clairay and Hanley was far from over! A little further back, Carlo Van Dam (SG Formula) was gradually extending his lead over Xavier Maasen (JD Motorsport).

On lap 5, Yann Clairay and Michael Ammermoller collided with each and both ended up in the gravel trap. As a result, Hanley was in line for the third podium spot! At the midpoint of the race, the race order seemed to have settled down for the leaders with some major gaps opening up at the front. Kobayashi, who kept on improving on the fastest lap, was followed by Zaugg, Hanley, Van Dam, Maasen, Mustonen, Aleshin, Rocha and Raikhlin.

Miguel Molina (Pons Racing), who had been looking good for tenth, then gave way to David Oberle (Team Jenzer) and Julien Canal (Graff Racing). He dropped back yet another place when he was passed by his teammate Dani Clos!

On the final lap, Patrick Rocha (Prema Power Team) managed to get the better of Michael Aleshin (Lukoil Racing Team) to cross the line in 7th. Rocha, who seemed to be out of luck in the final stages, collided with Raikhlin just before the finish line but there was no change in the race order!

Kamui Kobayashi: "It was a fantastic race, in which everything went well from start to finish. Tomorrow I'm starting from pole position once again. I simply have to do the same as I did today to move a little bit further up the overall standings. The team have worked very hard for this result."

Adrian Zaugg: "This is my first race on this circuit. I got off to an excellent start and was able to hold my position from there."

Ben Hanley: "It's a good result for my first race in the Eurocup, even if I could have hoped for something a little better starting from the front row. But my start wasn't good and that made the rest of the race difficult. I put in some good times in the race though and I feel that I could get another good result tomorrow."

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