EU 2000: Valencia race two notes

Total domination

Four races, four pole positions and four wins for Michael Ammermuller (Jenzer Motorsport)! The German has crushed all his rivals in dominating the start of the season. Romain Grosjean (SG Formula) made in onto the podium for the second time this weekend. The Japanese driver Hiroyuki Matsumura (Graff Racing) took a sensational third place in only his third ever race in motorsport!

Once again Michael Ammermuller got off to the best start and took the opening corner in the lead. Romain Grosjean was caught off guard by Kamui Kobayashi (Prema Power Team), who moved past him into second place. Xavier Maasen (JD Motorsport) locked his brakes end the end of the straight and ended up taking a slight detour via the gravel pit.

At the end of the first lap, Ammermuller had already built up more than a second lead over Grosjean, who had got past Kobayashi, a move that also allowed Matsumura to overtake his fellow countryman! These four were followed by Carlo Van Dam (SG Formula), Reinhard Kofler (Cram Competition), Ulric Amado (Graff Racing), Daniel Serra (Cram Competition) and Yann Clairay (SG Formula), chased hard by Junior Strous (Mr. Glow Motorsport).

Clairay picked up a drive-through penalty for a flying start. The race at the front might have been pretty static, but the same could not be said of the battle for places in the group led by Ulric Amado. Every corner was providing a chance for Adrian Zaugg (Jenzer Motorsport), Franck Mailleux (SG Formula), Bertrand Baguette (Epsilon Euskadi) and Junior Strous to attempt to move past the guy in front on braking. Baguette and Strous' even earned themselves a warning from the Race Director for their overly-aggressive driving.

Further back in the field, Westley Barber (Comtec Racing) locked up and ran into Julien Canal (Graff Racing). Both cars ended up in the gravel pit.

Adrian Zaugg made an error which allowed Baguette and Strous past, now up into the top 10. As for Dima Raikhlin (SL Formula), his race was brought to an end when he ran into the gravel pit.

With ten laps gone, Ammermuller's lead was over three seconds. Grosjean was still lying second on his own, whilst Matsumura remained under attack from Kobayashi. Van Dam, Kofler and Amado were lapping in group of their own. The top 10 was completed by Serra, Baguette and Zaugg, who had moved back ahead of Strous.

The Spanish drivers weren't destined to reign in their home land. Miguel Molina and Dani Clos, for example, the two Pons Racing drivers were forced to abandon in quick succession! And another Spaniard, Juan Antonio del Pino could only finish 12th after a fine battle with Baguette and Strous.

The fight for places still wasn't quite over in the main field: Zaugg overtook Baguette and then set out to take on Serra, but this time, he couldn't find the gap!

Michael Ammermuller: "I didn't expect to win another two races here. Everything needed to be perfect for me to manage that, and that's just how things were -- perfect!"

Romain Grosjean: "I don't think I am going to continue to compete in Eurocup, because my priority is still the French championship. It'll be difficult to decide what to do at Le Mans, particularly as I'm now in second place in the championship."

Hiroyuki Matsumura: "It's fantastic to make it onto the podium in only my third race in motorsport. The car was perfect."

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