EU Megane: Valencia race two summary
Heylen does it again Starting from pole, Jan Heylen (Racing for Belgium) gave his rivals no chance, the Belgian leading the race from start to finish. The first three was decided very early on, with Jeffrey Van Hoodonk (Thierry Boutsen Racing), ...
Heylen does it again
Starting from pole, Jan Heylen (Racing for Belgium) gave his rivals no chance, the Belgian leading the race from start to finish. The first three was decided very early on, with Jeffrey Van Hoodonk (Thierry Boutsen Racing), second, and Renaud Derlot (TP Competition), third, lapping on their own throughout the race.
Jan Heylen took full advantage of his pole position to get away quickest on the rolling start, ahead of Simon Abadie (Tech 1 Racing) and Jeffrey Van Hooydonk. Several cars clashed on the second lap, resulting in the retirements of Mathieu Lahaye (Tech 1 Racing), Ludovic Badey (Pouchelon Racing) and Jean-Christophe Ravier (Epsilon Euskadi).
Simon Abadie was overtaken by Van Hooydonk and then by Derlot. The Tech 1 Racing boss then needed all his racing expertise to avoid being overtaken by Cesar Campanico (Racing for Belgium). But the Portuguese driver eventually found the gap and Abadie then found himself under threat from Renaud Kuppens (Thierry Boutsen Racing), Nicolas Gianniberti (Oregon Team), Sebastien Dhouailly, Frederic Gabillon (Team Lompech Sport) and Mike Parisy (Gemo Sport), all very tightly bunched.
At the front, the four leaders had broken away from the other drivers after four laps. Heylen, Van Hoodonk, Derlot and Campanico: the writing was on the wall for the chasing pack -- the first few places appeared to have already been decided.
Behind these four, Gianniberti got the better of Kuppens, while Gabillon overtook his team mate, Dhouailly.
Angel Burgueño (Team Elias), among the back-markers at the end of the first lap, moved up to 12th place with six laps gone. Things were going less well for his team mate, Luis Miguel Reyes, whose race came to an end in the gravel pit, after an incident in the main field.
The group of aggressive young drivers reformed with Kuppens, who stepped out of Gianniberti's slipstream to move past him. Gabillon collected a warning for his slightly over-aggressive driving. Simon Abadie came off worst from this intense battle, falling back to tenth position.
Misfortune then struck Cesar Campanico, who suffered a mechanical problem on the last lap. The Racing for Belgium driver ended the race in only twelfth position.
So, Jan Heylen won for the second time this weekend. Jeffrey Van Hooydonk scored his first points, while Renaud Derlot scored very well again with his top-three finish. Renaud Kuppens finished in fourth, in front of Gianniberti, Gabillon, Dhouailly, Parisy, Abadie and Ten Brinke.
Jan Heylen: "It was difficult to predict that I would win both races, before the weekend. Of course, it's a great result, but I think that it's going to get more and more difficult as the season unfolds."
Jeffrey Van Hooydonk: "I am pleased to be on the podium, which is a richly deserved result for the team who have been working very hard for the last two weeks. My car is reliable and quick now."
Renaud Derlot: "The team have done a great job. We are improving the car every time we take to the track. I attacked hard to stay behind Jeffrey."
<pre> Race 2
POS DRIVER NAT TEAM LAPS TIME GAP 1 J.HEYLEN BEL Racing for Belgium 9 15'06.418 2 J.V.HOOYDONK BEL Thierry Boutsen Racing 9 15'07.836 1,418 3 R.DERLOT FRA TP Competition 9 15'12.125 5,707 4 R.KUPPENS BEL Thierry Boutsen Racing 9 15'23.515 17,097 5 N.GIANNIBERTI ITA Oregon Team 9 15'24.288 17,87 6 F.GABILLON FRA Team Lompech Sport 9 15'24.692 18,274 7 S.DHOUAILLY FRA Team Lompech Sport 9 15'25.347 18,929 8 M.PARISY FRA Gemo Sport 9 15'25.860 19,442 9 S.ABADIE FRA Tech 1 Racing 9 15'27.446 21,028 10 B.TEN BRINKE NED Equipe Verschuur 9 15'30.679 24,261 11 A.BURGUEÑO ESP Team Elias 9 15'31.050 24,632 12 C.CAMPANIÇO POR Racing for Belgium 9 15'33.806 27,388 13 S.PORTEIRO ESP Porfesa Competicion 9 15'35.425 29,007 14 A.ARISTI ESP Epsilon Euskadi 9 15'36.029 29,611 15 F.VERSCHUUR NED Equipe Verschuur 9 15'37.551 31,133 16 J.COPPENS FRA TP Competition 9 15'39.610 33,192 17 M.BENZ SUI Iris Racing 9 15'43.458 37,04 18 A.MAYERL AUT Senn Motorsport 9 15'50.887 44,469 19 P.BALLAY FRA Energy Racing 9 15'53.827 47,409 20 P.MACE FRA TP Competition 9 15'58.688 52,27 21 L.LLOBET ESP Saturn Motorsport 9 16'14.835 1'08.417 22 V.FERNANDEZ ESP Saturn Motorsport 9 16'15.311 1'08.893 23 W.COEKELBERGS BEL Racing for Belgium 9 16'23.118 1'16.700 24 J.MALLAT LBN TP Competition 9 16'26.108 1'19.690 25 J.MORALES ESP Hervas 8 16'44.177 1 lap NC L.REYES ESP Team Elias 5 8'40.311 4 laps NC J.RAVIER FRA Epsilon Euskadi 3 6'33.486 6 laps NC M.LAHAYE FRA Tech 1 Racing 1 1'47.491 8 laps NC L.BADEY FRA Pouchelon Racing 1 1'48.059 8 laps NC P.PETIZ POR Oregon Team
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