JD Motorsport's Chris van der Drift secured his fourth victory of the season in today's race at Brands Hatch, England, despite starting the race in sixth place.
The 22-year-old New Zealander was promoted to fourth on lap one when Trident Racing's Kasper Andersen failed to start and Jenzer Motorsport's Fabio Leimer was slow away from the grid.
Starting from pole, van der Drift's team-mate Sergey Afanasiev lost his position to ADM Motorsport's Norbert Siedler in the first corner. An incident on lap 13 involving himself, Siedler and ISR's Filip Salaquarda, saw Siedler and Salaquarda retire, whilst Afanasiev was later disqualified from a second place finish for causing an avoidable collision.
Having started in eleventh place, Cram Competition's Marcello Puglisi made up four places on lap one and stayed out of trouble for the rest of the race, which earned him a third place finish. The Italian was later promoted to second, following Afanasiev's exclusion.
British driver Michael Meadows also enjoyed a quieter race, which was rewarded by finishing third for Euronova Racing, from a tenth place start. Daniel Mancinelli secured his best finish of the season with a fourth place on his first outing for Scuderia Famà.
Euronova Racing's Alberto Costa also claimed his best finish of the season with a fifth place, whilst Iris Project's Michael Ammermüller secured sixth, despite qualifying in P14 earlier today.
ADM Motorsport's Michele Caliendo clinched his first points of the season, with a seventh place finish whilst Tim Sandtler secured the last point available today and will start tomorrow's race on pole position thanks to the Formula Master reverse grid regulation.
Euronova Racing claimed the best team-mates accolade for today's race with Meadows and Costa's respective third and fifth place finish. Meadows' best season finish also earned him today's best rookie mention.
Chris van der Drift, JD Motorsport
"Qualifying was good and then we found out afterwards that I had been demoted five places, which would obviously make a huge difference for the race. But at the start Kasper [Andersen] pulled into the pits and Fabio [Leimer] was given a penalty. I knew everyone in front of them would be hard to pass, but with the incident between Norbert [Siedler] and Filip [Salaquarda], I managed to move up to the front all at once.
"Passing is very difficult here so we were lucky today! With the incident between Norbert and Filip, you could make a picture of what was going to happen. It was lucky they went into the gravel and didn't stop in the middle of the track.
"I'm not sure where Michael [Ammermüller] finished in the race, but with the reverse grid tomorrow he will get good points. Starting in eighth, I will have to look for opportunities and have some luck to get more points and keep the lead in the title fight."
Marcello Puglisi, Cram Competition
"I had a great start and overtook four cars, and then I just kept my position. I was quite fast but it's difficult to overtake. It is very easy to make a mistake so on the restarts I kept space from the people in front and watched my mirrors.
I wasn't too aggressive, kept my rhythm and hung onto my position; the other drivers did the rest!"
Michael Meadows, Euronova Racing
"This is a surprise but a good one! Starting tenth on the grid, I was aiming for eighth to make something of tomorrow's race so to find myself with a top three results is great.
I didn't have a great start but luckily all the incidents happened ahead of me so in a way, it was the easiest podium in the world! Joking aside, it's great to do well at Brands Hatch and I hope tomorrow is as good."
Eurosport's coverage for Formula Master's race weekend in England, continues tomorrow with race two shown live on Eurosport 2 and Asia Pacific at 15:15 (CET).
For more information and today's full results, please visit www.formulamaster.net
- Aurélie Donzelot - also photo
