Chris van der Drift wins 2008 Formula Master title

JD Motorsport's Chris van der Drift won the 2008 Formula Master title today in Monza, although it was Jenzer Motorsport's Fabio Leimer that claimed the victory in the Series' round 15.

Both van der Drift and Leimer fought for the lead throughout the race, using safety car restarts to pass each other on several occasions; Leimer eventually took the win, his third of the season.

Van der Drift finished second, claiming his ninth podium finish of the year and the Drivers' title, ahead of newcomer Mihai Marinescu in third. Pro Motorsport's Marinescu climbed from a fifth-place start to secure third on his first weekend in Formula Master.

Having started sixth, Cram Competition's Arturo Llobell drove a clean race and was promoted to fourth after incidents involving Sergey Afanasiev and Norbert Siedler allowed Llobell through.

Trident Racing's Harald Schlegelmilch secured fifth ahead of Cram Competition's Frankie Provenzano whose sixth place awarded the Italian his second points-scoring finish of the season.

Team JVA's Josef Kral finished today's race in seventh place. Starting in P10, the Czech was sixth as the safety car came out at the end of lap one, following an incident involving ISR's Filip Salaquarda and both Scuderia Famà cars.

ISR's Tim Sandtler claimed the last points-scoring position this afternoon in eighth place, and will start tomorrow's race, the last Formula Master round of the season, on pole.

Leimer's win promoted him to second in the Drivers Classification as well as awarding him the Best Rookie accolade. Cram Competition drivers Llobell and Provenzano secured the Best Team-mate award thanks to their respective fourth and sixth place finish.

Ammermüller won the Rookies Classification, securing a testing session in the Indy Lights in the United States, whilst JD Motorsport's van der Drift and Vladimir Arabadzhiev are leading in the Team-mates classifications.

"We had an amazing race and I'm really happy to have moved in front of Michael [Ammermüller] in the classification. I was worried about starting in third but Yuhi [Sekiguchi] didn't start from his spot so that was ok. The rest of the race was between Chris [van der Drift] and I, so I made the most of the restarts after each safety car period and managed to take the win!

"Tomorrow, the important thing for me is to finish in front of Michael [Ammermüller]. The track makes it easy to overtake and I think we can get to the front. I must get more points than him to stay second in the championship and win the GP2 test."

"It's absolutely amazing! It's my first year as champion after four years of racing in European championships. The season has been so good; the team has done really well. We took pole position seven times during the season, it's a pity I didn't get it in Estoril as well to make it all eight!

"I'm really looking forward to the Formula 1 test with the Honda Racing F1 team; it's going to be awesome! I've already tested in GP2 and now F1. It's the biggest thing; you can't get any higher than that so it's a pretty big deal and it's thanks to winning the Formula Master title.

"In today's race, it was pretty much impossible to stay in front after a safety car period here as the straights are long. Whatever gap you try and make before the safety car pulls in, the guy behind you has already caught you halfway down the straight."

"I saw the accident on the first lap and just tried to keep clear of everything. The team have done a really good job to make this result possible. It's a really good car and as soon as I sat in it I felt at home in it. The car is perfect and the set-up was fantastic."

Eurosport's coverage for Formula Master's race weekend in Monza continues tomorrow with race two shown live on Eurosport 2 at 14:15 (CET).

For more information and today's full results, please visit www.formulamaster.net  

- Aurélie Donzelot -