Anderlecht’s Craig Dolby salvaged some British pride in Superleague Formula’s second race weekend as Liverpool, Spurs and Rangers all failed to make an impact.
Dolby finished second in both races for the Belgian club, finishing behind ex-F1 racer Robert Doornbos in the first race and former GP2 pilot Yelmer Buurman in the second.
His efforts moved Anderlecht up to fourth in the overall series standings as Liverpool and Tottenham fell from joint second to seventh and eighth. Rangers are 11th after grabbing fourth in the first of the day’s races.
In the first race Doornbos, competing for AC Milan, led from start to finish. Dolby jumped from fifth to third at the start, then gained second after Corinthians stalled during their pit stop.
James Walker, standing in for the absent Ryan Dalziel in the Rangers car, qualified 12th but worked his way up to fourth after the final pit stops and retained the place at the flag, three seconds back from Galatasaray.
Spurs and Liverpool were classified 13th and 14th after neither Duncan Tappy nor Adrian Valles completed the race.
In line with Superleague Formula rules, the day’s second race was run with a completely reversed grid – but Dolby and Doornbos were able to overcome their back row start to finish second and sixth respectively.
Tappy was knocked out of the race on the first lap in a collision with Al Ain, Valles retired from second place on lap five, and Walker span out on lap 16 while defending fourth place from Beijing Gouan, bringing out the safety car.
Enrico Toccacelo led most of the race for AS Roma but fell back with just a couple of laps remaining to allow Buurman’s PSV Eindhoven, Dolby, and Beijing’s David Rigon to fill the podium spots.
Beijing Gouan retained their series lead on 151 points, ahead of PSV on 127 and Seville on 120.
Regular Rangers driver Ryan Dalziel missed the race as he had returned to the US to compete in the Grand Am Series SunRichGourmet.com 1000 for Michael Shank Racing. Teamed with Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri, his car posted the fifth quickest time of the morning practice session and then ran as high as third before an oil pressure warning forced the team to retire from the event.