Soucek takes dominant win at Oschersleben
Spaniard seals fourth victory of season
Andy Soucek scored a dominant victory in the opening race at
Oschersleben today (Saturday), converting pole position into his
fourth win of 2009.
The Spaniard made a clean getaway from the line to lead the pack
into the first corner, but behind him several drivers were caught
out as Tobias Hegewald made contact with Robert Wickens,
tipping him into a spin.
Wickens had initially got the jump on Mirko Bortolotti, but the
Italian responded by sneaking back through on the inside. Hegewald
tried to follow suit, but he made his move too late and clipped the
Canadian's Red Bull-backed car. A multi-car accident followed as
several drivers tried to take avoiding action - the incident left
Hegewald, Julien Jousse, Jens Höing, Miloš
Pavlović and Philipp Eng out of the race, whilst Robert
Wickens, Jolyon Palmer and Jason Moore had to rejoin towards the
rear of the field. Mikhail Aleshin was also lucky to continue after
briefly becoming airborne.
The incident led to a safety car period, but Soucek
maintained his lead from the restart and never looked back as he
took victory by just over six seconds. "It always looks easy but it
never is," said Soucek. "I got a very good start, quite
similar to the one I got at Donington. Through the race I was just
focussing on not making any mistakes, but I was really pushing hard
- I got the fastest lap by far, so I'm going to sleep well tonight.
I think now I can try and go for the win again tomorrow!"
Mirko Bortolotti, who had started alongside Soucek in second,
also maintained position to score his fourth podium of the season.
"I have to be happy with second," said Bortolotti. "Of course I
would like to be quicker and be able to fight for victory, but the
positions are good at the moment. My target for the next race
is to go like this, try to pick up points, and if possible go for
the podium or even the win."
Kazim Vasiliauskas picked his way through during the opening lap
mayhem to take third from sixth on the grid, and the Lithuanian
kept a consistent pace to take the final podium spot at the finish.
"I'm improving every weekend," commented Kazim. "The gap
between myself and the leaders is getting smaller - I'm getting
consistent and not making so many mistakes like in the beginning of
the season, and I'm happy to be on the podium."
Carlos Iaconelli, Mikhail Aleshin and Nicola De Marco were
covered by less than 1.5s in fourth, fifth and sixth
respectively. All three had battled their way past Jack Clarke
during the contest, whilst De Marco moved up several places. The
young Italian's race included impressive moves on both Natacha
Gachnang and Armaan Ebrahim.
Starting from 15th on the grid, Clarke took a fantastic seventh
place after picking his way through the early melee. He was running
as high as fifth at one stage, but he struggled with a loss of
downforce due to a damaged front-nose following contact with
another driver early on. Wickens rounded out the points-paying
positions with a storming recovery drive - the 20-year-old made
aggressive moves past Natacha Gachnang and Armaan Ebrahim. Both
Ebrahim and Wickens even had time to recover from a trip
across the grass at turn 11 after the pair made contact during an
enthralling scrap.
Ebrahim took ninth, ahead of a gutsy drive from debutant
Ollie Hancock. The Briton saw off the attentions of both Gachnang
and Edoardo Piscopo, before his race ended following a
spin coming out of turn two on the penultimate lap.
Fortunately the race was red flagged and Hancock was able to keep
his tenth place finish as the results were counted back to the
previous lap.
Race one - Oschersleben - Provisional
Classification:
1. Andy Soucek, 25 laps
2. Mirko Bortolotti, +6.653s
3. Kazim Vasiliauskas, +11.169s
4. Carlos Iaconelli, +17.794s
5. Mikhail Aleshin, +18.747s
6. Nicola De Marco, +19.217s
7. Jack Clarke, +28.770s
8. Robert Wickens, +29.351s
9. Armaan Ebrahim, +34.990s
10. Ollie Hancock, +37.254s