After a successful first outing for the Superleague Formula at Donington Park, it was time to head south to the Nürburgring for round two. Again much uncertainty would surround the event, with the cars having never run competitively on the German circuit. To further add to the racing, the races now feature a Compulsory Pit Stop window, meaning that race order could be completely mixed up by a slower stop.

Robert Doornbos put the AC Milan car on pole position, in a strong drive through Saturday’s qualifying session. His sole aim was to make up for the disappointment of a first lap retirement at Donington, and then not taking part in the second race. He was joined on the front row by the Galatasary car driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi. Former Formula 1 driver, and Superleague Formula debutant, Antonio Pizzonia qualified third in the Corinthians entry, with Max Wissel of FC Basel in fourth.

In the first race AC Milan started perfectly and Doornbos drove the perfect race to shut out the opposition. His racing speed combined with the perfect execution of his compulsory pit stop allowed him to make up for the poor Donington performance in the best possible way. The Anderlecht car driven by Briton Craig Dolby started in 5th, but after some excellent driving and overtaking he managed to take the second step of the podium, ahead of Galatasaray in third. Liverpool FC driver Adrian Valles endured an awful weekend, his car slowed on the out lap to the grid, and even though he eventually started the race, he was forced to retire midway through. He had shown phenomenal speed in the qualifying session, and the early parts of the race. Beijing Gu’aon moved up to 5th at the finish, after starting some way down the pack after a poor qualifying session. Tottenham Hotspur retired late in the race as Duncan Tappy spun off. The marshals took sometime to remove his car, from what was a very dangerous position.

The second race saw the Liverpool FC car take to the grid, and Valles duly made a fantastic start, moving to second by the first corner, and then putting Enrico Toccacelo in the AS Roma car, under massive pressure. No matter what Valles tried he could not find a way past Toccacelo, and it would have been in vain had he managed to pass. Midway into the race, Valles was forced to retire the Liverpool car for the second time in the weekend. This seemed to spur on Max Wissel in the Basel car, as he closed in on Toccacelo from far back, but again the chaser would not finish the race. The pit stops mixed the race order up and left Roma leading, from PSV Eindhoven and Anderlecht. The Rangers car was being driven by debutant James Walker, and aftera good performance in the first race, he spun out in race two. The safety car was deployed, but managed to miss the leader. In reality this was poor, as there was plenty of time to deploy the safety car and pick up the leader. On the restart, Roma went to deep into the first corner and fell to fourth, allowing Yelmer Buurman to take the race win for Eindhoven, and to allow Craig Dolby to take another second place. Davide Rigon took third for Beijing.

So far the Superleague Formula has shown up a few key points. The first is that Davide Rigon is really showing that he can cut it top class single seater racing, purely by the form he has been in for the first two meetings. Secondly, even though he was suffered from bad luck Adrian Valles has the pace in the Liverpool FC car to take race wins, and consistently finish high, even with the reverse grid. Lastly, and good news for Briton, Craig Dolby has been fantastic in the Anderlecht car so far, and I think expectation will soon grant him a race victory.

The next round of the Superleague Formula is from Zolder in Belgium, from the 4th to 5th October 2008.

Final Race 1 Standings (Top 10):
    1.  AC Milan (R. Doornbos)
    2.  RSC Anderlecht (C. Dolby)
    3.  Galatasaray SK (A. Pier Guidi)
    4.  Rangers FC (J. Walker)
    5.  Beijing Gu'aon (D. Rigon)
    6.  Sevilla FC (B. García)
    7.  SC Corinthians (A. Pizzonia)
    8.  FC Porto (T. Gommendy)
    9.  FC Basel (M. Wissel)
   10.  PSV Eindhoven (Y. Buurman)

Final Race 2 Standings (Top 10):
    1.  PSV Eindhoven (Y. Buurman)
    2.  RSC Anderlecht (C. Dolby)
    3.  Beijing Gu'aon (D. Rigon)
    4.  AS Roma (E. Toccacelo)
    5.  FC Porto (T. Gommendy)
    6.  AC Milan FC (R. Doornbos)
    7.  Galatasaray SK (A. Pier Guidi)
    8.  Sevilla FC (B. García)
    9.  Atletico de Madrid (A. Soucek)
   10.  SC Corinthians (A. Pizzonia)

Driver's Championship Standings (Top 10): 
    1.  Beijing Gu'aon       151 Pts
    2.  PSV Eindhoven        127 Pts
    3.  Sevilla FC           120 Pts
    4.  RSC Anderlecht       107 Pts
    5.  AS Roma              105 Pts
    6.  FC Porto             101 Pts
    7.  Liverpool FC          92 Pts
    8.  Tottenham Hotspur     90 Pts
    8=  Galatasaray SK        90 Pts
   10.  AC Milan              85 Pts