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Free Practise:
The first round of the Formula BMW Europe Season 2008 was held
during the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix at Barcelona. In the free
Practise right from the beginning all Kaufmann Drivers showed a
strong perfomance. Esteban Gutiérrez set the 2nd fastest
time, followed by teammate Marco Wittmann on 3rd. Young
Kazeem Manzur laped 11th fastest time.
Qualifying:
In the Qualifying Session the Kaufmann Drivers didn´t manage to
repeat exact the same performance of the free practise. It turned
out to be very difficult to find a clear lap with all 30 BMW cars on
the track at the same time. Marco Wittmann qualifyied two times
for 3rd position, Esteban Gutiérrez was on P 5 and P 4,
young Rookie driver Kazeem Manzur only managed to qualify on P 15
and P 13.
Race 1:
At the start to the first race Marco Wittmann lost one position and
dropped back to P
4. Shortly later he managed to gain back his position but during
this manover he lost again the position to teammate Gutiérrez.
Kazeem Manzur had a good opening lap and was on P 14. After a few
laps due to a
heavy
crash the Safety Car came out. At the Re-Start the leading
positions didn´t change. Although Wittmann and Gutiérrez were
setting the fastest race laps, they didn´t found a way pass the
drivers in front. Gutiérrez finally finished 3rd in front
of teammate Wittmann on P 4. Kazeem Manzur had some thrilling action
in the middle of the field and finished his first ever race as best
placed Rookie on P 13.
Race
2:
Marco Wittmann again lost a position at the start dropping back to P
4. Kazeem Manzur as well had a very poor Start losing 6 positions
and dropped back to P 19. Only Esteban Gutiérrez managed to gain two
positions at Start and was on P 2 after the first lap. In the
following race laps Gutiérrez set the fastest race lap and was
closing the gap to the leader. In the middle of the race the Safety
Car came out again. At the Re-Start Gutiérrez still was 2nd
but attacked the leader on the outside line at the end of the
Start-Finish Line. Unfortunately he didn´t found a way past the
leader and finished the race on 2nd place, scoring
another podium finish. Marco Wittmann shortly was
on
3rd position but somehow he came a little bit off the
track while overtaking and dropped back to 5th position
at the end. Kazeem Manzur again showed some exciting overtaking
maneuvers during the whole race in the middle of the field and
finished again on P 13. |
