Official Test:
On Friday Morning in Zolder an official 3-hours free practise had
taken place during the rounds 3 and 4 of this year´s Formula BMW
Europe Championship. At the beginning of the practise the track was
very wet and all drivers were out on wet tires. At that point all 3
Kaufmann Drivers had been within the Top 5 at all time. At the end
of the session the track was completly dry and all drivers had been
on track with slicks. Kazeem Manzur had a little moment and went off
the track and damaged his car slighlty what forced him to stop in
the pits. Esteban Gutiérrez and Marco Wittmann also showed a very
strong performance on the dry track. With very fast laptimes both
Kaufmann Drivers set the pace beeing 1st (Gutiérrez) and 2nd
(Wittmann) at the end of the session.
Free Practise:
In the free practise the things didn´t change much. Gutiérrez again
set the fastest lap, Teammate Wittmann was 3rd fastet and young
Kazeem Manzur again made a little mistake and had to stop at the
pits, but still was 10th fastest.
Qualifying:
In the Qualifying the Kaufmann Drivers could again repeat their
performance of the free practise. Esteban Gutiérrez qualifyied on P2
and P3, Marco Wittmann in the other way beeing on P3 and P2. Kazeem
Manzur unfortunately only qualified two times on P15.
Race 1:
At the start for the first race Esteban Gutiérrez performed very
well and was able to take over the lead in the second corner. After
that the young 16 year old Mexican showed an incredible performance.
Beeing more than half a second per lap quicker than the rest of the
field he just pulled away in the front of the field. In the end he
won his first race with an advance of more than 9 seconds. Teammate
Marco Wittmann first dropped back one position at the start. After
that he was able to gain back his third position and catching up to
the second placed driver. In the end he wasn´t able to start an
overtaking manouver and finished on the podium beeing 3rd. Kazeem
Manzur had very bad luck. In the opening lap he was touched from a
driver behind and was forced to pit. After a little repairing stopp
he could join the race again but finished without any chance on P24.
Race 2:
With a good start Esteban Gutiérrez overtook his Teammate Marco
Wittmann. In the following lap both Kaufmann Drivers took over the
lead of the field. Like in the first race both drivers could pull
away at the front on the field. Gutiérrez and Wittmann had a very
strong and fair race. With identical laptimes they both
had a race without any mistakes and in the end they won with an
advance of over 7 seconds, securing a Kaufmann Double Victory. Kazeem Manzur againg wasn´t very lucky.
After a battle for positions he went a little off line and dropped
back to a disappointing P23. |