TURN ONE TUSSLES COST MARTIN DEARLY
Australian John Martin has finished 10th in the championship standings after wrapping up his inaugural season of Superleague Formula at Jarama in Spain.
Starting from position 13 in Race 1, Martin charged into the first turn desperate to make up spots but was pushed wide in the midfield melee after locking a brake.
“I just tried to go around the outside at Turn One and it is really dirty off line,” explained Martin. “The minute you go wide you can’t stop and then people were going everywhere around me so I had nowhere to go but across the gravel.”
“I ended up dead last (17th as FC Midtylland’s Kasper Andersen was eliminated at the first corner) and just drove around. But then I caught up to PSV Eindhoven after my stop (on lap 12) and thought I might as well push.”
After passing Carlo van Dam down the straight, Martin’s next target was Enrique Bernoldi the Brazilian yielding 12th place.
With the fellow Alan Docking Racing prepared cars of Julien Jousse (AS Roma) and Antonio Pizzonia (Corinthians) tangling late in the 44 minute plus one lap race, Martin’s Rangers FC machine was up to 10th at the chequered flag.
The race was won by Yelmer Buurman (Anderlecht), ahead of Sebastien Bourdais (Sevilla) and Giorgio Pantano (AC Milan).
The reverse grid moved Martin up to 7th for Race 2 but it did him few favours.
“We were right in the middle of the mess again,” he said. “I made a good start and had picked up three places approaching Turn One. I thought even if I let one go that would be a good start. Then as I was about to turn in I saw Olympiacos (Esteban Guerrieri) all locked up and the other car (van Dam).”
“So I turned towards the gravel and booted it to try and get out of there as they were coming straight for me. I think the car may have been hit by van Dam as it was a little bit damaged but I got away with it.”
From there it was all to do once again and the 25-year-old put his head down and got on with it, posting the then fastest lap of the race on lap 6 following the restart, 1m21.845s, the only driver into the 21s at that point of the race.
Lap 13, his first flying lap after the pitstop, saw the 2006 Australian Formula Ford Champion lower the mark to 1m21.213s, the fourth fastest lap of the race behind Tristan Gommendy’s (FC Porto) 1m20.650s.
“The car was really fast after the changes the guys made from qualifying, but there were only one or two laps where I wasn’t in traffic so the lap times don’t really reflect how good the car was,” said Martin. “It is just so hard to pass around here so once you catch up to a slower car you are stuck there unless you take a big risk.”
From position 12 after his stop, Martin benefitted out of the problems that befell Pantano, Pedro Petiz (Sporting Clube de Portugal) and Bernoldi before he dispensed with FC Basel’s Max Wissel to take over 8th place.
However he then found himself held up by Maria de Villota (Atletico Madrid).
“By the time I got to Maria I only had one push to pass left and had used the best of the tyres,” said Martin. “I tried to pass her and got in there but she outbraked herself so I gave her some room and Max (Wissel) got us back.”
With the laps running out Martin was unable to find a way past the second generation Spanish driver and had to settle for 9th place.
“That’s Jarama 2009 and Superleague Formula 2009 finished,” he said. “Not where we hoped but it has been a good first season with the win in the Super Final at Donington, podiums at Zolder and Donington and the front row start at Zolder.”
Victory in Race 2 went to Galatasaray’s Ho-Pin Tung from a hard-charging Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspur) and Andersen, while fourth place was enough for Liverpool’s Adrian Valles to secure the championship over Dolby.
The €100,000 to win Super Final was taken out by Buurman, ahead of Bourdais and Valles.
Final points: 1st Valles 412, 2nd Dolby 382, 3rd Wissel 308, 10th Martin 241.
