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Monza, 12 September 2010. Formula BMW Europe has ended with a flourish, crowning Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing) as its champion as Jack Harvey (GB/Fortec Motorsports) won the series’ last ever race. This win has also assured Josef Kaufmann Racing of the Teams’ Trophy. After the excitement of race one, Frijns knew he had to finish in the top eight to be assured of the championship and in the end was third, while for Harvey the win was vital to keep his hopes of the title alive. They both drove exemplary races after a battle long season. It was also a memorable race for Rookie driver Daniil Kvyat (RU/Eurointernational) as he was second and on the podium for the first time.

All the action this weekend has been witnessed by BMW Motorsport Director, Mario Theissen, who said after the race: “We have seen an exciting final race to the season with Jack Harvey as a strong winner and Robin Frijns a worthy champion. They were both on the podium so it was a very good outcome for the race. I think the weekend has been an extensive lesson on slip streaming, so they guys are ready now in this area as well. Overall it has been a very good championship. Again we have seen several drivers who will make it through the ranks of formula racing. We are all very proud of what our drivers have achieved in the past ten years. It was great to see more than 20 former Formula BMW drivers here at the Grand Prix weekend in Formula 1, GP2 and GP3 and we shall certainly follow their progress.”

Although Harvey didn’t get the perfect start, as he was headed off the grid by Luciano Bacheta (GB/ DAMS), he soon made up for that by taking the lead into the first chicane. He never lost this and gradually pulled away from the pack behind who had a race long frenetic battle with slip streaming seeing the positions changing on a regular basis.

Once the lights went out Carlos Sainz (ES/Eurointernational) was on the move from 11th on the grid to eighth at the end of lap one. However, Christof von Grünigen (CH/Fortec Motorsports) was soon in the wars and retired on this first lap after going off and hitting the barrier. As the battle at the front continued on lap five George Katsinis (GR/Fortec Motorsports) and Marc Coleselli (AT/Eifelland Racing) collided, with the Austrian making it back to the pits while the Greek remained stuck out on the track.

On lap eight Harvey was leading by 2.4secs with the gaps behind him from Kvyat to Bacheta to Sainz to Frijns being 0.1secs, 0.5secs and 0.3secs. However, on lap nine after a clash of wheels between Bacheta and Sainz with Frijns having to take to the gravel to avoid hitting the DAMS car saw Kvyat break away and build a gap of 3.2secs to Bacheta. The battle continued to the very end with Frijns finally moving up to third on the penultimate lap as he wanted to celebrate his title win on the podium.

1st Round 16: Jack Harvey (GB/Fortec Motorsports): “I was going to do everything to win today, as coming second wasn’t really an option. I needed to win to keep that title hope alive, as you never know what might happen. I had a great car and have been part of a fantastic team. Obviously I have had a great season with seven wins and eight poles. We had some things go against us that were out of our control, and obviously getting knocked off yesterday when I was in second didn’t help. I am gutted not to win the title but feel we did everything we had to do and I have been on the podium 13 times out of the 16 races. However, the results show how competitive BMW is.”

2nd Round 16 and Top Rookie: Daniil Kvyat (RU/Eurointernational): “It was a great race because that was my first podium this year and I am happy. I think I was quite smart with my strategy. I had a lot of fights because of the slip streaming. I was catching Jack on the last laps and was very fast. I really wanted this as I crashed in race one and didn’t give up but pushed and pushed.”

3rd Round 16: Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing): “I was really taking it easy, especially on the first few laps. Perhaps this was a bit too much as everyone else was faster than me. I had a big fight with Luciano and tried to overtake him, which didn’t quite work out. Then Daniil came round, and I let him past and tried to get a good slip stream, and pushed him on the straight to try and get past Luciano. That didn’t work out and then Carlos came round and I let him go. Then Carlos and Luciano touched in the second chicane and I had to go round the outside in the gravel trap. I was lucky I came out and by the end of the race I finally overtook him and finished on the podium again.

“As for the championship, I don’t know just yet how I feel. When I am home I shall be thinking about it and then will feel I am champion, but I don’t at the moment feel this. I can’t quite believe it, especially after yesterday when Jack crashed and I won. That was something I didn’t expect. If you look at the whole year I crashed once and he crashed once, so it is quite equal. Anyway it was quite unlucky for him that he crashed yesterday and let me back in the championship again.”

Monza, 11 September 2010. Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing) won the first race of the Monza weekend and turned the championship battle on its head. Going into the race he was nine points behind Jack Harvey (GB/Fortec Motorsports) in the points’ battle, but coming out he is 21 points ahead. Second in one of the most exciting and incident packed races of the season was Côme Ledogar (FR/Eifelland Racing), while third was Hannes Van Asseldonk (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing), who was also the leading Rookie for the third time this season.

Oil left on the track from the DAMS car of Dustin Sofyan (ID) that broke down on the formation lap to the grid made the first chicane very slippery. As George Katsinis (GR/Fortec Motorsports) led Harvey, Javier Tarancon (ES/DAMS) and Carlos Sainz (ES/Eurointernational) into the corner the action was going on behind them with a collision between Luciano Bacheta (GB/DAMS) and Daniil Kvyat (RU/Eurointernational) seeing them both retire, with Facu Regalia (ES/Eifelland Racing) another driver failing to make the first lap. However, it was on lap two that the championship battle took on a different complexion when Harvey and Tarancon collided in Parabolica and the Brit’s championship hopes took an enormous knock as he was stranded in the gravel trap. Katsinis was still leading and stayed there until overtaken on lap four and being demoted to fourth as Ledogar led from Frijns, who had made his way up from eighth on the grid, with Tarancon third. At the end of laps five and six the gap between Ledogar and Frijns was 0.0secs both times and then on lap seven Frijns made it into the lead. However, it was only for a short while as Ledogar was soon back in front and stayed there until the start of lap 12. As Frijns came over the start/finish line 0.2secs behind he knew exactly what he had to do and took the lead going into the first chicane. In the end he was half a second in front. However, the action had not stopped as on the final lap Michael Lewis (US/Eurointernational) and Katsinis collided. While the American, who had started the race from 15th, finished to take the chequered flag in fifth, the Greek driver retired. 1st Round 15: Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing): “In Monza anything can happen and today it did. I made a good start and was fourth after a couple of laps. I didn’t see what happened between Jack and Javier but knew Jack was out. Côme was fast on the striaghts, but I knew what I had to do on the last lap and I did it and overtook him. I was actually thinking what to do a few laps from the end when I was up to second. It was a bit crazy out there, but I took my chance to overtake and this worked out fine..” 2nd Round 15: Côme Ledogar (Eifelland Racing): “I think that was the most exciting race of my career. I made a good start and made up some positions. I was fighting a lot with Robin and then on the last lap he overtook me, so he did a better job than me. I also knew during the race he wanted to win the championship and so did not want to crash, but it was still a hard race.” 3rd Round 15 and Top Rookie: Hannes Van Asseldonk (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing): “I am obviously very happy, but that was a very difficult race. I started form 12th after a bad qualifying so this is great. My start was okay but not the best, and it was slippery in the first corner because of oil on the track. I braked on the outside and overtook a lot of people. But then I let both Robin and Facu go by. It was pretty crazy out there with the slip streaming, but it was fun. It was sad for Jack for this to happen in a race for the championship, but similar things happened to Robin earlier this year.”