Thread: Chris van der Drift

far out this guy is a machine. i have followed his career for a couple of years now, but this year he is on fire. it's such a waste that he can't find enough sponsors to raise the money required for a GP2 challenge.

so far this year out of the 2 and 1/2 formula masters rounds (5 races) he has claimed all 3 poles (i don't count race 2 as getting pole as it is reverse top 8 grid)

Valencia-pole by 0.034s
Pau-pole by 1.209s
Brno-pole by 0.894s

ok while round one he only just got pole round 2 and 3 he smashed the field and they are identicle cars apart from basic setups.

then he won
valencia race 1 by 10.094 seconds
valencia race 2 by 5.555 seconds (after reverse top 8, he started 8th)
Brno race 1 by 8.632 seconds

Pau was unlucky for van der Drift. after pulling out to a 5 second lead in the first 4 laps disaster struck when heading into the hairpin his gear box broke and he couldn't change down.

Then Pau race 2 after starting 28th he finished 9th which on a narrow street circuit to improve 19 places isn't to bad. he did get up to 5th in this race but on the lap he went from 9th to 5th the red flag came out and positions were reverted to when they last crossed the line.

Originally Posted by Driverdb

Yeah, Chris is the real deal. Winning the IFM championship this year (which I'm pretty sure he will do) will probably mean that he can attract more sponsors and the other upside with being a champion is that the price for seats in GP2/World Series won't be as expensive as they would be for the not so successful drivers.

Watched the Brno race yesterday and he just sailed away. A rather boring race though.

Plus if he wins the championship and gets the chance to test with Honda and puts in some good times he will be able to get some good sponsors.

It will be interesting to see which passport he races under if he does ever make it to F1. after his last A1 rookie session he said to the New Zealand media after being asked if he will ever drive the Netherlands car that he was Kiwi through and through and that if he gets an A1 drive it will only be for the black car.

Originally Posted by FAlonso

btw .. how do u pronounce R?ikk?nen

Just like so

www.forvo.com/word/kimi_r?ikk?nen/

Get that tongue workin' on those RRRRR's