The circuit of Adria is a kind of an oversized kart track. Too small, too narrow and too tight for such big cars as the Superleague Formula’s. Overtaking is almost a mission impossible, so it all comes down to proper qualifying because after the start the races turn into a kind of procession. Yelmer, who had been third fastest in free practice, just managed to qualify for the shoot-outs, with a narrow margin over Duncan Tappy. The other group was dominated by Davide Rigon, the fastest man on track and the only one with real track knowledge, having raced there in various series such as Formula 3 and Formule Renault. Rigon was clearly fastest in his group. Bad luck for Yelmer because he had to take on the Italian in het quarter final. The first sector was for Yelmer, with a 0.2 sec advantage. But then he lost it on the kerbs of turn 4. You have to ride the kerbs but not as much as he did. “It was just a little bit over the edge and my car bottomed out on the stones, jumped aside and that cost me about half a second”, Yelmer explained. But all the time he had suffered from severe understeer, making him the one but slowest in sector 3 in his group. Eventually he was qualified 8th on the grid.

As expected there were hardly any position changes but a lot happened during the pit-stops. Yelmer came in one lap earlier than Craig Dolby who he had been trailing all the time. Unfortunately his pit-stop wasn’t as swift as usual and when Dolby rejoined the track a lap later, the cars went side by side into turn 1, following FC Porto’s Alvaro Parente. Yelmer was on the inside but at the exit of the corner Dolby obviously tried to set up his car for a push-to-pass attack on the Portuguese on the following straight and suddenly steered left. There was no way Yelmer could avoid the Tottenham Hotspur-car, his front wing cutting into the Brit’s left rear tyre. Both man had to return to the pits, Yelmer for a new nose cone, Dolby for fresh rubber. Both their races ruined – Dolby 13th, Yelmer 11th – with an angry Briton and a disappointed Dutchman.

Having finished 11th Yelmer was to start the second race from the 3rd row, just behind Dolby. Marcos Martinez took the lead, followed by Celso Miguez, the new Olympic Lyonnais driver, Dolby, Duncan Tappy (Flamengo) and Yelmer. The AC Milan driver was right at Tappy’s tail when he came in for his pit-stop but once back on track the Flamengo had opened a gap of almost 200 yards. Yelmer managed to work his way back to Tappy’s tail but that was about it. For a brief moment Alvaro Parente split the two, having made a very late stop, but he later had to serve a stop and go penalty. Then came Robert Doornbos, closing in real fast. Yelmer visibly struggled with his car but kept the Dutchman at bay, defending in great style. Meanwhile Frederic Vervisch (new in the Liverpool FC car) joined the fighting pair and overtook Doornbos quite easily. And then he passed Yelmer, who was taken by surprise. “He’s my Atech teammate and I was told on the radio that he was to stay behind me. And there he was. Well, he gave that position back a lap later, so on TV it must have looked like two having a nice scrap. At least it looked like action on the track”, Yelmer winked. But he was far from happy, having finished fourth, two places behind Dolby with Rigon coming home eighth. “Before the pit-stop my car was fantastic but with another set of rear tyres it was undrivable. No grip at all coming out of the corners. It was like driving with an egg under my throttle and that with 750 hp!”.

For the first time since long Yelmer hadn’t qualified for the Super Final which was won by Davide Rigon. The Italian scored 17 points more than Yelmer and lags now at only 9 points. Craig Dolby score five more than Yelmer and now has retaken the lead. The next round is at Portimao in Portugal. Another track where Rigon has raced, this time in GP2. “If we want to win the championship we have to raise our game as a team. No more driving errors and faster pit-stops. The latest four lasted much too long, where we had such masterful stops earlier in the season”, Yelmer judges.

Results race 1
1. Davide Rigon (RSC Anderlecht) 40 laps in 45 min. 31.975
2. John Martin (Beijing Guoan) at 3.675
3. Ben Hanley (Olympiacos) at 4.506
4. Max Wissel (FC Basel) at 5.804
5. Julien Jousse (AS Roma) at 20.828
6. Alvaro Parente (FC Porto) at 21.769
11. Yelmer (AC Milan) at 55.204

Results race 2
1. Marcos Martinez (FC Sevilla) 40 laps in 45 min. 53.970
2. Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspur) op 5.651
3. Duncan Tappy (Flamengo) op 9.576
4. Yelmer (AC Milan) op 10.046
5. Frederic Vervisch (Liverpool FC)) at 10.567
6. Robert Doornbos (SC Corinthians) at 11.021

Standings
1. Tottenham Hotspur (Craig Dolby) 518
2. AC Milan (Yelmer) 515
3. RSC Anderlecht (Davide Rigon) 506
4. FC Basel (Max Wissel) 472
5. Olympiacos (van der Drift/Hanley) 468
6. Flamengo (Duncan Tappy) 415