The World Series by Nissan is a single-make, two-heat formula series in which all cars are fitted with Nissan VQ engines. Round Two of the series was contested at Zolder in Belgium where Tiago Monteiro of Portugal dominated both heats and set a record for this series of two consecutive wins.
In Heat One, Monteiro got off to a flying start from pole-position and by Lap 3 had already opened up a convincing lead of five seconds over his nearest rival. He continued ahead of the pack until the checkered flag. Monteiro commented, "In the beginning I raced with the total absorption of a qualifying heat. Even so, I never imagined that I could create such a gap over second place so early in the race. I may have been in the lead, but in fact it wasnft such an easy victory as people imagine.
Second place went to Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi while Narain Karthikeyan from India took third.
Despite Bernoldi running off the track once, the gap never closed to a point where Karthikeyan posed a threat to him.
In Heat Two, Monteiro started from third place with old tires. He made a poor showing from the grid but after a pit-stop and once he had overtaken the front runners, the Finn Heikki Kovalainen and Frenchman Tristan Gommendy, the pattern of the race changed.
Kovalainen was making up ground when he made a mistake that caused him to run off the track, leaving Monteiro to hang on and take out the second heat. Monteiro expressed his delight at the win, telling the crowd of 39,000, "Our team is delighted to have been able to carve out a slice of history. Despite being familiar only with the nature of the course when we first arrived, our race preparation from Thursday until the weekend was perfect."
Details of race results are as follows:
