By Ian lockwood
October 2 2006

SHANGHAI, OCTOBER 01 2006 – Robert Doornbos has finished his first race for Red Bull Racing in twelfth position. A start incident in de opening lap probably even prevented the 25-year old Dutchman from scoring points at the Shanghai International Circuit. In the first lap mayhem immediately struck Doornbos as he damaged his front wing in the first corner. After having visited his pit crew briefly, Doornbos rejoined in last position, but immediately started an impressive advance. Within only a couple of laps, Doornbos closed the
14 seconds gap to Albers, Monteiro, Sato and Yamamoto and overtook all four drivers at the same dazzling speed.

With Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher in his sight, Doornbos successfully pushed hard to also catch both Toyota drivers. By driving almost half a second quicker than them, Doornbos quickly caught up and was helped by the retirement of Raikkonen and a spin by Liuzzi. As several drivers (among whom both Toyota drivers and Nico Rosberg) make their first pitstops, Doornbos moved up to P11.

After the Dutchman also made his first regular stop, he rejoined in twelfth position. Though Doornbos pushed hard in the following ten laps he stayed put in that position. As at that moment the track dried up pretty fast, Doornbos also switched to slick tyres in lap 39. With Ralf Schumacher chasing him closely, Doornbos raced towards the chequered flag in fourteenth position, closing up on Nico Rosberg. Though time was simply too short to make a move on the Williams driver, Doornbos still gained one position in the closing stages of the 56 lap race as Felipe Massa retired. Doornbos finally finished his RBR Grand Prix debut in 12th spot.

ROBERT DOORNBOS: “These were certainly not the easiest circumstances to make my RBR race debut. It’s a shame about the start, because I’m sure we at least could have come close to scoring points… Kubica suddenly turned in quite aggressively and drove over my front wing. The way I fought my way back during the race was pretty strong, I think. In hindsight it would have been better to stay on my used intermediates during my first regular stop instead of switching to new ones. But my pace after my second stop was okay, only the rain in the last few laps prevented me from overtaking Rosberg as well. Better luck next time.
I’m glad I’ve demonstrated a solid race pace and the team is happy.
That’s what it is all about at the moment.”