Doornbos takes strong fourth at Norisring.

Robert Doornbos continued to stake his claim as one of the most promising Formula Three racers in Europe by taking a hard-earned fourth place in Sunday's Euro Series race in sweltering conditions at the Norisring, and moving from seventh to fifth position in the drivers' standings.

After a superb third qualifying position for Sunday's race, Doornbos was close to qualifying his Ghinzani car on the front row for race one, the session for which was held on Saturday morning. The Dutchman held second fastest time until the last few minutes of the session but, as several other drivers improved their lap times despite a yellow flag situation, he dropped to eleventh position.

After a strong start to the first race, Doornbos was able to overtake five cars at the tight opening hairpin, moving to sixth place as a result, only for newcomer Marcel Lass?e to run into him from behind. The resulting spin left the Dutch driver in 26th position and with a lot of work to do.

With great determination, Doornbos clocked the fastest lap time on four consecutive occasions in the remaining 20 laps, climbing to twelfth position as a result.

"It's incredible to believe that ten drivers notched their quickest time [in qualifying] with yellow flags, and that I was forced to start front the sixth row," he sighed, "The set-up of my car today was really great and, if I could have started from my original second position, I'm sure I would have battled for victory."

In race two, the Dutch driver made another very quick start, threatening the leaders before settling back into third place after a strong battle with Prema driver Robert Kubica and Frenchman Alexandre Pr?mat.

Doornbos maintained his third position for three laps, waiting for an appropriate moment to overtake those ahead of him, and then, on lap four, another car again made contact with his. The Team Ghinzani driver regained the track in ninth position and again began pushing very hard to regain as much lost ground as possible. In all, he made up five places, getting back to a fourth position that he was able to maintain until the chequered flag.

"I'm a little bit disappointed because, if I had not been touched, I would have finished at podium," he said, obviously frustrated, "Again, my car was really good and we are on the right track. I think it is also very important to be as constant with our performances as possible, so I'm really happy with my five championship points."