Cole Collier Wins At Monza To Close The Gap On Brook Johnston's Lead!

Formula BMW International's Round 6 race at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy proudly waved the Canadian colors for Cole Collier with a much anticipated win on Sunday.

The week in Monza proved to be a very disastrous time for many teams, with the exception of a solid Euronazionale team. The week's events started with a terrible crash by championship points leader Brook Johnston of Sauber Red Bull Racing on the previous Sunday's testing session, hospitalizing the American driver with critical injury.

That same testing day, Pierre Antwon of Italy's Pagiuni Racing team also sustained several car problems, hitting the wall soon after Johnston, yet he ended up walking away from the accident with no injuries.

While things were starting to look terrible for Sauber Red Bull Racing, American Matt Jaskel stepped up to the plate with a terrific qualifying session to take the pole on Saturday, followed by Sciuto and Collier. 

Sunday's race was quite exciting with the absence of points leader Brook Johnston, and there was much opportunity in the air for many of the teams in the points standings.

The race started out with Sciuto overtaking Jaskel on the first lap of the race, dropping the Sauber Red Bull driver and giving the Italian crowd something to cheer about.

Hideki Mato of Japan spun his car in turn 4 on lap 32, bringing out the first caution flag of the day. On the restart, Cole Collier passed Matt Jaskel for second place and worked his way up, battling Sciuto for the lead.

Collier made a crisp pass after a short mistake in turn 5 by Sciuto on lap 47, leading Collier all the way to victory. Collier took home a much-needed 10 points, with Sciuto and Jaskel following in second and third place.

Things are looking much stronger for the pre-season favorite, team Euronazionale, with a much needed dominance by Collier.

After his win, Collier told the press, "Things were very lucky for me this weekend and the team did an excellent job. I really wanted to win and I look forward to fighting again for the championship lead."

This week's interesting changes have put Cole Collier in second, just ahead of Matt Jaskel in the points at 39 points to Jaskel's 38. However, injured Sauber Red Bull driver Brook Johnston still remains in the championship lead with a total 43 points.

However, Johnston is losing his hope of winning this year's championship due to severe injury. Sauber Red Bull had no comment to the press as to whether their injured star would be coming back to race in Germany in a few weeks.

Instead, Sauber have put much more hope into Matt Jaskel's championship drive. Sauber Red Bull's Mark Spire told the Italian press, "We are still here to win a championship! We are working very closely with Brook on easing him into the car again, however we are going to be heavily reliant on Jaskel's efforts at the moment."

Germany awaits the Formula BMW International series next, where we will see if there is any fight left in the American points leader. Will Canada's Cole Collier be flying the red and white banner over Sauber Red Bull's head?

With a tighter race for the championship, Germany may well decide who makes it or breaks it for this year's crown!