Markus Niemelae

Markus Niemelä (born March 20, 1984 in Rauma ) is a Finnish automobile racing driver . His motorsport career has been marked by several injuries.

Career

The young Finn was active in karting from 1998 to 2003 . In 2004 Niemelä won the Swedish and Finnish Formula Ford championship titles . In the following year, Niemelä started in the German Formula BMW and finished seventh in the overall standings. In 2006 Niemelä switched to the British Formula Renault and was seventh in this series. In 2007 Niemelä drove in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and after half a season switched to the GP2 series at BCN Competición . Starting as a replacement for Sakon Yamamoto , the Finn injured his shoulder in his first race in the GP2 series on the Hungaroring . After a break from a racing weekend, he was able to participate in the last three racing weekends again.

In 2008, Niemelä moved to Formula Atlantic in America . He won two races and took the championship title of this series for Brooks Associates Racing. In September, Niemelä took part in test drives of the GP2 series for Racing Engineering .

Career stations

• 1998-2003: karting
• 2004: Swedish Formula Ford (champions), Finnish Formula Ford (champions)
• 2005 : German Formula BMW (7th place)
• 2006: British Formula Renault (7th place)
• 2007 : GP2 series (31st place), Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup (16th place)
• 2008: Formula Atlantic (champion)