Round 10 - Hungary (Hungaroring)

ACE SERIES

1995/96 Pole Position:	1:10.819 (Rene Smit)
1995/96 Race Time:	1h39m37.331 (Stephen Leary)
Race Distance:	77 laps

Qualifying

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Hans Gunnar Hansen	FORT-Jiuqi	1:11.023		20
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:11.122	+0.099	16
3.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:11.693	+0.670	14
4.	Reinhold Schatzer	RST Racing	1:11.712	+0.689	12
5.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1:11.829	+0.806	10
6.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:11.912	+0.889	8
7.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1:11.959	+0.936	6
8.	Nuno Maltez	Maverick	1:11.964	+0.941	5
9.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1:11.974	+0.951	4
10.	Ignacio Garcia	IGC Racing Team	1:12.130	+1.107	3
11.	Stephen Orr	Ant Hill Mob Racing	1:12.309	+1.286	2
12.	Juha Hyvonen	FORT-Jiuqi	1:12.652	+1.629	1
13.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1:12.810	+1.787
14.	Andrew Clark	Ant Hill Mob Racing	1:13.024	+2.001
15.	Paul Branney	Team Ecosse	1:14.663	+3.640

At the beginning of the so incredible 'popular' Hungarian GP, Oliver Roberts had to fight for the lead with Nuno Maltez. The Maverick driver was able to stay ahead of last year's champion until lap 9 but from then on Oliver was in the lead, doing what he did at most of the race before. But on the Hungaroring the drivers stayed together for a much longer period than on most other circuits: 8 drivers were still within 30 seconds by lap 20. While Oliver was in the lead now, Maltez was able to hold his 2nd position until lap 18, then he was overtaken by Michal Janak. Lap 21 saw the retirement of Stephen Orr just three laps before it was time for new tyres for all the drivers. Maltez was first in the pits (lap 24) and after Steffen Diener was the last to make his stop in lap 32, the first part of work for the pitcrews was done. After the stops, Roberts, Janak and FORT-Jiuqi's Hans Gunnar Hansen were able to build up a lead on the rest of the drivers.

But Oliver's lead melted from 13 seconds in lap 28 down to 4 seconds in lap Lap 44. Hansen dropped out of the battle for the victory when he came into the pits in lap 45, following his 3-stop strategy. Although he was in the lead in laps 60 and 61, it was mainly due to the fact that Oliver and Michal made their last stop while Hans Gunnar still had to come into the pits once. His third stop then set him back on 3rd again.

Meanwhile, a number of drivers were battling for 4th position: Martin Devine and Markus Kruggel were alternately holding the position between lap 28 and 58. It was Maltez who had this position from lap 59 to lap 63 but then Kruggel was able to overtake Maltez and defend the 4th place until he saw the checkered flag.

After their second stops in lap 59, Michal wasn't able to follow the pace that Oliver set on the front and so Oliver's lead grew from the 4 secs before the stop to 24 seconds at the end of the race. His team mate just managed to stay ahead of Hansen, who finished less than two seconds behind him.

The last laps saw two late retirements: Martin Devine on 7th position ended the race in lap 70, and Andy Clark just needed about one mile to complete his race when he crashed out :-(

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1h40m10.628		175
2.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1h40m35.529	+0:24.901	170
3.	Hans G. Hansen	FORT-Jiuqi	1h40m37.305	+0:26.677	165
4.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1h41m36.073	+1:25.445	160
5.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1h41m56.600	+1:45.972	155
6.	Nuno Maltez	Maverick	1h42m02.949	+1:52.321	151
7.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1h42m22.616	+2:11.988	147
8.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1h42m50.449	+2:39.821	143
9.	Ignacio Garcia	IGC Racing	1h43m23.139	+3:12.511	139
10.	Andrew Clark	Ant Hill Mob Racing	76 laps		135
11.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	69 laps		132
12.	Juha Hyvonen	FORT-Jiqui	45 laps		129
13.	Stephen Orr	Ant Hill Mob Racing	20 laps		126
14.	Paul Branney	Team Ecosse	0 laps		123

Race Statistics

Pos	Car	Driver	Fastest Lap		LL/TL	Pitstops		Avg. Grip	Tyre Usage
Pos	Car	Driver	Time	Lap #	LL/TL	Stops	Avg. Length	Avg. Grip	A	B	C	D	Q	W
1.	1	O.Roberts	1:13.181	70	69/77	2	0:19.863	93			59	18
2.	2	M.Janak	1:13.225	75	0/77	2	0:21.517	93			59	18
3.	10	H.G.Hansen	1:13.170	73	2/77	3	0:20.800	94			27	50
4.	7	M.Kruggel	1:14.203	68	0/77	2	0:23.178	93			58	19
5.	33	S.Diener	1:14.477	70	0/77	2	0:20.961	93			77
6.	29	N.Maltez	1:13.059	76	6/77	2	0:19.772	91				77
7.	8	A.Bruns	1:14.166	72	0/77	2	0:19.995	92			62	15
8.	5	A.Strang	1:14.644	72	0/77	2	0:25.527	93			58	19
9.	15	I.G.Cuadrado	1:14.536	72	0/77	3	0:35.569	92			77
10.	4	A.Clark	1:14.990	72	0/76	2	0:37.000	93			60	16
11.	39	M.Devine	1:14.536	64	0/69	2	0:24.191	93			56	13
12.	9	J.Hyvonen	1:18.278	42	0/45	1	0:26.434	91		27	18
13.	3	S.Orr	1:20.219	19	0/20	0		94				20

Fastest Lap: 1:13.059 Nuno Maltez (Maverick) LR
(Old Lap Record: 1:13.816 by O.Roberts 95/96)

Some of the driver statements

Andy Clark (Ant Hill Mob Racing): "Boo hoo !!!! sniffle sniffle !! wail wail !! sob sob !! I cant believe it. Crashed out over half way round the last lap :( If anyone wants me, i`ll be in the cupboard ... sulking !!"

Hans Gunnar Hansen (FORT-Jiuqi): "Didn't have any major problems in the race, but instead I lost quite a lot of time lapping the CC's. (...) I thought I would go a lot faster this year than last year, but I didn't. Felt good, but I'm afraid it's not good enough for a top place."

Michal Janak (Digitech): "Race I ended very happy, because this race ended for me in best possible way, I bettered my last year time in about 1m20s and my FL was better than last year race record."

Oliver Roberts (Digitech): "I decided to use a similar setup and tyre strategy to last season, with a few tweaks on the gear ratios and brake balance. It seemed to work pretty well and the last 10 laps were really satisfying."

Alan Strang (Team Ecosse): "Using my set-up and Oliver's strategy from last season, I found the car surprisingly easy to drive. Unfortunately, this didn't provide me with a possible race-winning time. However, if it hadn't been for the processions of computer cars and a few small errors, I'm sure I could have been at least a minute faster. Still, I'm very satisfied with the result, especially after my Lola-like performance at Hockenheim."

Martin Devine (Enigma Racing): "The increased testing time paid off - almost. The new-look silver and black Enigma was eight laps short of finishing its first race! I had a very easy race - just overtake a green-and-black roadblock every few laps until about lap 60. Then I found out why I hadn't found much traffic - there was a queue of at least 10 CCs in front of me. Two minor disagreements with a Williams lost me about 20+ seconds, and then I tried an impossible overtake... This was a much better race, though. Hopefully, I'll carry this into the Easter races."

Last modified: Monday 14 July 1997 - 18:02