Round 12 - Italy (Monza)

ACE SERIES

1995/96 Pole Position:	1:15.519 (Oliver Roberts)
1995/96 Race Time:	1h11m09.830 (Michal Janak)
Race Distance:	53 laps

Qualifying

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:15.141		20
2.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1:15.324	+0.183	16
3.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1:15.465	+0.324	14
4.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:15.486	+0.345	12
5.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:15.502	+0.461	10
6.	Ignacio Garcia	IGC Racing Team	1:15.753	+0.612	8
7.	Hans Gunnar Hansen	FORT-Jiuqi	1:15.766	+0.625	6
8.	Reinhold Schatzer	RST Racing	1:15.775	+0.634	5
9.	Juha Hyvonen	FORT-Jiuqi	1:15.831	+0.790	4
10.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1:15.858	+0.717	3
11.	Martin Devine	Enigma	1:15.925	+0.784	2
12.	Nuno Maltez	Maverick	1:16.451	+1.310	1
13.	Paul Branney	Team Ecosse	1:16.646	+1.205
14.	Andrew Clark	Ant Hill Mob Racing	1:17.053	+1.912
15.	Derek Waters	Maverick	1:17.179	+2.038

Just like in the GP of Belgium, Reinhold Schatzer took the lead immediately after the start, and this time he enjoyed it significantly longer than in the 11th round of the championship. In fact he dominated the first third of the race although many other drivers managed to keep in touch with the leader. So it was no surprise to see Steffen Diener in the lead between lap 8 and 10 but Reinhold took it back and defended it until his first stop in lap 17.

A large number of different pit strategies made it difficult to judge how the race would develope. As a result of this, the field was messed up frequently during the 2nd third of the race. Michal Janak was leading the race right after Reinhold went into the pits, but he lost his position to Maverick's Nuno Maltez after his own stop in lap 21. Then again, Michal was in first when Nuno visited his crew in lap 26. Now Reinhold and Oliver Roberts were behind him in second and third.

While Michal and Oliver were driving similar lap times, Reinhold was a bit slower and lost some 1 to 2 seconds per lap. So Oliver passed him and was the only driver to compete with Michal for the victory from now on.

Meanwhile the drivers behind him put pressure on Reinhold: Hans Gunnar Hansen and Steffen Diener were coming closer and in lap 47 Schatzer had to let Hans Gunnar pass after they battled for this positon for a number of laps. In the very last lap Reinhold was overtaken by Diener and had to be satisfied with the 5th place at Monza.

On the front, Michal made his last stop in lap 44 for a set of D tyres. Of course, this stop let Oliver came nearer but Michal managed to stay ahead of his team mate and win the GP.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1h11m26.472		175
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1h11m32.475	+0m06.003	170
3.	Hans Gunnar Hansen	FORT-Jiuqi	1h12m01.991	+0m35.519	165
4.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1h12m07.999	+0m41.527	160
5.	Reinhold Schatzer	RST Racing	1h12m08.216	+0m41.744	155
6.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1h12m28.490	+1m02.018	151
7.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1h12m39.286	+1m12.814	147
8.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1h12m39.389	+1m12.917	143
9.	Nuno Maltez	Maverick	1h12m47.304	+1m20.832	139
10.	Ignacio Garcia	IGC Racing Team	1h13m29.071	+2m02.599	135
11.	Derek Waters	Maverick	1h14m00.283	+2m33.811	132
12.	Andrew Clark	Ant Hill Mob Racing	1h14m15.538	+2m49.066	129
13.	Juha Hyvonen	FORT-Jiuqi	1h15m21.156	+3m54.684	126
14.	Martin Devine	Enigma	48 laps		123
15.	Paul Branney	Team Ecosse	20 laps		120

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.	2	M.Janak	1:16.408	49	33/53	2	0:20.498	93			44	9
2.	1	O.Roberts	1:16.680	50	0/53	2	0:16.992	93			21	32
3.	10	H.G.Hansen	1:16.093	53	1/53	2	0:19.421	93				53
4.	33	S.Diener	1:16.635	49	3/53	3	0:15.722	94				53
5.	37	R.Schatzer	1:18.282	47	12/53	2	0:17.119	93				53
6.	8	A.Bruns	1:17.209	50	0/53	2	0:19.517	93			41	12
7.	7	M.Kruggel	1:18.052	51	0/53	2	0:18.253	93			21	32
8.	29	N.Maltez	1:18.621	48	4/53	1	0:24.265	92			53
9.	15	I.G.Cuadrado	1:18.565	46	0/53	2	0:32.534	92			53
10.	30	D.Waters	1:18.807	46	0/53	2	0:35.551	93			41	12
11.	4	A.Clark	1:18.665	52	0/53	1	1:07.913	92			53
12.	9	J.Hyvonen	1:18.873	49	0/53	2	0:58.168	92			53
13.	39	M.Devine	1:19.044	47	0/48	2	0:20.641	94			18	30

Fastest Lap: 1:16.093 Hans Gunnar Hansen (FORT-Jiqui)
(Lap Record: 1:16.092 by M. Janak 95/96)

Some of the driver statements

Michal Janak (Digitech): "I started from 2nd place but I didn't stay there for more than few seconds. I climbed to lead and I stay there to end of race. I wasn't happy with stupid CC's which blocked me very often this race. I drowe this race in time about 16secs. longer than my last season winning time."

Oliver Roberts (Digitech): "A good race, but I think I may have lost out in the first 20 laps or so... I couple of times I smashed my fastest lap by 1 second, and I'm sure I could have gone faster before then. I found hard to match these times again. Also, on lap 14 I lost concentration in the middle of the fast double right-hander. I put a wheel on the grass and that was it - I just had to try and stop the car before the wall did :-) That incident cost me 10 seconds. That's about it really - after my first stop I began to feel more confortable and finally got into a steady rhythm."

Hans Gunnar Hansen (FORT-Jiqui): "Well, I don't think I can run much faster on this track, but I had one and a half spin which of course cost me some time. Had some extreme slipstream help on a couple of laps where I put in my lap records (especially the last lap). Ran a two pitstop-strategy with d-tyres all the way. Overall I'm happy with the race, but not the race-time."

Last modified: Monday 14 July 1997 - 17:30