Round 2 - Brazil (Interlagos)

ACE SERIES

Qualifying
Starting Grid
Race Report
Finishing Order
Race Statistics
Driver Comments
Action Replays
Download Mixed Logfile
Semi-Pro Results

1996/97 Pole Position:	1:08.458 (Oliver Roberts)
1996/97 Race Time:	1h29m08.319 (Reinhold Schatzer)
Race Distance:	71 laps

Qualifying

In his second attempt, HoF leader Alex Barnell achieved his first IAF1GPC pole position. With Ignacio Garcia Cuadrado also scoring points, the Curb Crawlers are the clear winners of the qualifying at Interlagos. This year's session proved again that it's usually thousandths and not tenths that seperate the drivers in the grid at Brazil.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Alex Barnell	Curb Crawlers	1:08.401		20
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:08.520	+0.119	16
3.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:08.585	+0.184	14
4.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:08.605	+0.204	12
5.	Hans Gunnar Hansen	FORT-Jiuqi	1:08.666	+0.265	10
6.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1:08.678	+0.277	8
7.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1:08.925	+0.524	6
8.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1:08.964	+0.563	5
9.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1:09.018	+0.617	4
10.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1:09.058	+0.657	3
11.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1:09.074	+0.673	2
12.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	1:09.117	+0.716	1
13.	James Luscombe	V-Tec F1	1:09.151	+0.750
14.	Juha Hyvonen	FORT-Jiuqi	1:09.155	+0.754
15.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1:09.161	+0.760
16.	Eik Hoffmann	Red Diana	1:09.169	+0.768
17.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	1:09.323	+0.922
18.	Marco Saupe	M-SPEED	1:09.358	+0.957
19.	Anthony Long	P76 Racing	1:09.430	+1.029
20.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1:09.444	+1.043
21.	David Wright	P76 Racing	1:09.454	+1.053
22.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1:09.705	+1.304
23.	Mark McCubbin	McCubbin - Supreme	1:09.819	+1.418
24.	Thomas Bodlien	VW	1:09.867	+1.466
25.	Mike Foreman	Orbitus	1:09.923	+1.522
26.	Willy Maier	Cyclone	1:09.991	+1.590
27.	Jonathan Stead	Team Sted	1:10.086	+1.685
28.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	1:10.588	+2.187
29.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	1:10.634	+2.233

Race

During the first laps that were dominated by Alex Barnell, Markus Kruggel and Oliver Roberts, the field stayed closely together. After 5 laps in front, Markus' lead was taken over by Alex, who defended a small gap over the other drivers: in the lap 15, the first 7 were within just 5 seconds. Lap 16 then brought the first major changes, Markus who was on Ds made his first stop and Alex retired. Asked later about the incident, Alex just said "I guess I've got a lot to learn still". Now Michal Janak was leading, closely followed by team mate Oliver. Hans Gunnar Hansen and Reinhold Schatzer were behind, with only 2 seconds on the leader. However, Reinhold dropped out of the leading group three laps later due to a spin and Nuno Maltez took his 4th position.

Around lap 20, the other drivers began to make their first stop and due to a couple of different race strategies, the pit activities lasted till lap 28. After those planned stops were amde, Reinhold and Mark McCubbin kept their crews busy when they stopped to replace damaged wings.

After this period, Michal was still leading and behind him was still his team mate. Oliver himself was chased by Hans Gunnar. The FORT-Jiuqi driver took 2nd place from Oliver in lap 36, but until Oliver's stop in lap 41 he wasn't able to widen the gap to more than a just second. On 4th was Nuno, far ahead of his team mate Reinhold, who was already 1:30 behind the leader at this point. Unfortunately for Nuno, he retired in lap 46. Asked about the reason after the race, he said: "I was doing a good race, not loosing much time on the grass, until lap 45, when, in a very strange manouver that you'll be able to see in the replay, I managed to lose control of my car and crash hard into the wall, ending my race right there." Alan Strang benefitted from this through gaining 4th place, but he had Mirko Patzenbein just 10 seconds behind.

In lap 51 another period of pit stops began, and again it took a couple of laps until the field was sorted out. Many drivers opted for D compounds for the last part of the race and so did Oliver, but his stop was only partly intended as he also had to replace a rear wing that broke at the end of the start straight in a clinch with an Arrows. The time lost on his in-lap and in the pits threw him back on 5th behind Michal, Hans Gunnar, Alan and Markus. This was the last remarkable incident of the race, and so Michal finished a race in front of Hans Gunnar again, but this time as the winner of the GP. Alan was the 4th driver to achieve a podium place this season.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1h28m23.462		180
2.	Hans Gunnar Hansen	FORT-Jiuqi	1h28m30.740	+0:07.278	170
3.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1h29m24.230	+1:00.768	165
4.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1h29m33.887	+1:10.425	160
5.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1h29m36.702	+1:13.240	155
6.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1h29m40.847	+1:17.385	151
7.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1h29m56.792	+1:33.330	147
8.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1h30m02.679	+1:39.217	143
9.	James Luscombe	V-Tec F1	1h30m04.011	+1:40.549	139
10.	Marco Saupe	M-SPEED	1h30m23.557	+2:00.095	135
11.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1h30m59.023	+2:35.561	132
12.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	1h31m00.690	+2:37.228	129
13.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1h31m15.659	+2:52.197	126
14.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1h31m42.138	+3:18.676	123
15.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	1h31m59.071	+3:35.609	120
16.	Jonathan Stead	Team Sted	1h32m32.730	+4:09.268	117
17.	Anthony Long	P76 Racing	1h32m42.403	+4:18.941	114
18.	Thomas Bodlien	VW	68 laps	(95.8%)	106
19.	Mark McCubbin	McCubbin-Supreme	67 laps	(94.4%)	101
20.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	56 Laps	(78.9%)	82
21.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	45 laps	(63.4%)	64
21.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	45 laps	(63.4%)	64
21.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	45 laps	(63.4%)	64
24.	Alex Barnell	Curb Crawlers	15 laps	(21.1%)	20
25.	David Wright	P76 Racing	1 lap	( 1.4%)	1

New Lap Record: 1:10.422 - Hans Gunnar Hansen (FORT-Jiuqi)

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
1.	2	M.Janak	1:11.140	65	55/71	2	0:18.887	92			54	17
2.	10	H.G.Hansen	1:10.422	63	0/71	2	0:17.586	92			54	17
3.	5	A.Strang	1:10.707	64	0/71	2	0:21.035	92			53	18
4.	7	M.Kruggel	1:11.442	60	5/71	2	0:22.002	92			55	16
5.	1	O.Roberts	1:10.683	64	1/71	3	0:30.712	93			41	30
6.	21	J.Svehlik	1:11.269	67	0/71	2	0:22.940	92			71
7.	40	M.Patzenbein	1:11.764	59	0/71	2	0:25.370	92			52	19
8.	8	A.Bruns	1:11.120	68	0/71	3	0:21.132	93			57	14
9.	25	J.Luscombe	1:10.938	66	0/71	3	0:22.828	93			42	29
10.	45	M.Saupe	1:11.089	63	0/71	3	0:21.783	93			23	48
11.	24	I.Cuadrado	1:10.961	65	0/71	2	0:24.207	92			57	14
12.	14	R.Schatzer	1:11.530	61	0/71	3	0:30.007	92			51	20
13.	31	R.Ziarnik	1:11.277	65	0/71	3	0:37.044	92			34	37
14.	39	M.Devine	1:11.126	64	0/71	4	0:36.153	93			43	28
15.	16	H.Mehl	1:12.996	64	0/71	2	0:27.886	92			54	17
16.	20	A.Long	1:12.037	69	0/71	2	0:37.386	92	26			16
17.	43	T.Bodlien	1:12.088	67	0/68	3	0:24.580	92			21	47
18.	50	M.McCubbin	1:12.687	62	0/67	4	0:38.831	92				67
19.	36	S.Diener	1:12.949	53	0/56	2	0:33.852	90		56
20.	13	N.Maltez	1:13.386	41	0/45	1	0:23.009	92			45
21.	15	A.Maistralis	1:15.046	32	0/45	1	0:23.520	92			25	20
22.	23	A.Barnell	1:14.931	15	10/15	0		93			15

What the drivers said about the race

Michal Janak (Digitech), 1st:
"I used the same pit strategy as last year. I opted for 2 stops (C 26 C 54 D). The car was good to drive especialy on first half. I last laps I can't use the car to its limits, because it was little oversteered. I was surprised, that I overbeet my last year time about 50 seconds. Since this race is Interlagos one of my favorite tracks (I didn't like it very much before)."

Hans Gunnar Hansen (FORT-Jiuqi), 2nd:
"Decided to use exactly the same strategy as last year except for some adjustments to the gear setup. Seemed to work very well as I drove 41 seconds faster than last year. Almost everything went perfectly. Perhaps my most perfect race ever on one of my favourite tracks."

Alan Strang (Team Ecosse), 3rd:
"I had been greatly looking forward to this race - especially after my close second place last season - but at the end it was a real let-down. I am *so* annoyed at myself."

Action Replays

Markus Kruggel (Wild 13):
"I had traffic everywhere, I think I can count the free laps with my fingers! By lap 30 I was so annoyed at the CCs approaching the hairpin of so slowly that I did a bit of slalom once. After I watched the replay, I decided not to do it again, it was quite narrow :-)"
Nuno Maltez (Rocketship):
"I was doing a good race, not loosing much time on the grass, until lap 45, when, in a very strange manouver that you'll be able to see in the replay, I managed to lose control of my car and crash hard into the wall, ending my race right there."
Oliver Roberts (Digitech):
"The race was going ok (apart from the CCs, again) until lap 54, 2 laps before my last scheduled pitstop. I was coming down the start/finish straight, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to get past the Arrows which was further up the road. So, I decided to stay on line and tuck in behind the Arrows and overtake him on the following straight. But, the Arrows braked harder (maybe earlier too) compared to the other cars I had previously approached at that part of the circuit. I had to swerve at the last minute to avoid smashing my front wing. Unfortunately, I tagged the Arrows, lost the rear end and spun, with my rear wing smashing against the side of the Arrows! Ironically, I could have used my usual outbraking maneouvre after all, but instead it looks like the 35 lost seconds have put me out of major contention again :-("

Download the replays (34K)

Last modified: Saturday 06 December 1997 - 22:36