Round 7 - France (Magny-Cours)

ACE SERIES

1996/97 Pole Position:	1:06.979 (Oliver Roberts)
1996/97 Race Time:	1h28m00.411 (Oliver Roberts)
Race Distance:	71 laps

Qualifying

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:06.774		20
2.	James Luscombe	V-Tec F1	1:06.939	+0.165	16
3.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1:06.974	+0.200	14
4.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1:06.993	+0.219	12
5.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:07.063	+0.289	10
6.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:07.105	+0.331	8
7.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1:07.128	+0.354	6
8.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1:07.291	+0.447	5
9.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1:07.348	+0.574	4
10.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1:07.377	+0.603	3
11.	Eik Hoffmann	Red Diana	1:07.396	+0.622	2
12.	Thomas Bodlien	M&T-Speed	1:07.406	+0.632	1
13.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1:07.409	+0.635
14.	Marco Saupe	M&T-SPEED	1:07.413	+0.639
15.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1:07.415	+0.641
16.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1:07.421	+0.647
17.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	1:07.502	+0.728
18.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	1:07.964	+1.190
19.	Mark McCubbin	McCubbin-Supreme	1:08.173	+1.399
20.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	1:08.281	+1.507
21.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	1:08.353	+1.579

This year's French Grand Prix saw turbulent first laps with constant change at the lead. Alan Strang and Steffen Diener fought out the battle for first right from the start but from lap 12 on, the Digitech drivers were holding those spots, very unwilling to hand them back to non-team mates. While Michal was pulling away from Oliver, it was quite hard to see the race develop further down, mainly because of various race strategies being in use.

Oliver had to see Michal flying away at the front and so his main task was to deal with those drivers from behind who were keen on passing him and those were numerous: after Alan and Steffen dropped back a bit, Jan Svehlik was chasing the Digitech driver. Jan managed to pass Oliver after he made his second stop in lap 36. Already unsurprisingly at this point of the race, this battle was put on hold after Jan went into the pits four laps later and so Alan and Steffen were again leading the field behind Michal and Oliver. They were joined by Nuno Maltez for a couple of laps but the Rocketship driver fell back after damaging his car.

As expected, it took long until the race order became an indicator for the drivers' pace again. Lap 60 saw the last regular pit stops, namely from Steffen, Axel Bruns and Marco Saupe. From then on, it was much easier to predict the race outcome: Michal was comfortably leading about 40 seconds in front of Oliver. He again had a lead of 20 seconds on Jan on 3rd place. Who would finish on 4th was less clear: Mirko Patzenbein had joined Alan, Steffen and Nuno but in the end the two who were battling for the lead at the start of the race were also deciding the battle for 4th then, and that Steffen finished only a few seconds before the Team Ecosse driver reflected the whole race of those two.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1h27m46.509		180
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1h28m26.537	+0:40.028	170
3.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1h28m40.870	+0:54.361	165
4.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1h29m05.982	+1:19.473	160
5.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1h29m07.407	+1:20.898	155
6.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1h29m19.903	+1:33.394	151
7.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1h29m38.918	+1:52.409	147
8.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1h29m48.436	+2:01.927	143
9.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1h30m03.310	+2:16.801	139
10.	Marco Saupe	M&T SPEED	1h30m03.446	+2:16.937	135
11.	Thomas Bodlien	M&T SPEED	1h30m34.426	+2:46.980	132
12.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1h30m49.572	+3:03.063	129
13.	James Luscombe	V-Tec F1	1h31m11.111	+3:24.602	126
14.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	1h31m52.349	+4:05.840	123
15.	Mark McCubbin	McCubbin-Supreme	1h32m14.826	+4:28.317	120
16.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	-3 laps		117
17.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	56 laps	(77.8%)	88
18.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	41 laps	(56.9%)	63
19.	Jonathan Stead	Team Sted	14 laps	(19.4%)	21

New Lap Record: 1:08.939 - Michal Janak (Digitech)

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	C	D
1.	2	M.Janak	1:08.939	68	60/72	3	0:18.218	92	72
2.	1	O.Roberts	1:09.462	69	1/72	3	0:17.524	92	72
3.	21	J.Svehlik	1:09.428	67	0/72	3	0:23.228	92	57	15
4.	36	S.Diener	1:09.310	64	8/72	5	0:19.827	93		72
5.	5	A.Strang	1:09.377	64	3/72	4	0:19.200	93		72
6.	40	M.Patzenbein	1:10.122	60	0/72	3	0:19.694	92	56	16
7.	13	N.Maltez	1:09.723	60	0/72	3	0:28.421	92	72
8.	8	A.Bruns	1:09.605	68	0/72	4	0:19.704	93	36	36
9.	31	R.Ziarnik	1:10.010	66	0/72	3	0:18.565	92	72
10.	45	M.Saupe	1:09.915	66	0/72	4	0:20.193	93	48	24
11.	46	T.Bodlien	(no logfile)
12.	7	M.Kruggel	1:09.854	61	0/72	3	0:29.759	92	43	29
13.	25	J.Luscombe	1:10.616	67	0/72	3	0:29.638	91	51	21
14.	6	S.Dryden	1:11.172	72	0/72	4	0:24.129	92	66	6
15.	50	M.McCubbin	1:09.060	72	0/72	6	0:29.354	93		72
16.	15	A.Maistralis	1:12.326	56	0/69	4	0:54.375	91		69
17.	16	H.Mehl	1:12.099	55	0/56	2	0:23.628	91	52	4
18.	24	I.G.Cuadrado	1:13.203	29	0/41	1	0:24.824	91	41
19.	37	J.Stead	1:16.062	14	0/14	1	0:44.722	94		14
20.	39	M.Devine	(no logfile)

Action Replays

Oliver Roberts (Digitech):
"In the replay is another incident, involving at least 4 CCs - I got round the first 3 ok, but I was unaware of the final car which was stationary on the fast straight. I just managed to avoid that in time, but nearly lost control on the grass."
Mirko Patzenbein (Enigma Racing):
Mirko also had problems at the Imola Bend, two CCs crashed out in front of him and he somehow managed to drive over a Minardi's front wing without damaging his car.

Download the replays (33K)

Last modified: Sunday 01 February 1998 - 23:32