Round 9 - Germany (Hockenheim)

ACE SERIES

1996/97 Pole Position:	1:28.289 (Oliver Roberts)
1996/97 Race Time:	1h11m35.983 (Michal Janak)
Race Distance:	45 laps

Qualifying

By setting a new fastest qualifying time for IC events, Jan Svehlik secured his first pole position of the season. Marco Saupe continued his good qualifying performance and put both Digitech drivers back onto the second row of the grid.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1:28.258		20
2.	Marco Saupe	M&T-SPEED	1:28.393	+0.135	16
3.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1:28.468	+0.210	14
4.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:28.471	+0.213	12
5.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:28.957	+0.699	10
6.	Thomas Bodlien	M&T-Speed	1:29.231	+0.973	8
7.	Eik Hoffmann	Red Diana	1:29.438	+1.180	6
8.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1:29.448	+1.190	5
9.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:29.612	+1.354	4
10.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1:29.716	+1.458	3
11.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1:29.886	+1.628	2
12.	Mark McCubbin	McCubbin-Supreme	1:29.889	+1.631	1
13.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1:29.930	+1.672
14.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1:30.230	+1.972
15.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	1:30.756	+2.498
16.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	1:31.783	+3.525
17.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	1:32.354	+4.096
18.	Jonathan Stead	Team Sted	1:32.602	+4.344

Race

It was a race full of retirements but also a race of duels. It could have been a battle of three drivers for the front, as Steffen Diener got ahead of both Digitech drivers after the start, but unfortunately Steffen's retirement in lap 13 prevented that. Lap 14 saw a great demand for new tyres as not less than six drivers made a stop. After that, things began to settle down and gradually the already mentioned duels began to develop...

Axel Bruns and Alan Strang were the drivers who eventually battled for 7th position. Although both were placed better in earlier stages of the race, it was caused mainly by differences in pit strategies of the other drivers. When Axel rejoined the race after his second stop in lap 32, he was behind Alan, but soon he overtook him. Axel stayed ahead until the beginning of the last lap but then suffered from a spin and had to let the Team Ecosse driver pass only a few hundred meters before the finish line.

Fifth place was to be decided between Mirko Patzenbein and Markus Kruggel who met each other late in the race, about lap 31, and positions changed every one or two laps then. While both were driving similar lap times, Markus managed to secure a small lead into the last corner of lap 45, claiming fifth.

Jan Svehlik and Marco Saupe began to argue early in the race, who should get that remaining place on the podium, as positions one and two were already out of reach. Both were on this third position for a couple of laps but noone could pull away from the other. For three laps, the gap between both was bigger than just about a second, but it just came from a different pit strategy and so Marco and Jan were reunited when the M&T SPEED driver was back on the track after his stop in lap 34. It looked like Jan could claim another podium finish for him and his team, but then Marco's lap times began to come down and he was able to build up a small lead to the Bolgani driver. While eight seconds are more than easily lost with a spin on this high speed circuit, Marco had a clear last couple of laps and secured a podium finish this way.

Much faster than all the other driver were Oliver Roberts and Michal Janak. When they made their stops in lap 15 and 16, the gap to the drivers behind was already more than half a minute big. Both team mates stayed close together on the track for the whole race, although the lead did not change as frequently as lower positions did. From lap 17 to lap 26, Oliver lead the race, Michal was in front afterwards and did not gave the lead away until he saw the chequered flag first, for the seventh time this season.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1h11m08.596		180
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1h11m15.634	+0:07.038	170
3.	Marco Saupe	M&T SPEED	1h12m57.106	+1:48.510	165
4.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1h13m05.917	+1:57.321	160
5.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1h13m27.486	+2:18.890	155
6.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1h13m28.488	+2:19.892	151
7.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1h13m52.254	+2:43.658	147
8.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1h13m56.854	+2:48.258	143
9.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1h15m06.276	+3:57.680	139
10.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	-1 lap		135
11.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	-2 laps		132
12.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	37 laps	(82.2%)	106
13.	Eik Hoffmann	Red Diana	24 laps	(53.3%)	67
14.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	18 laps	(40.0%)	49
15.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	17 laps	(37.8%)	45
16.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	15 laps	(33.3%)	39
17.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	14 laps	(31.1%)	35
18.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	12 laps	(26.7%)	29
19.	Jonathan Stead	Team Sted	8 laps	(17.8%)	19

Fastest Lap: 1:30.282 - 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	B	C	D
1.	2	M.Janak	1:30.282	43	27/45	2	0:20.517	90		45
2.	1	O.Roberts	1:30.582	43	11/45	2	0:17.688	90		45
3.	45	M.Saupe	1:31.285	39	0/45	3	0:22.260	91			45
4.	21	J.Svehlik	1:31.868	43	0/45	2	0:25.580	90		31	14
5.	7	M.Kruggel	1:33.758	42	0/45	1	0:22.767	88	45
6.	40	M.Patzenbein	1:33.485	42	0/45	2	0:24.260	90		45
7.	5	A.Strang	1:35.145	40	0/45	1	0:20.967	88	45
8.	8	A.Bruns	1:33.856	38	0/45	2	0:25.709	90		45
9.	13	N.Maltez	1:34.231	43	0/45	2	0:26.564	90		45
10.	14	R.Schatzer	1:33.305	40	0/44	4	0:50.945	91		33	11
11.	16	H.Mehl	1:35.342	39	0/43	3	0:42.722	91		43
12.	24	I.G.Cuadrado	1:35.394	37	0/37	2	0:35.877	89		14	23
13.	29	E.Hoffmann	1:35.179	24	0/25	1	0:44.368	91		25
14.	31	R.Ziarnik	1:37.932	9	0/18	2	0:41.502	91		18
15.	6	S.Dryden	1:39.185	17	0/17	1	0:19.941	91		17
16.	39	M.Devine	1:37.386	11	0/15	3	-:--.---	91		15
17.	15	A.Maistralis	1:39.630	12	0/14	1		91		14
18.	36	S.Diener	1:36.001	6	7/12	1		91			12
19.	37	J.Stead	1:39.763	6	0/ 8	1	-:--.---	93			8

Action Replays

Ignacio Garcia Cuadrado (Curb Crawlers):
"I was near the "damn" chicane when I saw the yellow flag. I get to second gear and take a look at the road. A CC was crossed in the middle ... and I can't beleive it .. he's trying to get his car in good position to hit me ... AGAIN !! Hopefully , I managed to avoid him ... almost 7 seconds lost ..."
Markus Kruggel (Wild 13):
"The replay shows my luckiest moment of the race: just after I overtook Herbert and managed to block him, yellow flags were shown in front of the third chicane. I watched the replay immediately and saw that there was enough spce on my usual line and so I drove on. Berger's car seemed stationary, but then marshalls were pushing it over the track, exactly were I planned to slip through! A risky drive over the grass saved me from a sure DNF. I just can't stop thinking that those marshalls on GP tracks are working against me and the team, I still can't forget that Belgium incident two years ago!"
Hendrik Mehl (Crash Heads):
"At lap 24 I faced a spectacular manouvre which is shown in the added replay: Alesi who drove in my slipstream tried to overtake me on the long straight between Chicane1 and Ostkurve. After he failed with that he tried to push me to the left. I think this is a typical example for CC-drivers kind of driving. But somehow he lost control of his car and smashed into the wall at a deadly speed. I could manage to stay on the track without touching him. I really enjoyed the moment when "Jean Alesi is out of race" appeared on the screen. He deserved it, no doubt!"

Download the replays (32K)

Last modified: Sunday 01 March 1998 - 20:44