Round 12 - Italy (Monza)

Qualifying - The Grid * Race Report * Result
Race Statistics * Driver Statements * Race Descriptions
Mixed Race Log * Action Replays * Semi-Pro Results

* Qualifying - Pole time last season: 1:15.519 (Oliver Roberts)

Pos  Driver              Team                  Time        Diff.      Pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 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

* Race - 53 Laps - Winning time last season: 1h11m09.830 (Michal Janak)

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        Diff.      Pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 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

FP Car  Race_Time   Fast_Lap FL LL/TL PS Avg_Pits AG  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)

* What the top 3 said about the race

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: Sat Apr 26 19:45:47 1997