Round 15 - Japan (Suzuka)

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: 1:25.849 (Thorsten Leipe)

Pos  Driver              Team                  Time        Diff.      Pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1.  Steffen Diener      Roadrunner            1:26.100                20
 2.  Michal Janak        Digitech              1:26.238   +0.138       16
 3.  Oliver Roberts      Digitech              1:26.290   +0.190       14
 4.  Reinhold Schatzer   RST Racing            1:26.621   +0.521       12
 5.  Markus Kruggel      Wild 13               1:26.649   +0.549       10
 6.  Hans Gunnar Hansen  FORT-Jiuqi            1:26.675   +0.575        8
 7.  Alan Strang         Team Ecosse           1:27.040   +0.940        6
 8.  Martin Devine       Enigma Racing         1:27.268   +1.168        5
 9.  Axel Bruns          Wild 13               1:27.358   +1.258        4
10.  Juha Hyvonen        FORT-Jiuqi            1:27.554   +1.454        3
11.  Nuno Maltez         Maverick              1:27.701   +1.601        2
12.  Andrew Clark        Ant Hill Mob Racing   1:27.725   +1.625        1

13.  Scott Dryden        Ultratrack F1         1:29.185   +3.085
14.  Derek Waters        Maverick              1:29.281   +3.181

* Race - 53 Laps - Winning time last season: 1h22m51.462 (Rene Smit)

This year's Japanese Grand Prix was one of those races without many exciting moments. Oliver Roberts immediately took the lead after the start followed by Steffen Diener and Reinhold Schatzer. Oliver profited from the D-tyres he started the race with, this of course meant that he would have to visit the pits earlier than the other drivers who were on the track with C's. Unfortunately for Oliver, getting into the pits proved to be tricky this time: not only that he had some spins on his planned in-lap due to his weak tyres - Oliver even forgot to actually turn into the pit lane at the end of this lap. So he had to do another lap on his worn tyres until he finally made his stop in lap 13. The same lap saw one of the other few incidents of the race: Alan Strang broke his rear wing and had to make a stop to repair it. On lap 15, Derek Waters retired being the second to do so after Ignacio Garcia Cuadrado was the first to end his race in lap 7.

After the first stops Michal Janak was leading the race and the positions behind him were held by Steffen Diener, Hans Gunnar Hansen and Reinhold Schatzer who was battling with Oliver for 4th position. All the positions kept stable even after the second series of stops around lap 29. the only major change happened when Reinhold had an accident in lap 35 forciung him stop for a new front wing. This costed him 3 positions but at least he was able to gain one posotion and end the race on 6th.

Michal's lead over Steffen wasn't too big but he was fast enough to keep the Roadrunner driver behind until the end but remarkably enough, his team mate Oliver failed to finish on the podium the first time this season. And worth to be noticed is that Martin Devine has finished this race - it's the first time he sees the checkered flag this season.

After all this GP wasn't one of the *very* exciting ones, so what about a wet race here in the next season, hoping that more will happen that can be reported? :-) 

Pos  Driver              Team                  Time        Diff.      Pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1.  Michal Janak        Digitech              1h22m22.153            175
 2.  Steffen Diener      Roadrunner            1h22m48.141 +0m25.988  170
 3.  Hans Gunnar Hansen  FORT-Jiuqi            1h22m55.414 +0m33.261  165
 4.  Oliver Roberts      Digitech              1h23m44.679 +1m22.526  160
 5.  Axel Bruns          Wild 13               1h24m06.561 +1m44.408  155
 6.  Reinhold Schatzer   RST Racing            1h24m21.164 +1m59.011  151
 7.  Markus Kruggel      Wild 13               1h24m33.417 +2m11.264  147
 8.  Alan Strang         Team Ecosse           1h25m42.512 +3m20.359  143
 9.  Juha Hyvonen        FORT-Jiuqi            1h25m58.478 +3m36.325  139
10.  Martin Devine       Enigma Racing         1h26m35.154 +4m13.001  135
11.  Andrew Clark        Ant Hill Mob Racing   1h26m57.331 +4m35.178  132
12.  Scott Dryden        Ultratrack F1         -2 laps                129
13.  Derek Waters        Maverick              14 laps                126
14.  Ignacio Garcia      IGC Racing Team        7 laps                123

* Race Statistics

FP Car Driver        Fast_Lap FL LL/TL PS Avg_Pits AG  A  B  C  D  Q  W
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 1.  2 M.Janak       1:28.267 52 41/53  3 0:19.465 92       43 10
 2. 33 S.Diener      1:28.406 49  1/53  3 0:15.844 92       43 10
 3. 10 H.G.Hansen    1:28.675 51  0/53  3 0:15.359 92       53
 4.  1 O.Roberts     1:29.108 45 11/53  3 0:21.181 92       30 23
 5.  8 A.Bruns       1:28.607 39  0/53  3 0:18.773 92       53
 6. 37 R.Schatzer    1:30.569 45  0/53  3 0:24.942 92       53
 7.  7 M.Kruggel     1:29.942 48  0/53  3 0:19.882 92       53
 8.  5 A.Strang      1:30.650 50  0/53  3 0:35.589 92       53
 9.  9 J.Hyvonen     1:31.300 38  0/53  2 0:21.239 90       20 33
10. 39 M.Devine      1:29.301 49  0/53  5 0:26.846 93       24 29
11. 41 S.Dryden      1:33.216 38  0/51  2 0:52.583 90       36 15
12. 30 D.Waters      1:37.003  7  0/14  0          91          14
13. 15 I.G.Cuadrado  1:35.881  3  0/ 6  0          95           6

New lap record: 1:28.267 M.Janak
(Old lap record: 1:28.355 H.G.Hansen at Japan 95/96)

* What the top 3 said about the race

Michal Janak (Digitech): "I started the race on C's with same setup as last year, but this time I changed pitstop strategy to 3 pitstops instead of 4 pitstops which I tried last year. I was pleased with car setup, I drove it on limits. Sometimes the CC's made things bit complicated. My point was to make the best race, because I want climb to 2nd place in whole championship. I don't know if I will race next season. My internet acces at uni will end 31.6.1997 (if I will have E-mail address in my job, I really don't know)."

Steffen Diener (Roadrunner): "A pretty clean run this time, only twice I went off after S-Curve. I planned a CCCC strategy but then changed to CCCD and tried to beat last years flying lap, but failed with only 55 thousandth. For the first time I underbid last seasons race time, I was 3 seconds faster, hopefully my first podium finish."

Hans Gunnar Hansen (FORT-Jiuqi): "Began to lap cars allready on lap 4. Lost quiet a lot of time on each lap until my first pitstop on lap 14 because of this. After the pitstop I got some clean laps so I could put in some faster lap times. Chose a CCCC strategy with pitstops on lap 14, 27 and 40. Did get the 'rythm' of the track when I got some clean laps, so the end of the race was a lot better than the start of it."


Last modified: Sat May 24 14:25:18 1997