Round 5 - Canada (Montreal)

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

* Qualifying - Pole time last season: 1:12.487 (Rene Smit)

Pos  Driver              Team                  Time        Diff.      Pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1.  Oliver Roberts      Digitech              1:12.806                20
 2.  Alan Strang         Team Ecosse           1:13.160   +0.354       16
 3.  Hans Gunnar Hansen  FORT-Jiuqi            1:13.189   +0.383       14
 4.  Markus Kruggel      Wild 13               1:13.445   +0.639       12
 5.  Robert Schaftlein   Digitech              1:13.510   +0.704       10
 6.  Nuno Maltez         Maverick              1:13.565   +0.759        8
 7.  Ignacio Garcia      IGC Racing Team       1:13.577   +0.771        6
 8.  Martin Devine       Enigma Racing         1:13.632   +0.826        5
 9.  Steffen Diener      Roadrunner            1:13.785   +0.979        4
10.  Axel Bruns          Nameless Horror       1:13.808   +1.002        3
11.  Reinhold Schatzer   RST Racing            1:13.993   +1.187        2
12.  Michal Janak        MAGIA-Crysler         1:13.994   +1.188        1

13.  Juha Hyvonen        FORT-Jiuqi            1:14.199   +1.393
14.  Derek Waters        Maverick              1:14.539   +1.733
15.  Paul Branney        Team Ecosse           1:15.566   +2.760

* Race - 69 Laps - Winning time last season: 1h31m.453 (Pedro Celli)

Montreal proved to be a "killer ciruit" once more. Only six drivers saw the chequered flag with Oliver being the winner again. But this time the other drivers didn't let Oliver escape early and the gap of just about 20 seconds speaks for itself.

Two drivers dominated the beginning of the race: Roberts and Hans Gunnar Hansen were battling for the lead, with Hans Gunnar being in front between lap 11 and 16. But two weaker laps from him in lap 16 and 17 made Oliver the leader a while. One lap after Hansen's first stop in lap 26 Oliver came into the pits too and that meant that Michal Janak and Robert Schaftlein were in front till they made their stops in lap 31. After everybody from the top four had made his first stop, they had gained a comfortable lead over the following drivers, those lead by Reinhold Schatzer.

Until lap 41 the formation at the front was Roberts, Hansen, Schaftlein and Janak. But Michal was already shortening the gap to the others steadily and in lap 46 he gained second place. He even got to front in lap 47 when Oliver made his second pit stop, but to his disadvatage Michal broke his front wing and had to visit the pits in lap 56. After this incident Michal was back in fourth, while Oliver was leading again. He stayed in front for the rest of the race.

Behind him Hansen and Schaftlein began to argue who would end up in second place. First it looked as if Hans Gunnar could control Robert but in lap 65 he had to let him pass. After the next lap the FORT-Jiuqi driver was second again but only to see Robert pass him in lap 67. At this stage it looked just as if Digitech would leave Canada with the points for first and second place in the bag but Hans Gunnar fought back once again in lap 68. Robert pushed hard even in the last lap but his fastest lap of the race wasn't enough to regain second place and so he ended up on third with just 0.589s behind Hansen.

Pos  Driver              Team                  Time        Diff.      Pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1.  Oliver Roberts      Digitech          1h31m16.446                175
 2.  Hans Gunnar Hansen  FORT-Jiuqi        1h31m38.136    +0m21.690   170
 3.  Robert Schaftlein   Digitech          1h31m38.725    +0m22.279   165
 4.  Michal Janak        MAGIA-Crysler     1h31m45.357    +0m28.911   160
 5.  Axel Bruns          Nameless Horror   1h33m02.701    +1m46.255   155
 6.  Nuno Maltez         Maverick          1h33m13.310    +1m56.864   151
 7.  Ignacio Garcia      IGC Racing Team     63 laps                  147
 8.  Alan Strang         Team Ecosse         61 laps                  143
 9.  Derek Waters        Maverick            60 laps                  139
10.  Reinhold Schatzer   RST Racing          56 laps                  135
11.  Markus Kruggel      Wild 13             33 laps                  132
12.  Steffen Diener      Roadrunner          29 laps                  129
13.  Martin Devine       Enigma Racing        8 laps                  126
14.  Paul Branney        Team Ecosse          0 laps                  123
14.  Uwe Schuerkamp      Wild 13              0 laps                  123

* Fastest Race Laps

(Old Lap Record: 1:15.350 by R.Romanowski 95/96)

 1. Oliver Roberts      Digitech          1:14.880 LR

 2. Robert Schaftlein   Digitech          1:15.350
 3. Hans Gunnar Hansen  FORT-Jiuqi        1:15.443
 4. Michal Janak        MAGIA-Crysler     1:15.545
 5. Nuno Maltez         Maverick          1:15.655
 6. Axel Bruns          Nameless Horror   1:15.674
 7. Reinhold Schatzer   RST Racing        1:16.377
 8. Alan Strang         Team Ecosse       1:16.613
 9. Derek Waters        Maverick          1:16.824
10. Ignacio Garcia      IGC Racing Team   1:17.348
11. Markus Kruggel      Wild 13           1:19.428
12. Steffen Diener      Roadrunner        1:19.899
13. Martin Devine       Enigma Racing     1:21.032

* Some of the driver statements

Oliver Roberts (Digitech): "My car setup felt very comfortable and I was able to consistently reel of good laps. Everything went pretty well - the only major mistake was when I drove too fast into the pit entrance on my 2nd stop which resulting in a little spin. It took me a few seconds to turn the car around. I can't help feeling I could have gone faster though, be it a different setup or tyre strategy - mainly because I didn't beat last year's winning time, but at least I smashed my time from last year :-)"

Hans Gunnar Hansen (FORT-Jiuqi): "Started on c-tyres. Had quite a good race with pitstops on lap 26 and 50 where I changed to d-tyres. (...) A much better race than last year."

Alan Strang (Team Ecosse): "It is a bit disappointing to have crashed out so close to the end of the race, but I guess it was just one of those freak incidents you can't do much about. At least I lasted much longer than I managed last year."


Last modified: Sat Feb 01 14:49:37 1997