
![]()
Axel Bruns was the one to open the first round of pitstops in lap 14.
Diener, Ant Hill Mob's Stephen Orr and Ignacio Garcia Cuadrado followed
this example after the next lap and by lap 20 nearly everybody who started
the race on D tyres, including Roberts and Schatzer, had made a stop. Hans
Gunnar Hansen, who started on Cs, got the lead after Oliver's and
Reinhold's stop, but only until his own visit in the pits. In lap 27
Stephen Orr retired and a bit later Schatzer's race was also over as he had
a heavy accident in lap 35 when he tried to overtake some of the CCs but
ended in one of the walls. Hansen was now in 2nd but the lead of about 20
seconds that Oliver had at this time stayed stable until the end of the
race.
But position 3 was still undecided. Nuno Maltez was pushing Michal Janak
but Michal was able to stay ahead of Nuno. The question whether Nuno would
have been able to overtake the driver in front of him will never be
answered, as Nuno joined the group of retirers in lap 50 together with
Alan Strang. Both wrote off their cars when they wanted to lap CCs. Nuno's
bad luck meant that Ignacio Garcia Cuadrado was now in 4th but Derek
Waters, the other Maverick driver, as well as Steffen Diener and Markus
Kruggel were right behind him. But Waters went soon into tyre-trouble and
lost valuable seconds every lap, so that Ignacio only had to deal with two
pursuers - unfortunately his race ended in lap 57 (!) after he tried to lap
some CCs. Now it was Steffen who was in 4th but a slow penultimate lap from
him let Markus Kruggel pass and he finished the race on this position - his
best race result so far. (I somehow had to stress that ;-)
A very interesting detail of the race was how the different tyre strategies
influenced the race outcome: the first four drivers opted for a two-stop
strategy that used Cs somewhere in the race while the drivers on 5th, 6th
and 7th were on Ds the whole race. Obviously, Derek's decision to make only
one stop was wrong - he had grip values of about 84 before the stop and at
the end of the race. However, Axel's and Steffen's tyres were doing well,
but therefore they had to make three stops instead of the two that the
front four made. So, the better grip that a DDDD strategy gives does not
seem to justify an additional stop at Silverstone.
Andrew Clark (Ant Hill Mob Racing):
Ignacio Garcia Cuadrado (IGC Racing):
Martin Devine (Enigma Racing):
Steffen Diener (Roadrunner):
Markus Kruggel (Wild 13):
Oliver Roberts (Digitech):
Derek Waters (Maverick):
Pos Driver Team Time Diff. Pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Alan Strang Team Ecosse 1:15.304 20
2. Oliver Roberts Digitech 1:15.316 +0.012 16
3. Steffen Diener Roadrunner 1:15.479 +0.175 14
4. Robert Schaftlein Digitech 1:15.581 +0.277 12
5. Markus Kruggel Wild 13 1:15.746 +0.442 10
6. Reinhold Schatzer RST Racing 1:15.881 +0.578 8
7. Hans Gunnar Hansen FORT-Jiuqi 1:16.044 +0.740 6
8. Ignacio Garcia IGC Racing Team 1:16.046 +0.742 5
9. Michal Janak MAGIA-Chrysler 1:16.055 +0.751 4
10. Nuno Maltez Maverick 1:16.524 +1.220 3
11. Stephen Orr Ant Hill Mob Racing 1:16.569 +1.265 2
12. Martin Devine Enigma Racing 1:16.646 +1.342 1
13. Juha Hyvonen FORT-Jiuqi 1:16.688 +1.384
14. Axel Bruns Wild 13 1:16.756 +1.452
15. Derek Waters Maverick 1:17.359 +2.055
16. Paul Branney Team Ecosse 1:17.415 +2.111
17. Andrew Clark Ant Hill Mob Racing 1:17.624 +2.320
The 8th race of the season began very turbulent: While Oliver Roberts
in 1st and Reinhold Schatzer in 2nd were able to build up a lead of about
10 seconds during the first 15 laps, the rest of the drivers were fiercely
battling for position. This produced a new ranking nearly every lap.
During this period, Steffen Diener was able to hold his 3rd position but
others' position changed quite dramatically: Hans Gunnar Hansen from
FORT-Jiuqi, for example, was able to improve from 11th to 4th place while
Enigma's Martin Devine dropped from 3rd to 8th position.
Race - 59 Laps - Winning time last season: 1h21m09.146 (Oliver Roberts)
Pos Driver Team Time Diff. Pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Oliver Roberts Digitech 1h21m06.194 175
2. Hans Gunnar Hansen FORT-Jiuqi 1h21m30.992 +0m24.798 170
3. Michal Janak MAGIA-Crysler 1h21m59.233 +0m53.039 165
4. Markus Kruggel Wild 13 1h22m41.693 +1m35.499 160
5. Steffen Diener Roadrunner 1h22m46.508 +1m40.314 155
6. Derek Waters Maverick 1h23m06.657 +2m00.463 151
7. Axel Bruns Wild 13 1h23m13.173 +2m06.979 147
8. Igancio Garcia IGC Racing Team 56 laps 143
9. Nuno Maltez Maverick 49 Laps 139
9. Alan Strang Team Ecosse 49 laps 139
11. Andrew Clark Ant Hill Mob Racing 47 laps 132
12. Martin Devine Enigma Racing 38 laps 129
13. Reinhold Schatzer RST Racing 34 laps 126
14. Stephen Orr Ant Hill Mob Racing 26 laps 123
15. Paul Branney Team Ecosse 11 laps 120
16. Juha Hyvonen FORT-Jiuqi 6 laps 117
(Lap Record: 1:17.872 by O.Roberts 95/96)
Fastest Race Laps
1. Hans Gunnar Hansen FORT-Jiuqi 1:17.934
2. Steffen Diener Roadrunner 1:17.937
3. Oliver Roberts Digitech 1:18.080
4. Michal Janak MAGIA-Crysler 1:18.372
5. Ignacio Garcia IGC Racing Team 1:18.407
6. Markus Kruggel Wild 13 1:18.583
7. Nuno Maltez Maverick 1:18.593
8. Axel Bruns Wild 13 1:18.744
9. Derek Waters Maverick 1:20.147
10. Andrew Clark Ant Hill Mob Racing 1:20.910
11. Reinhold Schatzer RST Racing 1:21.047
12. Martin Devine Enigma Racing 1:21.644
13. Stephen Orr Ant Hill Mob Racing 1:22.637
14. Paul Branney Team Ecosse 1:25.???
15. Juha Hyvonen FORT-Jiuqi 1:26.566
Alan Strang Team Ecosse ?:??:???
Most of the drivers who wrote off their cars seem to look forward to
Hockenheim. As if this circuit guarantees a save finish :-)
Some of the driver statements"Race was fairly straight forward to start. Pitted lap 29 for C`s.
With only 11 laps to go I was in danger of being lapped by Damon Hill.
All of a sudden my car didn`t stear left and ..... BANG !!! :("
"I'm such a stupid !!!! I was leading the race ... and I crashed in lap 57!!!!"
"About the best thing I can say about this race is that I didn't need a
wing-stop! Nice simple end - concentrating so hard on the cars in front
that I forget to brake in time, lose control, and the car don't want to go
any more... This was really irritating as I found that I liked the circuit
for driving. Tried a three-stop DCD tyre strategy. Now for the wrecker's
yard that is Hockenheim (knowing my luck, I'll probably finish!)"
"... I had no problems with opponents this time. In fact I felt like a hot
knife cutting through butter. But to often I was cutting my own fingers. I
spun three times and found myself in the gravel about seven times. I
probably lost one minute due to my own mistakes. Fortunately there was
enough room to do this without even damaging the car.
My pitstops lasted very long (10, 8 and 13 seconds) although nothing
was broken. Maybe the mechanics had to clean the air intakes from all
that gravel I picked up ;-)"
"I was a bit disappointed about my race time although I achieved my main
goal: improving my last season's time.
I worried about the pit stops as the pit entry is known to be buggy at
Silverstone. Fortunately, my technique to switch into power-turn just after
the 2nd right allowed me to enter the pits without losing to much time or
offering a target for the killer CCs. However, while they where no obstacle
for me at the pit entry, the CCs managed to annoy me on every other part of
the track. Hmm, maybe I was more annoyed about my stupid behavior when it
came to overtaking these guys."
"I can't believe I was only 3 seconds quicker than I was last season! The
race itself was much the same as last season too - no major mistakes, not
much time lost to backmarkers and some exciting passing manueovres. I even
ran the same tyre strategy. I was sure I could go faster, which is why I
made a few changes to my car setup from last season. The conclusion is that
this change actually made me relatively slower than last season :-( I
should have left it alone! I can't complain though - I could have done a
lot worse, obviously ;-)"
"I really dislike Silverstone as a circuit, so I was rather relieved just
to finish the race without so much as a scratch. It did get a bit hairy in
the last ten laps, as there were numerous yellow flags, and six cars
retired in just the last five laps! I also managed a huge spin at Club
corner, with about twenty laps to go. This was caused by a neighbours car
alarm, which kept on ringing continously for about twenty minutes - quite
distracting! Anyway, I look forward to Hockenheim, which is a circuit more
to my liking."
![]()