Results of Formula Nippon Round 2  May 12, 1996
Mine Circuit (3.238km)
Weather Conditions: Sunny, Warm
 
Pos No Driver             Car              Tire Laps  Time                                   Qual
  1 25 Ralf Schumacher    Reynard96D Mugen BS   62    1:22'15.253  8/1'13.108 
  2 10 Norberto Fontana   LolaT96/51 Mugen BS   62         -9.746  11/1'13.335
  3 64 Toranosuke Takagi  Reynard96D Mugen BS   62        -17.510  5/1'13.986
  4  5 Marco Apicella     Reynard95D Judd  YH   62        -25.929  6/1'14.468
  5  7 Masami Kageyama    LolaT95/50 Mugen YH   62        -28.737  12/1'13.345
  6 21 Michael Krumm      Reynard95D Mugen YH   62        -29.590  1/1'12.820
  7  9 Pedro de la Rosa   LolaT96/51 Mugen BS   61        -1 lap   3/1'12.933
  8 65 Takuya Kurosawa    Reynard96D Mugen BS   61        -1 lap   18/1'13.774
  9 28 Masahiko Kondo     Reynard94D Mugen BS   61        -1 lap   21/1'14.961
 10 17 Taichiro Onishi    LolaT94/50 Mugen YH   61        -1 lap   24/1'16.729
 11 72 Atsushi Kawamoto   LolaT93    Ford  BS   61        -1 lap   20/1'14.897
 12 30 Eiichi Tajima      LolaT94    Mugen BS   61        -1 lap   14/1'13.673
 13  8 Shinji Nakano      Dome F104i Mugen BS   57        -5 laps  22/1'14.966

DNF
    24 Naoki Hattori      Reynard96D Mugen BS   45       -17 laps  10/1'13.274
    31 Hideki Okada       LolaT95/50 Mugen BS   39       -23 laps  7/1'13.091
     1 Toshio Suzuki      LolaT96/94 Mugen BS   29       -33 laps  2/1'12.832
    55 Katsutomo Kaneishi Reynard95D Mugen BS   29       -33 laps  17/1'13.717
    73 Tetsuji Tamanaka   LolaT93    Ford  BS   29       -33 laps  25/1'26.723
    56 Satoshi Motoyama   Reynard95D Mugen BS   28       -34 laps  9/1'13.225
    19 Kazuyoshi Hoshino  LolaT96/95 Mugen BS   26       -36 laps  4/1'12.533 
     2 Katsumi Yamamoto   Dome F104i Mugen BS   22       -40 laps  13/1'13.618
    20 Andrew Gilbert-Scott Reynard96D Mugen BS 21       -41 laps  19/1'14.424  
    12 Yukihiro Hane      LolaT94/50 Mugen BS   17       -45 laps  23/1'15.235
     6 Hidetoshi Mitsusada LolaT94/50 Judd YH   11       -51 laps  16/1'13.712
    27 Masahiko Kageyama  Reynard96D Mugen BS    4      -58 laps   15/1'13.709

Fastest Lap: 10 Norberto Fontana  1'14.778 (155.93km/h)
Championship Standings:  Schumacher 14, Hoshino 10, Nakano/Fontana 6, Takagi/Krumm 4,etc.
Next Round:  Fuji May 25-26

Traditionally Mine plays the role as a yardstick to judge the foreign
driving talent. Eddie Irvine once was the main man there. Mika Salo
shone, too. Heinz-Harald Frentzen let us know he was a diamond in the
rough in rainy Mine 1993.

This year was no exception as Ralf Schumacher climbed from the eighth
grid at the start to mark the much anticipated first victory in the
round two of Formula Nippon with his archrival in last year's German
F3, Norberto Fontana, in second. That place would have gone to teammate
Pedro de la Rosa but his Lola stopped while chasing Schumacher at the
last corner of the final lap. He was classified just outside the points
in seventh. Those three showed well what they are capable of.

Earlier in the race Toranosuke Takagi was running second when he almost
went off where the marshalls were hard at work towing away a stranded
car under the local yellow. The stewards didn't like it and gave him a
ten second penalty which set the young Japanese on fire. Takagi flew
past everybody in front except Schumacher and Fontana (plus de la Rosa
if he had continued) to the third place finish.