Round 3 - San Marino (Imola)

Qualifying

 1. Rob Buis            The Flying Dutchmen     1m 17.353s

 2. Daniele Di Martino  DiMa Bros               1m 17.635s
 3. Mathias Kegelmann   SpeedBird               1m 18.523s
 4. Mark Wendt          Itchy & Scratchy        1m 18.622s
 5. Claudio Di Martino  DiMa Bros               1m 18.692s
 6. Rene Smit           --                      1m 18.766s
 7. Oliver Roberts      Team Analogistix        1m 18.806s
 8. Axel Bruns          SpeedGroup              1m 19.315s
 9. David Shaw          Wreckage Inc.           1m 20.030s
10. Eric Moreau         Venturi                 1m 20.410s
11. Anthony Holloway    Wreckage Inc.           1m 20.971s
12. Tero Turtiainen     TDPFP                   1m 21.153s

Race - 61 Laps

 1. Rob Buis            The Flying Dutchmen     1h 26m 16.537s     20+1
 2. Mark Wendt          Itchy & Scratchy        1h 26m 18.305s     16
 3. Oliver Roberts      Team Analogistix        1h 28m 00.431s     12
 4. Axel Bruns          SpeedGroup              1h 28m 18.365s     10
 5. Claudio Di Martino  DiMa Bros               1h 29m 09.498s      8
 6. Mathias Kegelmann   SpeedBird                 55 laps           6
 7. Eric Moreau         Venturi                   52 laps           4
    Lionel Vintenat     Team Analogistix          52 laps           4
 9. Daniele Di Martino  DiMa Bros                 39 laps           2
10. Anthony Holloway    Wreckage Inc.             16 laps           1

11. David Shaw          Wreckage Inc.             15 laps
12. Tero Turtiainen     TDPFP                     10 laps
13. Devon Jones         Veritech Racing            7 laps
14. Rene Smit           --                         2 laps
Yet another clean sweep for Rob Buis. Mark Wendt is hot on his heels, but due a poor performance in Phoenix he has scored half as many points. The computer cars were very fast on this track making it difficult to keep them behind and out of the way. Eric Moreau got two wheels on the grass while trying to outbrake Nigel Mansell, and collected him after a brief encounter with the wall. Rene Smit was also met his demise by getting his wheels off the track and into a wall.

It is quite interesting to compare tyre stop strategies for this race. Third place finisher Oliver Roberts managed to make it through all 61 laps on a single set of Cs, whereas race winner Rob Buis made three stops, twice for Bs and then finially for a set of Ds. It is amazing that the time spent in the pits by Rob was recovered on the track by over 2 minutes. Mark Wendt, finishing second, also chose C compound tyres, but made a single a stop to get a fresh set halfway through. One would think that this would be a good compromise between the two strategies, but even with the time saved from two pit stops (about 2 minutes?) it was no possible to catch the flying Dutchman. Here are a few race lap times for comparison: 

Rob Buis        1m 18.215s
Mark Wendt      1m 20.189s
Oliver Roberts  1m 22.014s