Round 13 - Portugal (Estoril)

ACE SERIES

1996/97 Pole Position:	1:07.244 (Oliver Roberts)
1996/97 Race Time:	1h26m54.830 (Oliver Roberts)
Race Distance:	71 laps

Qualifying

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1:06.976		20
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:07.213	+0.237	16
3.	Marco Saupe	M&T-SPEED	1:07.285	+0.309	14
4.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:07.333	+0.357	12
5.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1:07.472	+0.496	10
6.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1:07.479	+0.503	8
7.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1:07.554	+0.578	6
8.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1:07.616	+0.640	5
9.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1:07.681	+0.705	4
10.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:07.687	+0.711	3
11.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1:07.833	+0.857	2
12.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	1:07.855	+0.879	1
13.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1:07.901	+0.925
14.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1:08.201	+1.225
15.	Anthony Long	P76 Racing	1:08.224	+1.248
16.	Eik Hoffmann	Red Diana	1:08.574	+1.598
17.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	1:08.597	+1.621
18.	Fernando Alvarez	PROJECT AR	1:08.709	+1.733
19.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	1:08.932	+1.956
20.	Jonathan Stead	Slipstream	1:09.324	+2.348

Unlike last year, when almost half of the drivers retired early, the Portuguese GP showed a lot of battles between drivers. After the usual close qualifying at Estoril, the race itself entertained the spectators with a field that stayed close together - apart from the leader and eventual winner Michal. He could have come under pressure from his team-mate, if Oliver did not accidentally select B- instead of C-compounds on his first stop. Because he only noticed it afterwards from the logs, he kept on going if he was on his planned strategy. All in all, the 1997/98 GP of Portugal was another (almost) perfect GP for Michal and Digitech.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1h26m41.044		180
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1h27m37.276	+0:56.232	170
3.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1h27m44.671	+1:03.627	165
4.	Marco Saupe	M&T SPEED	1h27m51.400	+1:10.356	160
5.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1h28m01.065	+1:20.021	155
6.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1h28m23.217	+1:42.173	151
7.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1h28m26.175	+1:45.131	147
8.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1h28m33.992	+1:52.948	143
9.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1h28m44.571	+2:03.527	139
10.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1h28m54.914	+2:13.870	135
11.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1h28m58.057	+2:17.013	132
12.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1h29m01.691	+2:20.647	129
13.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1h29m15.427	+2:34.383	126
14.	Anthony Long	P76 Racing	1h30m34.677	+3:53.633	123
15.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	1h30m36.103	+3:55.059	120
16.	Fernando Alvarez	PROJECT AR	1h31m01.557	+4:20.513	117
17.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	61 laps	(85.9%)	97
18.	Jonathan Stead	Slipstream	30 laps	(42.3%)	46
19.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	27 laps	(38.0%)	41
20.	Eik Hoffmann	Red Diana	8 laps	(11.3%)	11

Fastest Lap: 1:09.243 - Axel Bruns (Wild 13)

Race Statistics

Pos	Car	Driver	Fastest Lap		LL/TL	Pitstops		Avg. Grip	Tyre Usage
Pos	Car	Driver	Time	Lap #	LL/TL	Stops	Avg. Length	Avg. Grip	B	C	D
1.	2	M.Janak	1:09.567	66	69/71	3	0:18.328	92		57	14
2.	1	O.Roberts	1:09.275	63	0/71	3	0:17.550	91	19	38	14
3.	7	M.Kruggel	1:09.607	67	2/71	4	0:21.670	93		50	21
4.	45	M.Saupe	1:09.775	64	0/71	3	0:19.521	92		58	13
5.	21	J.Svehlik	1:09.711	68	0/71	3	0:25.530	92		71
6.	5	A.Strang	1:09.543	69	0/71	3	0:19.779	92		57	14
7.	8	A.Bruns	1:09.243	65	0/71	4	0:21.997	93		36	35
8.	40	M.Patzebein	1:09.674	67	0/71	3	0:21.911	92		59	12
9.	36	S.Diener	1:09.505	63	0/71	4	0:23.057	93			71
10.	39	M.Devine	1:10.069	66	0/71	3	0:23.527	92		71
11.	24	I.G.Cuadrado	1:09.526	64	0/71	3	0:24.607	92		57	14
12.	13	N.Maltez	1:09.529	70	0/71	4	0:24.861	92		57	14
13.	31	R.Ziarnik	---no logfile---
14.	20	A.Long	1:10.396	63	0/71	3	0:39.681	90		54	17
15.	6	S.Dryden	1:10.596	64	0/71	4	0:29.557	92		45	26
16.	47	F.Alvarez	1:10.767	71	0/71	3	0:41.820	91		25	46
17.	16	H.Mehl	1:11.659	61	0/61	4	0:37.657	92		59	2
18.	37	J.Stead	1:13.040	30	0/30	2	0:41.819	93		22	8
19.	14	R.Schatzer	1:13.306	26	0/27	1	0:20.835	92		27
20.	29	E.Hoffmann	1:14.913	8	0/ 8	0		93		8

Action Replays

Axel Bruns (Wild 13):
"My replay really contains three separate incidents: first one backmarker is so happy to see me that he removes himself from the circuit, then another one doesn't want to make way, and after all that is over, there's still another yellow flag situation ahead..."
Nuno Maltez (Rocketship):
"Hard race. Lots of traffic and yellow flags. I was starting to celebrate the fact that I was finishing a race without damaging my car when I crashed into a CC 3 or 4 laps from the checkered flag."
Mirko Patzenbein (Enigma Racing):
Mirko experienced that some Ferrari drivers make a difference...

Download the replays (34K)

Last modified: Tuesday 05 May 1998 - 23:19