Round 14 - Spain (Barcelona)

ACE SERIES

1996/97 Pole Position:	1:11.924 (Oliver Roberts)
1996/97 Race Time:	1h25m58.059 (Oliver Roberts)
Race Distance:	65 laps

Qualifying

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1:11.796		20
2.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1:11.822	+0.026	16
3.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1:11.842	+0.046	14
4.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1:11.985	+0.189	12
5.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	1:12.242	+0.446	10
6.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1:12.317	+0.521	8
7.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1:12.358	+0.562	6
8.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1:12.562	+0.766	5
9.	Marco Saupe	M&T-SPEED	1:12.618	+0.822	4
10.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1:12.629	+0.833	3
11.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1:12.672	+0.876	2
12.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	1:12.751	+0.955	1
13.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1:12.814	+1.018
14.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1:12.877	+1.081
15.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	1:13.533	+1.737
16.	James Luscombe	V-Tec F1	1:13.542	+1.746
17.	Fernando Alvarez	PROJECT AR	1:13.710	+1.914
18.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	1:13.771	+1.975
19.	Anthony Long	P76 Racing	1:14.099	+2.303
20.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	1:14.289	+2.493
21.	Jonathan Stead	Slipstream	1:16.085	+4.289

At Barcelona, Oliver Roberts nearly broke team-mate Michal's dominance of the last races. It wasn't that close for the whole race, though, Michal came into trouble when he had some problems in lap 64 when he lost 8 seconds on Oliver. Before that lap, Oliver was ten seconds behind for a long time, a gap that Michal build up mainly between lap 30 and 40.

Behind the two, not less than 5 drivers were aiming for the third podium place but from lap 48 on, Steffen Diener defended this position resolutely and succesfully. Apart of that, the race saw a couple of other interesting battles for position that were undecided till the very last lap.

None of the drivers who retired prematurely were in the leading group of the race, but struggling before. Barcelona once more proved its reputation for being a track where the driving rhythm is more crucial for race success than it's the case on others.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Points
1.	Michal Janak	Digitech	1h25m40.267		180
2.	Oliver Roberts	Digitech	1h25m41.643	+0:01.376	170
3.	Steffen Diener	Roadrunner	1h26m31.758	+0:51.491	165
4.	Marco Saupe	M&T SPEED	1h26m34.944	+0:54.677	160
5.	Markus Kruggel	Wild 13	1h26m40.555	+1:00.288	155
6.	Jan Svehlik	Bolgani	1h26m47.738	+1:07.471	151
7.	Alan Strang	Team Ecosse	1h26m53.565	+1:13.298	147
8.	Mirko Patzenbein	Enigma Racing	1h27m20.665	+1:40.398	143
9.	Axel Bruns	Wild 13	1h27m22.660	+1:42.393	139
10.	Ignacio Garcia	Curb Crawlers	1h27m48.864	+2:08.597	135
11.	Reinhold Schatzer	Rocketship	1h28m02.544	+2:22.277	132
12.	Rafal Ziarnik	Yapamotox	1h28m07.539	+2:27.272	129
13.	Fernando Alvarez	PROJECT AR	1h28m08.812	+2:28.545	126
14.	Martin Devine	Enigma Racing	1h29m32.789	+3:52.522	123
15.	James Luscombe	V-Tec F1	1h30m08.383	+4:28.116	120
16.	Jonathan Stead	Slipstream	1h30m23.091	+4:42.824	117
17.	Anthony Long	P76 Racing	-1 lap		114
18.	Argyris Maistralis	Crash Heads	45 laps	(69.2%)	76
19.	Scott Dryden	Team Ecosse	44 laps	(67.7%)	73
20.	Nuno Maltez	Rocketship	40 laps	(61.5%)	64
21.	Hendrik Mehl	Crash Heads	20 laps	(30.8%)	31

New Lap Record: 1:13.875 - Oliver Roberts (Digitech)

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	C	D
1.	2	M.Janak	1:14.609	61	47/65	2	0:20.896	93	28	37
2.	1	O.Roberts	1:13.875	56	14/65	2	0:20.549	93	27	38
3.	36	S.Diener	1:15.316	59	0/65	2	0:22.333	93		65
4.	45	M.Saupe	1:14.750	53	0/65	2	0:23.527	93	27	38
5.	7	M.Kruggel	1:14.574	60	4/65	3	0:23.731	94		65
6.	21	J.Svehlik	1:14.512	62	0/65	2	0:28.267	93	47	18
7.	5	A.Strang	---logfile corrupt---
8.	40	M.Patzenbein	1:15.391	62	0/65	2	0:24.664	93	28	37
9.	8	A.Bruns	1:15.371	58	0/65	2	0:24.918	93	29	36
10.	24	I.G.Cuadrado	1:14.593	65	0/65	3	0:33.240	93	26	39
11.	14	R.Schatzer	1:16.318	61	0/65	3	0:31.893	94		65
12.	31	R.Ziarnik	1:15.090	63	0/65	2	0:36.404	93	65
13.	47	F.Alvarez	1:16.891	60	0/65	2	0:36.385	92	44	21
14.	39	M.Devine	1:16.233	65	0/65	3	0:36.391	94	21	44
15.	25	J.Luscombe	1:16.159	63	0/65	2	0:25.624	93	52	13
16.	37	J.Stead	1:18.471	65	0/65	2	0:38.204	93		65
17.	20	A.Long	1:15.785	64	0/64	4	0:50.386	94	27	37
18.	15	A.Maistralis	1:17.790	34	0/45	3	0:49.898	94		45
19.	6	S.Dryden	1:18.196	40	0/44	1	0:22.030	93	26	17
20.	13	N.Maltez	1:18.129	38	0/40	2	0:46.320	93	40
21.	16	H.Mehl	1:22.487	18	0/20	0		93	20

Action Replays

Ignacio Garcia Cuadrado (Curb Crawlers):
"A nice pass . Is not an overtake maneovre itself. I get quite fast into the ELF curve , and I saw A LOT of CC's ... I get also Fast to rech them and I get them all back in the mini-straight before the Repsol curve. Four in a row !!! or are they 5 ??"
Reinhold Schatzer (Rocketship):
"The replay shows me battling against and finally overtaking 4 or 5 cc's - nice if viewed from different angles."

Download the replays (34K)

Last modified: Monday 11 May 1998 - 21:03