FNIPPON: Mine results

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.