Ralf Schumacher won and leads championship in Formula Nippon!

1996 All Japan Championship, Formula Nippon,
Round-4, Race Report

Schumacher drove Reynard 96D Mugen and started from fourth grid and got lead on 12th lap after leader Toranosuke Takagi's Reyanrd 96D Mugen lost power and stopped. On 27th lap, while Shchumacher was leading race, Schumacher's rival since 1995 German F3 Championship crashed at entrance of final chicane when he run second position. While debris were taken out, safety car led remaining cars until re-start on lap 33. Then Schumacher kept lead until goal, followed by Masahiko Kageyama and Schumacher's team mate Naoki Hattori.

Takuya Kurosawa, started from second grid and led until fourth lap, was penalized 10 seconds pit stop as jump start. Kurosawa and Takagi are team mate of Satoru Nakajima's team.

      Race Results:
      
  All Japan Championship, Formula Nippon Rd.4, at Tokachi International
Speedway:(5.100km)

   June 23, 1996.                         Weather: Overcast, Course: Dry
 
 Po  No Driver                  Car        Engine Lap Time/Behind km/h
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1  25 Ralf Schumacher    (D)  Reynard 96D Mugen  38 1:09'32.702 167.201
  2   7 Masami Kageyama    (J)  Lola T95/50 Mugen  38       3.548 167.059
  3  24 Naoki Hattori      (J)  Reynard 96D Mugen  38       8.447 166.863
  4  19 Kazuyoshi Hoshino  (J)  Lola T96/95 Mugen  38       9.059 166.839
  5  55 Katsutomo Kaneiishi(J)  Reynard 95D Mugen  38       9.548 166.819
  6   9 Pedoro De La Rosa  (E)  Lola T96/51 Mugen  38       9.789 166.810
  7  65 Takuya Kurosawa    (J)  Reynard 96D Mugen  38      10.751 166.374
  8   5 Marco Apicella     (I)  Reynard 95D Judd   38      18.868 166.448
  9   8 Shinji Nakano      (J)  Dome F104i  Mugen  38      20.205 166.395
 10  31 Hideki Okada       (J)  Lola T95    Mugen  38      24.298 166.233
 11   1 Toshio Suzuki      (J)  Lola T96/94 Mugen  37       1Lap 
 12  30 Eiichi Tajima      (J)  Lola T94    Mugen  37       1Lap 
 13  28 Masahiko Kondo     (J)  Reynard 94D Mugen  37       1Lap 
 14  21 Michael Krumm      (D)  Reynard 95D Mugen  36       2Laps
 15  56 Satoshi Motoyama   (J)  Reynard 95D Mugen  36       2Laps
 16  20 Andrew G.Scott    (GB)  Reynard 96D Mugen  36       2Laps
 ----------[ DNC: ]------------------------------------------------------
     17 Taichiro Onishi    (J)  Lola T94/50 Mugen  34       4Laps
     72 Atsushi Kawamoto   (J)  Lola T93    DFV    34       4Laps
     10 Norberto Fontana  (RA)  Lola T95/51 Mugen  27      11Laps
     27 Masahiko Kageyama  (J)  Reynard 95D Mugen  24      14Laps
     12 Yukihiro Hane      (J)  Lola T94/50 Mugen  18      20Laps
     73 Tesuji Tamanaka    (J)  Lola T93    DFV    16      22Laps
      6 Hidetoshi Mitsusada(J)  Lola T94/50 Judd   15      23Laps
     64 Toranosuke Takagi  (J)  Reynard 96D Mugen  12      26Laps
      2 Katsumi Yamamoto   (J)  Dome104i    Mugen   0      38Laps
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Fastest Lap: #21, M.Krumm, 1'41.100 (181.602 km/h)
 Penalty: #65, #56, 10 seconds pit stop because of jump start.
 Note: #73, T.Tamanaka couldn't qualify, but he was allowed to start from
       final grid.
       Original race was 40 laps, but reduced to 38 laps because of
       engine stalls at start (twice).

 Championship Standing: (10-6-4-3-2-1)
  1, Ralf Schumacher,      24 (4-10-0-10)
  2, Kazuyoshi Hoshino,    17 (10-0-4-3)
  3, Norberto Fontana,     16 (0-6-10-0)
  4, Naoki Hattori,        10 (0-0-6-4)
  5, Masami Kageyama,     8 (0-2-0-6)
  6, Shinji Nakano,         6 (6-0-0-0)
  7, Katsutomo Kaneishi,    6 (1-0-3-2)
  8, Toranosuke Takagi,     4 (0-4-0-0)
  9, Michael Krumm,         4 (3-1-0-0)
 10, Pedro De La Rosa,      4 (2-0-1-1)
 11, Mrco Apicella,         3 (0-3-0-0)
 12, Satoshi Motoyama,      2 (0-0-2-0)

   Data: Tokachi International Speedway via NIFTY-Serve Auto Racing Forum.
          RIJ-Mitsuru Sugaya/Tokyo,