First free practice session:
Notes:

Marcos Gueiros: Third fastest, although he just went out to do a roll-out. "As there were so many yellow flag situations, its hard to say what this really means. Anyhow, I hope to do another step forward during the next session."

Oliver Tichy: Slight brake problems, but continued after spinning. "I'm satisfied with the handling of the car. The power of the car is really impressive. 450 bhp - that's really something totally different than Formula 3."

Joerg Mueller: First roll out, he wasn't very happy. This was caused by the changing track conditions (drizzle), and he came back into the pits for a set-up change. But before he could go out again, the session was ended.

Free Practice Times:

POS	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME
1	Kenny Brack	Super Nova	1:30.82, 180.594kph
2	Tom Kristensen	Shannon Racing	1:31.09
3	Marcos Gueiros	Super Nova	1:31.53
4	Christophe Tinseau	Apomatox	1:31.85
5	Pedro Couciero	Madgwick International	1:31.87
6	Jean-Philippe Belloc	DAMS	1:31.97
7	Joerg Mueller	RSM Marko	1:32.02
8	Laurent Redon	DAMS	1:32.13
9	Elton Julian	Nordic Racing	1:32.18
10	Christiano DeMatta	Pacific Racing	1:32.45
11	Gaston Mazzacane	Auto Sport Racing	1:32.72
12	Marc Goossens	Astromega	1:32.76
13	David Dussau	Sidepuma/Edenbridge	1:33.05
14	Thomas Biagi	Auto Sport Racing	1:33.09
15	Peter Olsson	Sidepuma/Edenbridge	1:33.14
16	Oliver Tichy	Danielson	1:33.26
17	Christian Pescatori	Durango Equipe	1:33.27
18	Cyrille Sauvage	Apomatox	1:33.36
19	Alexandre de Nadrade	Draco Engineering	1:33.75
20	Akria Iida	Nordic Racing	1:33.76
21	Riccardo Zonta	Draco Engineering	1:33.77
22	Stephan Watson	Team Alpha Plus	1:34.08
23	Frabicio Gollin	Durango Equipe	1:34.26
24	Carl Rosenblad	Team Alpha Plus	1:35.12
25	Guillaume Gomez	Astromega	1:50.57
26	Patrick Lemarie	Pacific Racing	7:06.26

First timed practice times:

POS	DRIVER	TIME
1	Kenny Brack	1:31.01
2	Tom Kristensen	1:31.54
3	Jean-Philippe Belloc	1:31.57
4	Marcos Gueiros	1:31.58
5	Joerg Mueller	1:31.67
6	Laurent Redon	1:32.00
7	Thomas Biagi	1:32.03
8	Christiano DeMatta	1:32.13
9	Christophe Tinseau	1:32.16
10	Pedro Couciero	1:32.43
11	Marc Goossens	1:32.51
12	Elton Julian	1:32.61
13	Stephan Watson	1:32.66
14	Christian Pescatori	1:32.69
15	David Dussau	1:32.82
16	Riccardo Zonta	1:32.84
17	Gaston Mazzacane	1:32.91
18	Peter Olsson	1:32.99
19	Patrick Lemarie	1:33.00
20	Cyrille Sauvage	1:33.03
21	Fabricio Gollin	1:33.06
22	Guillaume Gomez	1:33.30
23	Akria Iida	1:33.43
24	Oliver Tichy	1:33.64
25	Alexandre de Nadrade	1:33.75
26	Carl Rosenblad	1:34.11

Qualifying times: The Grid

POS	DRIVER	TIME
1	Kenny Brack Swe	1:30.57
2	Marcos Guieros Brz	1:31.14
3	Laurent Redon Fr	1:31.16
4	Joerg Mueller D	1:31.25
5	Tom Kristensen DK	1:31.54
6	Jean-Philippe Belloc Fr	1:31.55
7	Pedro Couciero Por	1:31.62
8	Elton Julian USA	1:31.74
9	Riccardo Zonta Brz	1:31.76
10	Christiano DeMatta Brz	1:31.99
11	Thomas Biagi Ita	1:32.03
12	Christophe Tinseau Fr	1:32.16
13	Gaston Mazzacane Fr	1:32.35
14	Guillaume Gomez Fr	1:32.39
15	Marc Goossens Bel	1:32.51
16	Fabricio Gollin Ita	1:32.56
17	David Dussau Fra	1:32.57
18	Stephan Watson ZA	1:32.55
19	Christian Pescatori Ita	1:32.67
20	Patrick Lemarie Fra	1:32.93
21	Peter Olsson Swe	1:32.99
22	Cyrille Sauvage Fra	1:33.03
23	Akria Iida Jap	1:33.38
24	Alexandre de Nadrade Brz	1:33.61
25	Oliver Tichy Aut	1:33.64
26	Carl Rosenblad Swe	1:34.11

Warm up notes:

Alexandre de Nadrade: Gearbox problems, retired

Fabricio Gollin: Retired. Parked his car at the pitlane exit

Oliver Tichy: Gearbox problems. "Nothing severe. When the race starts, this problem will be solved."

Joerg Mueller: "At the moment I'm not yet able to judge our competitiveness. This was the very first time that I was driving this car on full tanks. Now I wonder what the race is going to be like, as I never before did a 200km race in one piece."

The race:

The start was chaotic, an eight car massacre occuring in the midfield. Theresult was that Gaston Mazzacane, David Dussau and Thomas Biagi retired on the spot. Riccardo Zonta managed another lap before retiring: "My rear suspension broke when my right rear wheel was hit by another competitor during the start collision." Alexandre de Nadrade was also a casualty: "During the start I lost my fifth gear, then I was hit by another car while braking into the first corner." Mueller was chasing Brack hard, but things settled down a bit for a while. Fabricio Gollin spun into the Veedol chicane and retirement on lap 6, and on lap 14 Peter Olsson drove into Carl Rosenblad at the Dunlop hairpin, taking Rosenblad out of the race. Three laps later, and Olsson was given a 10 second stop/go penalty for the accident, which he ignored. Lap 24 he was black-flagged for ignoring it, and when he came in on lap 25, he was disqualified.

Everything else was pretty uneventful, Marc Goossens providing some entertainment when he braked to late at the Castrol S and spun into retirement. Mueller was still chasing Brack hard, but he just couldn't get past. This didn't worry Brack though, who was delighted with the win.

"Due to the yellow flag situation, the first part of the race was rather difficult," explained Brack. "But after this is was much fun.... Fortunately it's not so easy to overtake here at the ring, so there was nearly no chance for Joerg Mueller to pass me." Mueller was also quick to congratulate Brack. "We had lots of problems during the practice sessions and were much slower than we had been while testing here. But the race was really satisfying, although there was no chance at all to overtake Kenny, because he did a fantastic job."

Third placed Marcos Gueiros was also pleased. "After the '95 season we are doing much better this year. I am happy to have achieved a podium place."

Results

POS	DRIVER	TIME
1	Kenny Brack	1:07:04.88, 175.227kph
2	Joerg Mueller	1:07:06.81
3	Marcos Gueiros	1:07:22.26
4	Tom Kristensen	1:07:22.60
5	Pedro Couciero	1:07:57.12
6	Laurent Redon	1:08:01.52
7	Jean-Philippe Belloc	1:08:01.93
8	Christophe Tinseau	1:08:02.68
9	Christiano DeMatta	1:08:05.17
10	Christian Pescatori	1:08:09.34
11	Oliver Tichy	1:08:18.13
12	Patrick Lemarie	1:08:28.71
13	Elton Julian	- 1 lap
14	Akria Iida	- 1 lap
	Not Classified
	Cyrille Sauvage	-17 laps
	Peter Olsson	-18 laps
	Marc Goossens	- 27 laps
	Carl Rosenblad	- 30 laps
	Fabricio Gollin	- 37 laps
	Alexandre de Nadrade	- 42 laps
	Riccardo Zonta	- 42 laps
	Stephan Watson	- 42 laps
	Guillaume Gomez	- 43 laps
	Thomas Biagi	- 43 laps
	Gaston Mazzacane	- 43 laps
	David Dussau	- 43 laps