Qualifying
Quarter-finals : 10 drivers, 15 laps, first five
automatically qualify for semi-final
Semi-finals : 12 drivers (10 from quarter-finals,
plus the next 2 fastest), 20 laps, first six qualify for final
12 drivers, 25 laps.
A star-studded field of drivers competed over the 2 days of the 2nd Elf Masters at Palais Omnisport in Bercy, Paris. Formula 1 drivers such as Franck Lagorce, Eric van de Poele, Olivier Panis, Erik Comas, Alain Prost, Jean-Christophe Boullion, Alessandro Zanardi, Jos Verstappen, Gianni Morbidelli, Rubens Barrichello, Johnny Herbert, Christian Fittipaldi, Jean-Marc Gounon, Ralf Schumacher, Philippe Alliot and Pedro Lamy competed. Other drivers also there from various other series included Olivier Thevenin, Emmanuel Clerico, Laurent Redan, Eric Helary, Guillaume Gomez, Christophe Bouchut, Oriol Servia, Anthony Beltoise, Laurent Aiello, Alexandre Janoray, Nicolas Minassian, Emmanuel Collard, Heisse, Lemarie and Philippe.
The karts were 100cc, revving to 18000rpm with a top speed 120 km/h and made in Italy. The programme on each day followed the following pattern:
Qualifying
Quarter-finals : 10 drivers, 15 laps, first five
automatically qualify for semi-final
Semi-finals : 12 drivers (10 from quarter-finals,
plus the next 2 fastest), 20 laps, first six qualify for final
12 drivers, 25 laps.
Michael was fastest in Saturday qualifying. In his quarter final, Michael was forced out while leading when his kart threw a chain. He was chosen as one of the drivers to make the semis without finishing in the top 5, starting from last position.
This result earned him a place in the final, in which he passed Panis, Herbert and Gomez on the way to third place, just 2 seconds behind Zanardi.
On the Sunday, Michael won his quarter-final despite not being the fastest qualifier.
Michael then won the 2nd semi-final, with Collard trailing him again.
In the final, Michael made up for the previous day, winning by 6 seconds.
Altogether, a fairly successful weekend! (which could've been very successful but for a thrown chain in the first race of his weekend)
On the Thursday before this year's French Grand Prix, Michael took part in the Shell-Ferrari Kart Challenge. This was no ordinary race - a group of journalists were getting their opportunity to prove that Michael wasn't as good as some people think (or know) he is. Journalists who had given Michael stick in their articles could show how bad he was by beating him on the track... well that's the theory anyway!
Journalists qualified for the final by competing in a race with other journalists of that nationality - there were 5 races : one for the Germans, another for the Italians, another for the French, another for the UK and finally an International race for ones that weren't in one of the other nationality (although Ben Edwards from Eurosport was in this one - why?).
Finally a group of ten journalists were selected from the results of these 5 races. The field was flagged away by Eddie Irvine, giving Michael his opportunity to start passing the opposition - he started at the back of the grid to give the journalists a chance :-)
On the first lap of the scheduled 14, Michael overtook 5 of his journalist opponents. After moving quickly up to fourth, he was held there for a couple of laps as the driver in front (Froissart) managed to defend his line well. Michael passed him, but Froissart passed him back, although Michael then passed him again on lap 5, this time for good. He then caught the two leading karts, who put up a good fight, but Michael eventually made his way through and took the lead on lap 8, going on to win the race. Despite the field being passed in 8 laps, the standard of driving was high and was shown by the fighting between Michael and them for several laps, and the repassing of Michael by Froissart. Unfortunately for (some of) the journalists, Michael did win - maybe he is THAT good.
![[IMAGE : Michael At Bercy '96]](/file/29450/Internet CD.iso/web/cars/wwwstu~1.au/~davew/bercy.jpg)
(Special thanks to Johnny Herbert website for providing a great description of the weekend's events)
A star-studded field of drivers again competed over the 2 days of the 4th Elf Masters at Palais Omnisport in Bercy, Paris. Formula 1 drivers there included Olivier Panis, Mika Salo, Gianni Morbidelli, Luca Badoer, Pedro Lamy, Giancarlo Fisichella, Andrea Montermini, Jean-Christophe Bouillion, Max Papis, Franck Lagorce, Emmannuel Collard (OK so he is only a test driver) Tarso Marques, Rene Arnoux, Marc Surer, Roberto Moreno, Jan Lammers, Phillipe Alliot and even Giovani Lavaggi (aka Johnny Carwash). This year, the event returned to the 1993-style relay event, as in 1994 and 1995 the event had had many casualties, due to the number of ambitious moves leading to, in some cases, injuries to drivers. The relay format hoped to reduce this.
There were 3 finals on each day - one for F1 drivers, one for celebrities and one for karters. These were used to determine the teams and starting positions for the grand final, which consisted of 9 teams of 3 drivers. It should be noted here that for all races except the karters final, standard 100cc 2-stroke karts were used, while the karters were allowed to bring their own karts and tune them - this is why some drivers like Michael chose to take part in the karters race.
In the F1 final, Michael won almost at will, from Gianni Morbidelli 2nd, with Giancarlo Fisichella finishing 3rd.
In the karting final, Michael and Giancarlo Fisichella took on the karters, with Michael finishing second, finishing 2nd to Christophe Vasoort by 0.03s. He could've won, but after dominating the race, he ease up on the line, allowing Vasoort through to the narrowest of victories. When being interviewed post-race, Michael said: "I slowed down because I wanted us to finish together but I got my timing wrong." However, it seems the real reason was that he was unhappy with being made to start on the front row when he had actually qualified on the second row, and deliberately didn't win the race as a rebuttal to the organisers.
The grand final was split into three heats - karters, then celebrities, and finally the F1 drivers. Michael started in 5th thanks to the efforts of his teammates. Michael quickly moved up into third position, behind Lamy and Collard. A couple of laps into the race Collard ran wide at the hairpin, Michael moving up to second. Lamy was now in his sights, and he obviously knew Michael was there ... Lamy threw it into the barriers! Salo, now running 2nd, caught up to Michael and managed to squeeze past. Morbidelli was closing in on both of them. Now Salo had a problem with his kart, slowing in front of Michael, allowing Morbidelli to get an advantage, which he made full use of, moving into the lead, which he kept until the end, despite intense pressure from Michael all the way to the end.
Sunday dawned a new day - maybe Michael's team could win this time. In the F1 final, Michael started 3rd. He made an overtaking move early in the race at the hairpin, helping Badoer into and over Morbidelli - they would bump into each other again, not so friendly the next time. A few laps later, Michael tried a move on Fisichella at the hairpin, but it was unsuccessful and the engine stalled. Fisichella went on to win, with Collard 2nd and Salo 3rd. Schumacher managed to get going again, finishing 9th, 17.494 seconds behind.
In the kart final, Michael started from 2nd, this time being joined from the F1 circus by Badoer and Morbidelli. Michael won this time, beating current World and European Formula Super A Champion Johnny Mislijevic by 1.407s.
In the grand final, Michael started 8th thanks ... well, no thanks to his teammates. Beltoise started last in the first heat, and finished there. Franck Freon in the second heat did little better, moving up just one position. Despite this, Michael managed to pass 6 other F1 drivers in the heat except Lamy in the first 5 laps, moving up to 2nd! This time however, Lamy held on to win by 0.298s. All in all, a good (and successful) weekend of racing, even if some drivers still took it too seriously... there were still several cases of flying karts thanks to overly ambitious manoeuvres.
Back to Michael Schumacher Home PageBack to Dave Wright's Home Page![[IMAGE : MS logo]](/file/29450/Internet CD.iso/web/cars/wwwstu~1.au/~davew/schulogo.jpg)
Copyright © David Wright 1996-1997