1994 F1RGP2C San Marino Grand Prix
The 1994 F1RGP2C San Marino Grand Prix was the third round of the 1994 F1RGP2C season. The race was won by Jack Christopherson, his first victory in the series.
Race Report
Qualifying
Daniel Moreno led a Williams lockout of the front row. Poppy Whitechapel put in a superb performance to qualify 9th and Damon Cannon somehow put his Lotus in a contending position again. Further back, we have many interesting results. Andrew Spokes outqualified a Sauber, a Lotus and a Ligier to take 18th spot and Miko Fäkkinen was over 1.5 seconds behind his teammate. In the DNQ spots, Pacific made progress but were unable to catch Simtek
Race
At the start Christopherson and John Zimmer both went by polesitter Moreno and Éadbhard made a fantastic start and jumped to fifth. Douglas Mann defended fourth for five laps around the difficult to pass Imola circuit, but Eadbhard eventually passed Mann. On Lap 10, Takagi's engine went boom (again) and the Benetton driver retired for the third time in three races. Daniel Moreno went out with a transmission problem, losing third place. Pippa Mann was the next victim; she was ahead of both Larrousses at the time and was looking promising. The two Larrousses both had car failures on Lap 25 and Lap 31, respectively. Meanwhile, Christopherson was romping away with the race, until he suffered a throttle problem and was forced to make an unscheduled stop. This elevated Zimmer into the lead.
Poppy Whitechapel was also putting in an admirable performance, making it up to fifth place after Padraig O'Connell had an engine failure. It looked like everything was set for the remainder of the race: the top six at the time were: Zimmer, Éadbhard, von Gottorp , Christopherson, Whitechapel and Rory McAllister. However, things were about the change rapidly. Christopherson put a dramatic series of passes on the Jordans, taking second place after a brilliant double overtaking move coming out of the Villeneuve corner. Then, on Lap 57, Whitechapel suffered yet another heartbreaking engine failure. One lap later, Zimmer pulled into the pits with a brake problem, letting by a gleeful Christopherson and the two Jordans. Zimmer rejoined in 4th. The drama did not end there, however. On the last lap of the race, Éadbhard's Jordan suffered a terminal throttle problem, ending his race with half a lap to go. This let Jamies Davies, the next car on the lead lap, through into sixth place to take Sauber's first point of the year! So Christopherson takes his first win of the season and also takes over the lead in the Drivers' Championship.
The awards for this race were as follows. IIDOTR went to Jordans as they should have had a double podium to celebrate this weekend. Reject of the Race went to Benetton-Ford for giving away a win for the third straight race in a row. Zimmer was leading with a healthy margin in all three races, yet he was unable to pick up any wins due to reliability issues and Takagi failed to finish once again.
Standings after the race
- Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.
- Drivers' Championship standings
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jack Christopherson
|
16 |
| 2 | Tom Douglas
|
12 |
| 3 |  Padraig O'Connell
|
10 |
| 4 |  Daniel Moreno
|
9 |
| 5 |  Leonhard von Gottorp
|
6 |
- Constructors' Championship standings
| Pos | Constructor | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Williams-Renault
|
25 |
| 2 | McLaren-Peugeot
|
17 |
| 3 |  Ferrari
|
13 |
| 4 | Jordan-Hart
|
10 |
| 5 | Benetton-Ford
|
4 |
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
Gallery
All photos were taken from the Grand Prix.
Poppy Whitechapel suffers and engine failure
Zimmer's brakes choose a poor time to fail
| Previous race: 1994 Pacific Grand Prix |
Formula 1 Rejects Grand Prix 2 Championship 1994 Season |
Next race: 1994 Monaco Grand Prix |
| Previous race: None |
San Marino Grand Prix | Next race: 1995 San Marino Grand Prix |
