Saturday in Jarama

04. October 2008Jarama - After the strong wind during the previous day, the thermometer plummeted overnight down to 5 °C (41 °F). Around noon the sky clouded over, so that it didn’t really grow warm. But it made the Spanish fans feel warm all over when in the timed practice their Antonio Albacete secured pole at the very last second. Earlier the two free practices were again dominated by Buggyra, with Markus Bösiger and David Vrsecky leading alternately. But in the timed practice Jochen Hahn clocked fastest time with 1:58.379 right in the first lap; his MAN colleague Albacete was a mere 5 hundredths slower. And only then Bösiger and Vrsecky followed. When the 20 minute session was interrupted after about a quarter of an hour, nobody expected that there would be any changes in the order, however, in their respective final lap Albacete was 15 hundredths faster than Hahn and Vrsecky left his Swiss team mate behind. The first four pilots were only three tenths apart, which gave rise to expect an exciting Qualy race.
But Albacete didn’t miss the opportunity to impress the Spanish audience. He took the lead right from the start, ahead of Hahn, Vrsecky, and Bösiger. And also during the race there was rarely more than a difference of a second between the drivers in the quartet, and sometimes it looked as if Hahn was a little bit quicker than the local hero. But eventually the Cepsa pilot crossed the finish line ahead of the German, with an advantage of 4 tenths. Behind Vrsecky and Bösiger, Jean-Philippe Belloc finished in 5th ahead of Chris Levett (both MAN). The field of the first ten pilots was completed by Markus Altenstrasser (Renault), Egon Allgäuer, Dominique Lachèze and José Rodrigues (all of them MAN). But as it is his first race this year, the Portuguese doesn’t get any FIA points, so that the point for 10th place was given to the pilot on 11th position, Anthony Janiec (Renault).
In the final Championship race the front runners finished almost in the same order as in the race before – but until then there was quite a bit of commotion. Again Albacete took the lead right from the start – cheered by his numerous fans – followed by Hahn, Bösiger and Vrsecky. In the 180 degree curve “Farina” suddenly bedlam broke loose in the middle of the field. Some of the trucks looked pretty wrecked afterwards. However, this had no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the race. Till the 8th lap everything took its course, but suddenly the marshals waved the red flag. Jennifer Janiec’s Renault had come to a standstill on the racing line: the race was stopped. As there were less than 70 % of the race distance covered by that time, there had to be a restart. So many a pilot sniffed a chance to gain a better position. But with great aplomb Albacete took the lead again. And, as before, his chasers were glued to his rear bumper, but actually nobody dared to start an ultimate attack which could have easily meant the end of the race for oneself. Finally the times achieved in both races were added up. The Spaniard was again the winner, ahead of Hahn and with Bösiger getting 3rd place on the podium. Three seconds later Vrsecky crossed the finish line, followed by Belloc, Levett, Altenstrasser and Lachèze. On 9th was race-by-race pilot Rodrigues ahead of Janiec, and Javier Mariezcurrena (MAN) on 11th, who gained the last FIA point.
The team ranking was won by Team Koller + Schwemmer (Hahn/Belloc), ahead of Buggyra (Bösiger/Vrsecky) and Team Frankie (Vojtisek/Altenstrasser).
In the overall standing Vrsecky is further on leading with 390 points, followed by Bösiger (373), Albacete (342), Hahn (290) and Belloc (228).
Tomorrow the only remaining candidates for the title will be Vrsecky and Bösiger.