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Saturday in Zolder

Saturday in Zolder

12. September 2009Zolder - During the night it was again rather cold – around 12 °C (54 °F), but as the day progressed the clouds broke up and the sun was shining, with temperatures of up to 23 °C (73 °F). In the first free practice the ‘usual suspects’ were again setting the pace, but the Spaniard Antonio Albacete was almost one and a half seconds faster than his MAN colleague Jochen Hahn. The German and the two Buggyra Freightliner pilots David Vrsecky (CZE) and Markus Bösiger (SUI), however, were within 2 – 3 tenths of each other. In the second free practice the top pilots were all extremely close on the stopwatch, and Egon Allgäuer (AUT), who had swapped engines with Chris Levett (GBR) yesterday, managed to clock an even faster time than Bösiger. But the times were even closer in the first timed practice.
Right in the first lap Hahn posted a fantastic time, bettering his best lap time in the second free practice by more than 2 seconds. Half a second behind Hahn was Vrsecky, ahead of Albacete and Levett. But now everything changed in quick succession. In his second lap Vrsecky was less than 1 tenth of a second faster than the German, Bösiger was ahead of Levett, but was still 2 tenths slower than Albacete. Shortly before the end of the practice the Czech again clocked a super lap time (1:57.758 min.), an incredible improvement of 5 tenths in his best lap. The Spaniard was meanwhile ahead of Hahn, but he did not want to settle for 2nd place on the grid and put his foot down hard on the accelerator. He could indeed better his times again, but in the end was less than 9 hundredths slower than Vrsecky.
And the first Championship race was even more exciting. Vrsecky had made a good start ahead of Albacete and Hahn. Bösiger succeeded in holding Levett at bay. Allgäuer soon managed to pass the Hungarian Balazs Szobi (MAN). At first the two MAN pilots Albacete and Hahn seemed to wear themselves out while fighting for the second position. Albacete had to fend off Hahn’s continuous attacks, but eventually the Spaniard managed to pull away, and he now started to attack the leading Vrsecky. Bösiger now began to close in on the German, but mid-race the Swiss slowed down – a defective tyre. With every lap he lost 2 – 3 seconds, and in the penultimate lap the Buggyra pilot took to the pit. While Hahn now was unchallenged on third position, there were some white-knuckle fights between the two leading pilots. In the penultimate lap Albacete managed to take the lead, but Vrsecky was far from acknowledging defeat. They ran through most of the corners side-by-side instead of one behind the other. Then there was a nail-biting scenario when they went through the finishing straight in the penultimate lap. There must have been some contact between the two opponents, because behind them there were suddenly a lot of shattered plastic parts all over the track which put the pilots driving behind them in danger. And also the marshals standing near the walls on both sides felt they were in extreme danger, because both drivers – Vrsecky on the left hand side and Albacete on the right hand side – scraped past the concrete within a whisker. By then the Spaniard had gained a slight lead which he maintained to the chequered flag. Levett came home fourth, followed by Allgäuer and Szobi. The other drivers in the points were the two Renault pilots Frankie Vojtisek (CZE) and Markus Altenstrasser (AUT), the Brit Stuart Oliver (MAN) and the Frenchman Anthony Janiec (Renault).
In the second race of the day, where the 8 top finishers of the first race start in reverse order, there were two Renault pilots, Altenstrasser and Vojtesek, on the first row of the grid. The winner Albacete lined up 8th, Vrsecky and Hahn were on 6th and 7th spot, resp. Bösiger, who was forced to retire in the first race, had to start from the back of the field of 21 trucks. Altenstrasser led away from the start, while his team mate Vojtisek dropped back a bit, and the Austrian pulled out a lead that secured him 2nd podium spot. In the second lap Allgäuer had fought his way up to 2nd position, where he collided with Albacete who was on 3rd by then. While the Austrian stayed on the track, the Spaniard had to plough through the gravel. Albacete rejoined the track, but Allgäuer returned to the pit at a snail pace because of mechanical troubles. Now the chasing pack mounted their attack on Altenstrasser. Lap after lap Vrsecky and Hahn reduced the distance, with the Czech’s truck clearly being the fastest vehicle. Consequently, in mid-race the Buggyra pilot took the lead which he extended continuously until he crossed the finishing line. Hahn however, who apparently was not quite satisfied with the performance of his engine, finished just a few tenths behind Altenstrasser, but never found a passing opportunity. Vojtisek held his 4th position for several laps, but eventually he was passed by his opponents. Unchallenged, Levett came in 4th, followed by Szobi. There was a very exciting battle between the Russian MAN pilot Alexander Lvov, Bösiger and Albacete for the 6th place. For several laps the 2006 champion and the 2007 title winner were glued to the rear of rookie Lvov. Both ex-champions had already passed the Russian once, but ‘too much oomph’ had forced them off the track and now the Russian was again ahead of them. But in the penultimate lap Lvov left his braking too late on the finish straight, swerved on the right-hand bend and skidded briefly off the track, and both Bösiger and Albacete took the opportunity to pass. Vojtisek finished in 9th, and Javier Mariezcurrena (ESP) in his blue MAN took the last of the points-scoring places.
In the overall ranking Albacete is still leading with 368 points, closely followed by Vrsecky (354); Bösiger remains on third (264), ahead of Hahn (257).
In the team ranking the first race was won by Team HahnOxxo (Hahn / Szobi), ahead of Buggyra (Vrsecky / Bösiger) and Team Frankie (Altenstrasser / Vojtisek); in the second race Team HahnOxxo and Buggyra switched places. Team Frankie took again third place on the podium.