Saturday in Nogaro
19. June 2010Nogaro - Today the weather was much the same as on Friday – cold, wet and unsettled. As a consequence the times clocked during the warm-up were similar to the ones posted in the second free practice on Friday. The two MKR Renault pilots Markus Bösiger (SUI) and Markus Oestreich (GER) clearly set the pace. Many of the other drivers were far behind; the Brit Chris Levett and also his German MAN colleague Jochen Hahn were almost 5 seconds slower. But it was just the warm-up, and nobody would let the cat out of the bag until the timed practice; and indeed, in the timed practice Levett surprised the truck racing community by lapping a top time of 1:58.046 – considering the conditions – an improvement of more than 8 seconds over his best lap in the warm-up, while his opponents bettered their times by only 3 – 4 seconds. But, as they said, the point is to be among the top ten in order to qualify for the SuperPole. The weather conditions became even worse, but in the last qualification the Englishman was still the fastest driver, however in the final lap Bösiger was 3 tenths quicker. 3rd position on the grid fell to Oestreich, ahead of the Spaniard Antonio Albacete (MAN) – the current championship leader –, title contender David Vrsecky (CZE) in his Freightliner and an MAN armada consisting of Hahn, Adam Lacko (CZE), Javier Mariezcurrena (ESP), Alex Lvov (RUS) and Balazs Szobi (HUN).
The weather services had predicted rain showers for the time when the first race was about to start – but it stayed dry, and the start was completely problem-free. Bösiger made a superb getaway and took an early lead. Levett came under pressure from Oestreich who, in turn, was attacked by Albacete. Vrsecky, though, was outgunned not only by his ‘neighbour’ Hahn, but also by fellow Czech Lacko. Bösiger – as was almost expected – pulled gradually away from the field, but unexpectedly Levett, too, held his 2nd position unchallenged. After only a few laps it was evident that Oese – provided nothing unforeseen happened – would have no chance to pass the Brit; on the contrary, the MAN pilot managed to ease away even further and crossed the finishing line more than 9 seconds clear of the German. Albacete came home 4th, and Hahn took an unchallenged 5th place. Lacko grabbed 6th ahead of Vrsecky, Lvov was in 8th – thus securing pole position for the second race – and the French Renault pilot Anthony Janiec finished 9th, followed by Uwe Nittel in his Freightliner. This meant that the German finished again within the points.
Contrary to the forecast, also the second race was held in dry weather. Lvov in the Allgäuer MAN made good use of his pole and took the lead, followed by Lacko in the second Allgäuer MAN who had outgunned Vrsecky at the start. But already in the second lap Lacko swerved off the circuit and rejoined the track in 11th place, the position he finally had to settle for. Lvov managed to fend off Vrsecky’s attempts for a short time, but after 2 more laps the Buggyra pilot sliced past. In the following lap the Russian was overtaken by Albacete and Hahn. And after only a few hundred metres the yellow MAN was swiftly passed by Oestreich, Levett and Bösiger. By now it seemed that the outcome of the race was clear, but Albacete reeled in Vrsecky, and, when there were only two more laps to go, he indeed succeeded in passing the Czech at the starting straight. A bit later, at the end of the long back straight Levett emerged on the right hand side of Oestreich’s truck and managed to pass the German on the inside of the following sharp right-hand bend. Behind his team mate, Bösiger finished in 6th, followed home by Lvov. Nittel crossed the finishing line in 8th, bringing his tally up to 7 points. The remaining positions inside the points fell to Szobi and Janiec.
The championship ranking is still led by Albacete with 109 points, followed by Hahn (100), Bösiger (99), Vrsecky (71), Oestreich (55) and Lvov (46).
In the team ranking the first race was plain sailing for MKR Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich), ahead of Truck Sport Bernau (Albacete / Levett) and Team HahnOxxo Racing (Hahn / Szobi). The second race was won by Truck Sport Bernau, followed by Team HahnOxxo Racing and MKR Technology.
