Saturday in Albacete

04. June 2011Albacete - Early in the morning the temperature was in the single-digit range, but later we could again enjoy a relatively sunny day – and again there wasn’t any rain. For the truck racers and also for the organisers the day did not start as they had expected. Already the first free practice began almost ten minutes late and about halfway through the practice there was a heavy crash involving the Belgian driver Jean-Pierre Blaise (Renault) and the Spanish pilot Javier Mariezcurrena (MAN). By that time we were already half an hour behind schedule. But this could not unsettle the top pilots, they were again leading in both free practices.
Jochen Hahn, who is currently at the top of the overall standing, seems to drive in a different league at the moment. However, in the timed practice he was a bit slower than his Spanish MAN colleague Antonio Albacete, but actually in this case the only concern is to get into the SuperPole. The other nine top finishers were Markus Oestreich (GER) in his MKR Renault, the two Czech drivers David Vrsecky (Buggyra Freightliner) and Adam Lacko as well as the Swiss pilot Markus Bösiger (both of them MKR Renault), MAN pilot Stuart Oliver (GBR), the Frenchman Anthony Janiec (Renault) and the two MAN pilots Alex Lvov (RUS) and Zoltan Birnbauer (HUN).
In the SuperPole Hahn once again proved his evident superiority. He was three tenths faster than Oestreich, with Albacete, Lacko and Bösiger close behind and, at some greater distance, Vrsecky, Janiec, Lvov, Oliver and Birnbauer.
Tough luck for the two potential top-ten candidates, MAN pilot Uwe Nittel (GER) and Chris Levett (GBR) in his Buggyra Freightliner: towards the end of the second free practice Nittel ran into trouble. At first there was only some problem with the diesel supply, but finally the complete engine had to be replaced. Levett had to retire due to a mechanical defect right in the warm-up lap of the timed practice. But the work on both RaceTrucks was completed in time for the race.
And again Hahn gave an extraordinary performance and, of course, led away from the start. Albacete passed Oestreich in the first bend, but after only a few hundred metres the two opponents collided heavily. The Spaniard did a pirouette he would have gained maximum points for had he been competing in a figure skating championship, but here he lost several positions. If you want to take a look at that incident, please click on www.truckrace.tv „Crash Albacete/Oestreich“.
Afterwards you could hardly believe that nothing severe had happened considering the huge cloud of dust, because for the pilots following behind them the visibility was practically reduced to zero. But from then Hahn was on his way to an unchallenged start-finish victory, followed at some distance by Oestreich ahead of Lacko and Bösiger. Vrsecky finished in 5th position, followed by Janiec, Lvov and Oliver. By finishing 8th the British driver secured pole for the second race of the day because, as is well known, the top 8 finishers from race 1 line up on the grid in reverse order. Levett grabbed 9th position, followed home by Albacete who therewith gained the last position within the points. After his accident the Spaniard had problems with a damaged tyre and would hardly have managed to drive another lap.
From his 31st place on the grid Nittel succeeded in working his way up to 12th position, but afterwards was disqualified for overspeeding.
In the second race Oliver made a good getaway and managed to hold his team mate Lvov at bay, but already in the first lap he returned to the pit lane and later was forced to retire. But for Lvov now began the race of his life. Right from the start Vrsecky – who was actually faster according to the lap times – was breathing down the Russian’s neck. But the two-time European champion never had a real chance to pass him, so that Lvov – with the Czech close at his heels – claimed the first win for the Allgäuer Team this season. After the crash in the first race which dashed Albacete’ hope to score the maximum number of 60 points on his “home track”, another candidate for the full number of points suffered the same fate in the second race. After a first-turn skirmish Hahn was forced to go through the gravel bed and dropped back to midfield, from where he had to work his way through the pack lap after lap, and eventually established himself in 4th position behind Lacko. In doing so the MAN pilot had passed all his fiercest rivals in the fight for the title, although it has to be said that luck was on his side several times, as drivers he overlapped cleared the way for him.
In the first race the team ranking was won by MKR Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich) ahead of MKR Team 14 Juniors (Lacko / Janiec) and Buggyra (Vrsecky / Levett). The winner of the second race was MKR Team 14 Juniors, followed by Buggyra and Cepsa-Trucksport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Nittel).
In the overall ranking Hahn has now got 117 points and could further extend his lead, followed by Oestreich (98), Albacete (91), Nittel (64), Lacko (60), Bösiger and Vrsecky (je 55).
There was a bit of confusion before the start of the second race which after the delay in the morning had been officially scheduled for 16:45 hours. But during the course of the day there had been further delays, and when the Parc Fermé was opened there had barely been time left for the teams to do any maintenance work, so that at the appointed time for the start there were still several trucks in the paddock.
In the evening it was said that several pilots had left the pit lane despite the red light in order to proceed to the starting grid. Should that incident give rise to any protests, this could possibly lead to alterations of the results.

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