Sunday in Misano – part 2

20. May 2012Misano - The third race of the weekend with 35,000 spectators at all began with a minute of silence for the victims of the attempt in an Italian school and of the earthquake that struck Italy last night – not far away from Misano World Circuit. Right at the start of the race it began to rain. It wasn’t much, but the race track did become slippery, which was noticeable when looking at the time it took the drivers for one lap. It took the race trucks about 15 to 20 seconds for one lap. Hahn knew right away that under these circumstances it would be difficult to put Albacete in his place. The German clearly won the start and was even 3 seconds ahead of Albacete in the first lap, but Albacete raced to the front, passed Hahn and won the race. From then on Hahn constantly had a dark grey MKR – Renault behind him; first it was Lacko and then Oestreich. The MAN driver used his advantage and barely drove over the finish line before Oestreich reached it. In the pure Czech duel over the 4th place it was just as tight and in the end Lacko had the edge over Vrsecky. Janiec placed 6th and drove over the finish line relatively unchallenged. Half of the time Bösiger tried to pass Robineau and once the Swiss was ahead of him it took him almost as long to pass Makinen. After that the Swiss raced off and placed 7th in the end. That way the Fin had the Pole before Bösiger for the last race, in which the drivers, who won the first eight places, would get to the starting line in reverse order. Körber and Robineau eventually completed the first points. Right when the last race was about to start it starting drizzling again, fortunately it stayed that way and it did not start to rain. Bösiger took the lead right away before Makinen could do so and was even able to extend the lead. During the second lap, Vrsecky, Oestreich and Hahn made short work of the Fin and started to race after Bösiger. Until half of the race the Swiss was able to parry off the attacks by Vrsecky. However, after the Czech passed him, the Swiss had to give in on the attack from Oestreich, Hahn and Lacko. Albacete soon caught up and shortly before the end of the race the Spaniard was able to pass Bösiger and place 5th. Lacheze placed 7th before Janiec, Makinen and Körber. Almost one and a half hours after the end of the race, a result was revised, which had not been a real surprise. Janiec who should have taken a drive-through-penalty, but did not do it has been disqualified. That way Makinen and Körber were able to move one place up and Robineau placed 10th (the last point). Ellen Lohr had to keep being patient with her tankpool24 – Mercedes. The mechanics had worked almost the whole night, but the control unit did not work as they hoped it would. In the warm – up the German drove her best time of the whole weekend, but she did not improve later on. During the first race of the day she placed 14th, but during the second race the Mercedes had to be parked in the pit lane after three laps and due to engine problems. In the overall ranking Hahn is the best one with 103 points, Albacete achieved 96, Oestreich 76, Lacko 70, Vrsecky 56 and Bösiger 35. In both races MKR – Technology won again in the team ranking before Pneu Bösiger – Team 14 and Blaise / Bouzige Truck Racing. Due to the disqualification of Team 14 (Janiec’s team) the 2nd and 3rd placed had to eventually switch trophies/cups at the end of the day.

Impressions: