Sunday in Donington – part 1

01. July 2012Donington - In the morning there were no clouds in the sky, but when the warm-up session started the sun was behind a thick blanket of clouds. It was extremely windy, which maybe bothered the spectators, but the race trucks (5.5 tons) were not distracted by that at all. Antonio Albacete (ESP) in his MAN, David Vrsecky (CZE) in his Buggyra Freightliner and Markus Bösiger (SUI) in his Renault drove the fastest times. It got more serious when the timed practice started and here again, Jochen Hahn (GER) took the lead. However, he was only 11 hundredth faster than Albacete, who is his biggest rival in the fight for the Championship. It was even tighter between Markus Oestreich (GER) and Bösiger (both MKR-Renault), because they were only 2 hundredth apart from each other. Dominique Lacheze (FRA) on his MAN, Vrsecky, both Renault drivers Anthony Janiec (FRA) and Adam Lacko (CZE), as well as MAN-pilot Norbert Kiss (HUN) and Jean-Pierre Blaise (BEL) in his Renault placed in the top ten. The timed practice did not turn out to be successful for Mercedes driver Ellen Lohr and MAN driver René Reinert (both from Germany). The engine in Lohr’s truck did not work the way she wanted it and thus, she was not able to drive faster and Reinert, on the other hand, had a smashed windshield.
It became especially serious for the top drivers during the SuperPole and it was even tighter: The first four drivers: Hahn, Albacete, Oestreich and Bösiger were only 2 tenth apart. The following places went to Vrsecky, Lacheze, Lacko, Kiss, Janiec and Blaise. In the meantime, the race commission had come together again and they decided to give Kiss a penalty because of the incident with Albacete during the last race one day ago. The Hungarian was moved back five places in the starting grid and that meant he was going to be on place number 13.

Impressions: