Saturday at the Ring – part 1

14. July 2012Nürburgring - Unfortunately the weather forecast was right, it rained the whole night. Before the teams could get ready for the warm-up session, they first had to make sure that they would get the water off their tents.
And in the warm-up Antonio Albacete (ESP) already showed that he was able to handle the rain much better than his teammate Jochen Hahn (MAN). The lap times were still 25 seconds slower than during the practice on the previous day. Sometimes the rain storms stopped, but it still drizzled and therefore there was still hope for the first race in the 6th race of the FIA Truck Racing Championship. However, right when the race was about to begin, it started raining again. The race commission decided to let the drivers drive two formation laps in order to get the water off the race track. The first lap of the race was still driven under yellow, meaning no overtaking was allowed. It was said that not everyone understood this in the midfield, because allegedly some drivers already tried to overtake at the beginning of the race. However the main focus was on the lead.
Polesetter Albacete took the lead ahead of the three Renault drivers: Adam Lacko (CZE), Markus Oestreich (GER) und Anthony Janiec (FRA). David Vrsecky (CZE) in his Freightliner, Hahn and the Swiss Markus Bösiger (Renault), who had to let the title holder pass earlier, formed the chase group. Oestreich had to park in the pit, so that Albacete only had one more Renault chasing after him. Only one lap later the Spaniard was not able to defend his position anymore and Lacko was easily in the position to pass the red Cepsa Truck and he drove toward a clear victory. In the meantime Vrsecky and Hahn had passed Janiec and then the German tried to win over the third position from the Czech. Until only few laps before the end of the race, Vrsecky was able to defend any attack, but then Hahn was able to move ahead of the Freightliner, while his many fans were cheering him on. Bösiger fought with Janiec over place number 5 and 2 laps before the end of the race he was finally able to pass him. The Fin Mika Mäkinen (MAN) and Gerd Körber (GER,Iveco) possibly had the most interesting competition. After two-thirds of the race, Körber had made the Fin tired and passed him. With rank number 8, Mäkinen won the Pole for the second race. The other top 10 positions went to the two French MAN drivers Dominique Lacheze und Ludovic Faure.
Then the race commission started again to have endless discussions. The whole situation – two formation laps, one lap completely yellow and then this cloud of spray, where you weren’t able to see anything – was extremely confusing. In the end six drivers received time penalties due to overspeeding or a “Stewarts’ Decision“, what made the top ten ranking look totally different again. Behind Vrsecky Mäkinen placed 5th with Körber, Bösiger, Lacheze, Janiec und Faure following him. Ellen Lohr (GER) placed 11th and received one point for the tankpool24-Mercedes-Team. According to the regulations, Faure can not receive anymore points, because he did not attend the first 5 events of the season. After the results were corrected, Lacheze received the Pole Position.

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