Saturday at the Ring – part 2

14. July 2012Nürburgring - Whoever hoped that the weather would turn for the better in the second race was probably disappointed. While the formation lap still took place under bearable circumstances, the sky opened up in time for the first lap.
Körber took the lead right away over Lacheze and Vrsecky. Bösiger twirled around at the start of the race and had to experience how all the other drivers passed him. After the first lap the leading drivers were still having the lead, followed by Albacete, Janiec and Hahn. It started to rain even more and then everything happened really fast. Almost one after another truck drove right into the gravel after entering the Mercedes-Arena. Some were able to get out themselves, but others were simply stuck. Polesetter Lacheze was hit the hardest; his truck ended up on the guardrail. When, suddenly, three trucks were stuck in the outlet zone, the race was discontinued. The recovery took them more than 20 minutes, while it was constantly raining and the cleaning vehicles tried hard to get the situation with the water under control. By this time, the group had been greatly mixed up. Hahn had taken the lead, but Körber and Albacete fell back. Therefore other trucks were on positions they had never been on before. Some drivers really approved of the restart – in the same order of the finish of the two previous laps – but others did not like it so much. Körber started from the Pole position, next to him was Janiec, who was followed by Albacte and Hahn. The Spaniard was able to pass Janiec quickly and then the MAN driver started the attack on Körber. After two more laps he could not fight the attacks anymore and Albacete was able to drive toward a tight but unchallenged victory. During the last lap, Körber had to fight the attacks from Hahn, who in the meantime, has passed Janiec. Mäkinen and Oestreich fought over the 5th place until the end and that’s when the Renault driver was also the lucky one.
But in the end, the results of both part-races are added together and in the addition of the times the Fin was a little more than one second faster. Due to his failure in the first race, Oese had to start from the end of the grid and was only able to move forward in the second part-race. Bösiger placed 7th, who had fought his way back to the front after a twirl during the first lap. Behind Bösiger, the final result was not the same like the order on the track.
In the end the Belgian Jean-Pierre Blaise (Renault) placed 8th, ahead of Faure und Lohr. Because of the fact that Faure can not receive any points, Ellen Lohr received two points and Lacko placed 11th and received the last point – at least that was what everyone thought.
Janiec and Blaise both received 30 penalty seconds – “Stewarts’ Decision“. Janiec fell behind Mäkinen and Oestreich and placed 6th, Blaise placed 13th, but still received one point, because three of the ones placed in front of him remained without points – because they were not at the starting line in the first five events.
Lohr received three points and Lacko one. There were also two part-races in the Mittelrhein-Cup-Race. René Reinert, who was really unlucky in the FIA - races marked an impressing start-finish-victory in his MAN, ahead of his British teammates Mathew Summerfield and Richard Collet. Both local heroes Sascha and Hein-Werner Lenz placed 5th and 6th with their Mercedes race trucks. In the overall ranking, Albacete is having the lead with 257 points ahead of Hahn (254), Lacko (170), Oestreich (169), Vrsecky (138) and Bösiger (128).The team ranking was won by Pneu Bösiger-Team 14 ahead of MKR-Technology and Blaise / Bouzige Truck Racing in the first race. In the second race both first ones changed their places.

Impressions: