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Sunday in Jarama  Part 1 - Norbert Kiss wins SuperPole

Sunday in Jarama Part 1 - Norbert Kiss wins SuperPole

06. October 2013Jarama - After another very cool night, tempers in the paddock had cooled again somewhat. After the severe crash in the very first corner in which Antonio Albacete’s MAN was badly damaged, it was clear that the Spaniard’s truck couldn’t be repaired quickly. It was initially suggested that the cab be replaced with that of his teammate Markus Oestreich’s truck. But even that course of action would have thrown up difficulties. Alternatively, the team weighed whether Albacete, whose lead in the standings has somewhat diminished to 18 points, should race in Oestreich’s truck instead. Both would mean denying Oestreich his own chance at the title, because he is only 64 points behind the leaders with 90 points still there for the taking.
But to be able to exchange trucks, Truck Sport Lutz Bernau would need the approval of all the other teams and drivers, and immediately simmering resentments started bubbling to the surface. In particular Frenchman Dominique Orsini, a pillar of the sport and boss of the small private team that carries his own name, stubbornly refused to sign in support of the biggest rival of his own biggest supporter over the years — Jochen Hahn. A good half of the paddock tried nevertheless to get Orsini to relent, and it was already midnight when Hahn took Orsini aside and the defending champ, who ironically was the first to assent to the switch, managed to convince the Frenchman to agree likewise.
The fact that Oestreich’s win in the previous race had secured Truck Sport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Oestreich) the team championship was all but buried amid all the stress of these events. In any case, nobody was in any mood to celebrate yesterday evening.
The warm-up for the second day of the 9th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on the Circuito del Jarama started at 9 am. Here Hahn very clearly had the advantage; Albacete meanwhile used his laps to acclimatise himself to his “new” truck. But the drivers were only really down to earnest in the second timed practice. The battle-lines were drawn after the very first flying lap, which was the Hungarian Norbert Kiss’s — a fantastic 1:58.285s in his MAN proved untouchable. While all the other drivers returned to the pits after just one flying lap, as is now customary, Albacete kept at it, improving his lap times steadily. But this was secondary, because the actual starting order would only be decided in the SuperPole. And the qualifiers for this shootout, behind Kiss, were the Czech David Vršecký (Buggyra Freightliner), Albacete, Renault pilot Adam Lacko (CZE), Hahn, the Swiss Markus Bösiger (MKR Renault), Mika Mäkinen (FIN) in an MAN, Frenchman Anthony Janiec (Renault), and the two MAN drivers René Reinert (GER) and Benedek Major (HUN).
In the SuperPole Kiss picked up where he’d left off in the timed practice, blazing to another best lap in 1:57.994s, Hahn this time only two-thousandths slower. The rest, led by Vršecký, were all at least a second behind. Albacete managed fourth, followed by Mäkinen, Bösiger, Lacko, Reinert, Major, and Janiec.

Impressions:

Sunday in Jarama  Part 1 - Norbert Kiss wins SuperPole
Sunday in Jarama  Part 1 - Norbert Kiss wins SuperPole
Sunday in Jarama  Part 1 - Norbert Kiss wins SuperPole