Saturday in Navarra Part 1 - Albacete on pole

07. June 2014Los Arcos - Following a thunderstorm over the Circuito de Navarra overnight, the wind appeared to have dropped considerably. Morning on the first day of this, the second round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, dawned bright and clear, and the first trucks were good to go well before the first free practice — a good 20 minutes, in fact. It was like the pack could hardly wait to be let out.
Once on the track the Hungarian Norbert Kiss showed once again, like he did at the season-opener in Misano a fortnight ago, that he intends to be the deciding factor in this year’s championship. The Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner) followed in second, ahead of defending champ Jochen Hahn (MAN). The top drivers were all very closely bunched in the timesheet. Then, in the second free practice, it was Lacko’s compatriot and teammate David Vršecký who suddenly was ahead – by a nose – of Spaniard Antonio Albacete (MAN), Hahn, and Lacko.
The first qualifying session really signalled the start of competition in right earnest. Even so, the seven quickest drivers returned to their pits after just one flying lap to conserve their tyres, secure of their place in the shootout with the trucks behind them at least two seconds slower.
Kiss again was on top with a lap of 2:09.513s, followed by Hahn, Albacete, Vršecký, Lacko, Markus Bösiger (SUI), and René Reinert (GER). The last three places in the SuperPole were fiercely contested till the end, Steffi Halm (GER) in her MAN besting the two Portuguese Renault pilots José Rodrigues and José Teodosio in the dying seconds of the session.
It was Albacete who drove the quickest lap first off in the SuperPole. But that time was more than four-tenths slower than Kiss’s top qualifying lap, and so everybody naturally expected that Albacete would be overhauled soon enough. In the event, though, not one was able to knock the supreme Spaniard off his perch. Hahn took second place on the grid ahead of Kiss, Lacko, Vršecký, Bösiger, and Reinert. And as she did in qualifying, Halm shot ahead of Rodrigues and Teodosio at the last minute to take eighth.

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