Sunday in Spielberg Part 1 – Kiss collects his next pole

17. May 2015Spielberg - The temperature may have been only 10° during the early-morning warm-up for the second day of Round 2 of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship at the Red Bull Ring in Styria, but the track was good for some lightning laps. This year’s high-flyer in the FIA ETRC, defending champ Norbert Kiss, topped with a time of 1:05s and only other pilot who was able to keep up even halfway was Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner), his being the only other time in the 1:05 zone.
In qualifying, predictably, Kiss took up where he’d left off less than an hour earlier, setting a time for everyone else to chase. His MAN colleague Jochen Hahn (GER) was just a hair’s breadth behind. But then suddenly the German’s name was at the top of the timing monitor and Kiss was down at the bottom, his quickest lap having been struck down. That didn’t seem to bother him one bit; the Hungarian simply went out and drove another blistering lap in 1:05.300s, seven-tenths quicker than Hahn.
The others who provisionally qualified for the SuperPole were Czech David Vršecký (Buggyra Freightliner), Lacko, MAN veteran Antonio Albacete (ESP), the Gerd Körber (GER) and Markus Altenstrasser (AUT) in their Ivecos, and the Germans René Reinert and Ellen Lohr (both MAN).
Tenth and last place was contested till the dying seconds of the 20-minute qualifying session. In the event it was Frenchman Antony Janiec (MAN) who made it, shutting out Englishman Ryan Smith (MAN) and the two German youngsters Sascha Lenz (MAN) and André Kursim (Mercedes-Benz).
Kiss was at his shattering best in the shootout, blazing to pole in 1:04.938s. The best that Lacko and Hahn behind him could manage was more than half a second slower. Vršecký will line up alongside Hahn, ahead of Albacete, Körber, Lohr, Reinert, Janiec, and Altenstrasser.

Impressions: