Saturday at the Hungaroring Part 1 – Kiss on pole
05. September 2015Hungaroring - For the first time the second day of an FIA European Truck Racing Championship round began today not with warm-up but with free practice. That’s because yesterday’s schedule had only one free practice session.
At around 4 am the skies had opened up over the Hungaroring, and it was still raining – albeit less heavily – when the trucks trickled out for practice. The track was awash in parts and the trucks were lapping a good 30 seconds slower than in yesterday’s free practice.
The Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner) was quickest, followed by MAN pilot Jochen Hahn (GER) and his Hungarian rival Norbert Kiss (MAN). It was clear to everybody that this classification was of no significance except as an indication of how well some of the teams had set their trucks up for the wet.
The times in qualifying were somewhat more consequential.
Unlike they’ve done at every other round, the top pilots couldn’t risk pitting after a single flying lap. It wasn’t raining, and the progressively drying track meant the trucks were going quicker and quicker as the session wore on.
Kiss and Lacko traded top times between them, and as the session drew to a close the Czech had his nose ahead. In fact, everybody thought that’s the way the matter would end, not considering that Kiss was still out there. And the Hungarian duly stepped on it to lead Lacko into the SuperPole.
The lap times were still up to 25 seconds off yesterday’s quickest.
Kiss and Lacko were joined by Spaniard Antonio Albacete (MAN), Buggyra pilot David Vršecký (CZE), Hahn, René Reinert (GER), Anthony Janiec (FRA), Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE) - all driving MANs, Mercedes pilot André Kursim (GER) and his compatriot Ellen Lohr (MAN).
Kiss was taking no chances in the shootout, which decides the first 10 starting places on the grid. From his very first lap his name was at the top of the timing monitor, and he finished the session with a time of 2:40.680s, the only one under 2:41s - Lacko’s best for second place was almost a second slower.
Albacete, Vršecký, Reinert, Hahn, Janiec, Vojtíšek, Lohr, and Kursim made up the rest of the top 10.
Impressions:
