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Saturday in Most Part 1 - Hahn pips Lacko to pole

Saturday in Most Part 1 - Hahn pips Lacko to pole

03. September 2016Most - After a few days of the most marvellous summer weather here in Most, the first race day of the 6th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship dawned to an overcast sky. But as the morning wore on the clouds cleared, and it was a temperate 20°C when the trucks rolled out for the second free practice session - ideal weather for racing.
The two best-placed aspirants for the title, MAN pilot Jochen Hahn (GER) and Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner) went at it with a vengeance. The German was quickest once again with a lap of 2:02.576, Lacko only a tenth slower.
Hahn went even faster in qualifying, clocking 2:02.508 on his first flying lap. Lacko, on the other hand, chose a sedate pace because all that really mattered was to have a time within the Top 10 for the SuperPole.
Most of the top racers were trundling back up pit lane after a single flying lap. Hahn was joined by fellow MAN pilots René Reinert (GER) and Anthony Janiec (FRA), Hungarian Norbert Kiss (Mercedes-Benz), and compatriots Steffi Halm (MAN) and Gerd Körber (Iveco). The top six were spread only eight-tenths apart.
Lacko followed at some remove, then teammate Jiří Forman and Englishman Ryan Smith (MAN).
The final SuperPole slot was bitterly contested till the close by a German trio, Ellen Lohr besting junior MAN colleague Sascha Lenz by all of three-hundredths and Mercedes’ André Kursim by a further three-tenths.
And then Kursim had his time struck off for overspeeding, which relegates the fresh-faced German to the rear of the grid.
The first 10 starting positions on the grid were then decided in the shootout that started after a five-minute interval. There’s no room for a single mistake here, seeing as the racers have just one chance to get a humdinger of a lap together.
And Hahn once again did that better than anyone else, his 2:02.136 good for the first pole of the weekend. Lacko looked no less quick, but came up 14-hundredths short and had to make do with second place.
The remaining places on rows two through five on the grid were taken by Reinert, Kiss, Halm, Janiec, Körber, Smith, Forman und Lohr.
Reinert, however, forfeits his qualifying position as a consequence of the five-place penalty he was awarded at the Nürburgring effective at his next race. He’ll start from 8th alongside Forman, giving protégée Steffi Halm a leg up - she now gets to share the second row with Kiss.
When it was all over, Smith’s SuperPole time was struck off because of a penalty marker infringement. That dropped him to 10th alongside Lohr, who thus moved up a spot.

Impressions:

Saturday in Most Part 1 - Hahn pips Lacko to pole
Saturday in Most Part 1 - Hahn pips Lacko to pole
Saturday in Most Part 1 - Hahn pips Lacko to pole