Saturday in Le Mans Part 1 – Here comes the hammer (Hahn)

08. October 2016Le Mans - Circuit Bugatti continues to be clouded over on the first day of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship finale. According to the met’s radar there’s a thick band of cloud right across the middle of France, so it’s doubtful we’ll see the sun at all in Le Mans today.
The racers don’t need sunshine; all they’ll hope for is dry weather – the majority of them at any rate.
A few ticks after 8 o’ clock, when they swung into their cockpits, it was still just over 10°C and the sky was brightening rapidly, but no real sunrise.
The duel between MAN pilot Jochen Hahn (GER) and Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner), which has dominated every round of the ETRC since the season began, resumed forthwith in first free practice. Lacko was two tenths quicker, but the times here aren’t really indicative; for a clearer picture we had to wait for two more hours till the second free practice session. This time it was reigning champ Norbert Kiss in his tankpool24 Mercedes in front, a huge three seconds quicker than he’d gone in the first. Both Hahn and Lacko were lapping faster too, but still were one tenth and three tenths respectively off the Hungarian’s pace.
The track had evidently gotten grippier in the meantime – the times of all the racers were dropping, some precipitately, most of them in the closing laps.
The cloud cover had thinned considerably by noon, when the trucks were given the clear for the first qualifying session. The temperature was at 15° now, and the times fell further.
Lacko was optimistic about his prospects despite his lack of speed in both practice sessions, and he returned to the pits after his first flying lap, which turned out to be only sixth-fastest. Hahn too pitted after a single hot lap, having set the top time, a 2:07.005. Kiss, Steffi Halm (MAN), Gerd Körber (Iveco), René Reinert (MAN) – all GER – and Frenchman Antony Janiec (MAN) all did likewise.
Three and a half minutes before the close the red flags came out after Dutchman Erwin Kleinnagelvoort landed himself in the gravel in an extremely precarious position. It took 20 minutes for his Scania to be recovered and the session to be green-flagged again.
German MAN pilot Sascha Lenz and Czech Jiří Forman (Buggyra Freightliner), who also were in the Top 10 at the time, stayed put in pit lane; Mercedes pilot John Hemming (FIN) and MAN trio Ellen Lohr (GER), John Brereton (GBR), and Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE) went out again. All four improved their times.
Forman possibly had no prospect of doing so anyway; his quickest time had been cancelled. While Lohr was still among the 10, both Brereton and Vojtíšek were creeping up, but in the end only the Briton managed to make it.
Five minutes later, the competition was in shock and awe after a 2:05.990 from Hahn that knocked more than a second off his Q1 top time. The rest also recorded their best times thitherto, but Kiss’s was still six tenths – and Lacko’s a full eight tenths – off.
So the two gave it another shot. Lacko managed to get to within a tenth of Kiss, but then Reinert came out of nowhere and inserted himself in between, snatching third away from Lacko with a lap that was just six thousandths slower than Kiss’s.
Halm took 5th, ahead of Janiec, Körber, Lenz, Lohr, and Brereton.

Impressions: