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Friday in Spielberg

Friday in Spielberg

12. May 2017Spielberg - Fifteen racers, including the sole lady in the field, kicked off the 2017 season of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship in radiant sunshine at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, late this morning.
First up on the agenda were the press rides, which registered an extraordinary level of participation from the teams because of the opportunity to familiarise themselves with a new speed control system the FIA has introduced this season.
Their first dry run in simulated race conditions would, however, be in the one-hour extra free practice session in the afternoon for those who’d volunteered for the press rides. But just before the trucks rumbled out onto the circuit the sky blackened, and shortly thereafter the first showers descended on the Styria Alps. Some of these were rather heavy, and the resulting loss of traction made it impossible to meaningfully evaluate the new system or get a sense of the performance levels of the individual trucks.
Czech fatfox Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner) finished two whole seconds – an aeon on this short circuit – quicker than Iveco pilot Gerd Körber (GER), but there was no telling what to make of the times recorded.
Of course there were the two regulation training sessions still to go, lengthened to half an hour each this season from 20 minutes.
The weather now was acting up, rendering any further attempts to get to grips with the circuit futile – the grip levels around the track seemed to be changing by the minute. The individual lap times weren’t only wildly divergent; they also differed massively from the times set in free practice earlier, and pilots you’d least expect to, suddenly found themselves in the top positions. All at once, defending champ Jochen Hahn made a quantum “leap” of over five seconds, catapulting himself in his new Iveco – befittingly – to the top of the heap.
His compatriots Sascha Lenz (MAN) and André Kursim (Mercedes) surprised everyone by clocking in second- and third-quickest. Lacko, by contrast, despite having driven the fastest lap till then in the earlier session – and being one of the hottest favourites to boot, – couldn’t manage a single timed lap this time round. Worse, his truck stalled at the end of the pit straight, having haemorrhaged oil on the out lap. In the situation there was little race control could do but call a halt to the session 10 minutes before the end.
Second free practice in the evening was likewise summarily cancelled, the race director announcing that this session would be held tomorrow morning instead, in two segments of 15 minutes each, at 8:20 and 9:35.

Impressions:

Friday in Spielberg
Friday in Spielberg
Friday in Spielberg
Friday in Spielberg