Saturday in Misano Part 1 – Pole for Adam Lacko

27. May 2017Misano - The truck race family here at the Misano World Circuit on Italy’s Adriatic coast once again awoke to radiant sunshine early this Saturday morning. By the first free practice session at 9 am the temperature had already climbed to 25°C in the shade. The racers were fully focused on driving as many learning laps as they could in each session, which has been stretched to 30 minutes this season. The extra 10 minutes also allows for visits to the pits to make changes to a truck’s setup that can then directly be evaluated back on the track.
Adam Lacko was quickest in his Buggyra Freightliner, the Iveco of his chief rival and defending champ Jochen Hahn (GER) only a tenth slower. The trucks were all very closely matched, just seven tenths separating the top six.
The track surface had heated to 45ºC in parts during second free practice, but tankpool24 pilot Norbert Kiss was hotter throughout, finishing the session a massive eight tenths quicker than Lacko and more than a second below what Hahn could manage in his Iveco.
Post-noon, with the track now simmering at 55°C in the direct sun, qualifying began with a lap of 2:02.914 by Hahn… not quite as quick as Kiss’s in free practice earlier. The Hungarian, for his part, was only a tenth slower. Both returned to the pits immediately, confident their times were good for the Super Pole. MAN pilotess Steffi Halm (GER), Lacko, Spaniard Antonio Albacete and German Sascha Lenz (both MAN), and André Kursim (Mercedes) all followed suit.
While the track emptied itself in five minutes, a somewhat delayed Gerd Körber (GER) in his Iveco and race-by-race pilot Thomas Robineau (FRA) in his MAN kept going. Körber eventually managed a time that put him eighth, ahead of Portuguese José Rodrigues (MAN) and Robineau. But his times were abruptly cancelled for overspeeding. Inexplicably, the Iveco pilot went into the Super Pole as eighth.
The shootout was a thriller out and out.
First Hahn set the quickest time, which Kiss bettered by a tenth not long after, and then Lacko bested – by the sheerest thousandth of a second! Fourth spot on the grid was snapped up by Albacete against forceful claims from Halm and Lenz. Körber set the seventh-quickest time, followed by Kursim, José Rodrigues, and Robineau.
But then it was black flags for Körber because of the overspeed infringement in Q1 – this time all his times were cancelled, relegating him to the rear-end of the grid. Buggyra pilot Enes Draganovic (SLO) accordingly moved up into 10th.

Impressions: