Friday at the Nürburgring – Jochen Hahn takes the first TGP pole
30. June 2017Nürburgring - The weather in the Eifel on the second day of the Truck Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, the 3rd round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, was just what you’d expect the weather in the Eifel. It was in one of the very wet phases that the race trucks entered for the Mittelrhein Cup (MRC) went out for their free practice. By and by the track dried out and the lap times improved, although they were still far from what race trucks are capable of doing on the Ring.
Brit Ryan Smith (MAN) set the pace, both in practice and in qualifying for the MRC that followed. Only now he was a good 18 seconds faster than a couple of hours earlier on the very damp circuit, securing pole position for the first MRC race. He’ll also start Race 3 of the MRC from pole, the determinant of grid positions for that race being the drivers’ second-best qualifying laps. (The grids for Races 2 and 4 are the reverse of those for Races 1 and 3.)
The first MRC race, the only race today, was run in the early afternoon in very pleasant conditions. Smith’s unequivocal dominance continued with a fluent start-to-flag win. There was a close fight for second, however, between MAN pilots Shane Brereton and David Jenkins. A couple of laps to the flag, when their trucks barely touched, Jenkins spun but Brereton kept going without difficulty. And while Jenkins had to let his countrymen Mat Summerfield (MAN) and Oliver Janes (Freightliner) pass, Brereton could take no pleasure in his second place because of a time penalty that tossed him down to 7th. So it was that Summerfield and Janes joined Smith on the podium.
The FIA racers will have their first heat only tomorrow, so their primary focus today during practice was to acclimate themselves to the continually changing weather and track conditions.
The grip levels kept improving by the minute through the first session, and the lap times kept dropping accordingly. At the end Hahn had recorded the quickest time. Hungarian Norbert Kiss was only nine hundredths slower in his tankpool24 Mercedes than the Iveco, and even Freightliner-pilot Adam Lacko (CZE) and Spaniard Antonio Albacete (MAN) were within a tenth of Hahn.
This same quartet led in second free practice, Albacete topping the timing monitor this time followed by Hahn and Kiss. Steffi Halm, the sole woman in the field, presently insinuated herself into this group, pushing Lacko down to 5th by three thousandths.
Qualifying and Super Pole took place in the afternoon, the drivers undaunted by the occasional drizzle, stepping on it as they would if it were dry.
Qualifying is of only 10 minutes’ duration this season, and though this had no significant consequences at the 2km-long Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, where 10 minutes were enough for several laps, the twice-as-long World Circuit in Misano allowed for not more than two flying laps, albeit in an altogether less frenetic atmosphere. At the Nürburgring a driver has to get it right in only two or three hot laps.
The top drivers soon realised that their first flying laps were good enough for the Super Pole, but for those disputing the last few slots it was touch and go.
Kiss was quickest, followed by Albacete, Steffi Halm, and Hahn. Buggyra Freightliner teammates David Vršecký (CZE) and Lacko, MAN pilots Sascha Lenz (GER) and Anthony Janiec (FRA), und the two Germans Gerd Körber (Iveco) and André Kursim (Mercedes) rounded out the Top 10. José Rodrigues (POR), surprise winner in Spielberg in his MAN, and Steffen Faas (Iveco), who’s driving his first TGP, both lost out by only a couple of tenths.
In the Super Pole the positions were shuffled anew. Hahn may have been happy with 4th in qualifying, but now he went all out, setting the fastest time on his first and then going even quicker – and wasn’t he glad he did, because both Albacete and Kiss, a hair’s-breadth one thousandth ahead of the Spaniard, both bested his top time before the German once again screamed past the line in his Iveco in 1:54.715, all of 155 thousandths quicker than the Hungarian.
Lacko will start from 4th on the grid, followed by Steffi Halm, Sascha Lenz, Vršecký, Janiec, Körber, and Kursim.
Impressions:
