Sunday at the Hungaroring Part 1 – Kiss back on top, takes pole

27. August 2017Hungaroring - It hadn’t cooled off much overnight and, as they went about preparing their trucks for the morning’s warm-up at 8 am with the temperature at around 25°C, the mechanics were already dreading what they were sure would come their way later on this second day of the Truck Race of Hungary, the 5th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship.
This 15 minute curtain-raiser is run on worn tyres, and home hero Norbert Kiss was the only driver to record a sub-2:18s time, a 2:17.640, in his tankpool24 Mercedes.
One hour later it was time for qualifying. Kiss once again set the pace with a flying lap of 2:17.403, returning to pit lane immediately after to conserve his tyres. Most of the other fancied names emulated the Hungarian, all certain of a Super Pole slot. With the notable exceptions of Englishman Ryan Smith (MAN), Iveco pilot Gerd Körber (GER), and the two MAN teammates Antonio Albacete (ESP) and José Rodrigues (POR) from the ranks of the more accomplished ones – these had to keep going after their quickest laps were cancelled by race control. Körber was out till the very last second, but the best time he was able to put down was only good for 11th.
And so, in addition to Kiss, the Top 10 finally consisted of the two Germans Jochen Hahn (Iveco) and Steffi Halm (MAN), Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner) and MAN pilot Shane Brereton (GBR), Sascha Lenz (GER), Albacete, Smith, the Czech David Vršecký (Buggyra Freightliner), and José Rodrigues.
The temperature did climb a wee bit, with a nevertheless significant outworking on the lap times. All the drivers including Lacko and Albacete were slower in the Super Pole than in qualifying – Kiss by exactly a tenth, albeit still three tenths quicker than Lacko. Steffi Halm secured 3rd place on the grid, ahead of Hahn, Albacete, Lenz, Brereton, Smith, José Rodrigues, and Vršecký.

Impressions: