Saturday in Le Mans Part 3 – Kiss seizes last-gasp win
23. September 2017Le Mans - Polesitter Körber won the drag through the Dunlop curve into the Dunlop chicane, and held onto the lead thereafter – till the final lap. Starting alongside him, Buggyra pilot Lacko made contact with Lenz early on, forcing the MAN pilot off the track. By the time he was able to get back on, the entire field had swept past. Blazing mad, Lenz took off on an epic chase, setting the fastest lap of the race by far in the bargain, but could climb no higher than 11th.
Lacko too ceded a few positions and wasn’t able to fight his way back to the front, eventually settling for 8th place, barely ahead of Brereton and Kursim, who only just salvaged 10th from a rampaging Lenz.
All eyes, however, were on the battle at the front. In Albacete and Kiss, Körber had two dogged pursuers with hawk eyes for any sign of weakness in the Iveco pilot they could exploit. Hahn followed patiently at some distance, hoping for fireworks ahead.
The Iveco, the MAN, and the Mercedes tore around the track as a platoon, separated by mere centimetres, sometimes almost up alongside each other, and everyone expected something would happen. Nothing did – till the last lap, when Albacete decided to go for broke, attacked Körber somewhat more forcefully than he’d done till then, and succeeded in making it past the Schwabentruck. But the manoeuvre also slowed them down by vital seconds, enough time for Kiss to capitalise on – he rapidly surged past both trucks to take a famous last-minute win. The trio were separated by all of half a second over the line.
Hahn was too far behind to profit from Albacete’s attack on his teammate; the best he could attain – behind a terribly disappointed Körber – was 4th place.
Vršecký fully lived up to the notoriety he’s earned for making it next to impossible for those behind him to overtake. This time it was Steffi Halm whose advance he frustrated – it was all she could do to come to terms with 6th place behind the Czech. José Rodrigues finished 7th, ahead of Lacko.
„Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ (Hahn / Körber) was the top-scoring team, followed by Truck Sport Bernau-Reboconort (Albacete / José Rodrigues) and tankpool24 (Kiss / Kursim).
The Promoter’s Cup victory went to José Rodrigues once again, ahead of Brereton and Kursim.
The race appears to have sparked off a debate in race control, because it took quite a bit more than an hour for the final results to be released.
Lacko’s lead in the championship has shrunk somewhat; he now has 318 points, followed by Hahn (280), Kiss (268), Halm (253), Albacete (208), Lenz (148), and Körber (113).
Impressions:
