Saturday in Jarama – Albacete on pole

07. October 2017Jarama - The night before the first day of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship finale the sky over Circuito del Jarama was cloudless and there was a nip in the air. The 8°C chill didn’t stop the fans from streaming into the circuit early this morning in to watch free practice. They were made to wait a bit as the organisers delayed the schedule by more than 20 minutes. The first half-hour of free practice was curtailed a bit and the second was pushed back 10 minutes. The teams now had scarcely more than half an hour between the two sessions.
Championship leader Adam Lacko (CZE) in his Buggyra Freightliner was the only pilot with a time in the 1:58s.
Second free practice was packed with incidents and had to be interrupted several times because trucks kept getting bogged down in the gravel.
Hungarian Norbert Kiss (Mercedes), home hero Antonio Albacete (MAN), German Jochen Hahn (Iveco), and Buggyra Freightliner pilot David Vršecký (CZE) all managed 1:58s now.
The mercury had risen to over 20° by the time qualifying began post-noon. But the laps were slower; only Vršecký and Hahn drove 1:58s, and the distinct impression one got was that everyone had eased up a bit – tyre conservation, after all, is imperative, and the set of six has to last the entire day. Drivers that were certain theirs was a top 10 time sought out the pits without ado. Some who were not so sure stayed out somewhat longer; others, indeed, to put in a few more practice laps.
Vršecký and Hahn were joined in the Super Pole by Kiss, Albacete, Steffi Halm and the Portuguese José Rodrigues (both MAN), Lacko, and the German trio of Sascha Lenz (MAN), Gerd Körber (Iveco), and André Kursim (Mercedes).
The Super Pole was likewise devoid of super laps. Yet again, it appeared the trucks had run faster on the worn tyres they’d been shod with in practice earlier. At the end Albacete was quickest with 1:58.329, albeit 13 thousandths off tankpool24 ace Kiss’s time in second free practice.
The Super Pole was a bit unusual –Lacko stayed put in pit lane till the very last moment, and Kiss could only manage the seventh-best time. Lacko will line up alongside Albacete on the front row of the grid. Behind them are Vršecký and Hahn, Lenz and José Rodrigues, Körber and Halm, and Kursim and Kiss – the Hungarian having been stripped of all his Super Pole times because of an overspeed infringement.

Impressions: