Saturday in Misano Part 2 - Hahn survives Albacete and a restart to take the first win
26. May 2018Misano - Jochen Hahn continued to ride his wave of success at Misano into and out of the first race of the season. But a lot was to happen till the quadruple champion could take the chequered flag as winner.
The five minute delay in the schedule was recovered completely by curtailing the grid walk, and everything seemed to point to a peaceful procession rather than a heated race.
Hahn beat Albacete in a seesaw contest for the lead. Behind the two long-time rivals, who account for seven titles combined between them, a fierce battle broke out. The first to fall was Steffi Halm, brought to a crashing halt in a collision with Janiec. She presently took off on a frustrated fightback, half a lap down and with a flat rear tyre, not knowing then that she’d soon be driving one of her best races to date.
Not long after, the drive axle on Frankie Vojtíšek’s MAN broke and the leaking oil and diesel burst into flames, a plume of smoke trailing the truck as the Czech veteran came to a halt. The Buggyra Freightliner of Englishman Oly Janes lost control over the resulting slick and landed smack into the armco, bringing out the red flags.
Janiec, who’d also picked up a flat, and Halm were allowed to pit and change tyres, while the rest of the field regrouped in parc fermé conditions on pit straight, there to await the restart.
After quick repairs Halm and Janiec scooted back out onto pit lane, from where they’d have to join the race when the rest of the field had passed the exit. Nobody had any idea that it would take three quarters of an hour till all the mangled machinery could be recovered and the track mopped up.
The restart in the original formation - except for Halm and Janiec, who would start from the pit exit, – was eventless in the first sector till Reinert’s MAN suddenly picked up a puncture in one of his front tyres right in the entry to the Rio, the pair of right-hand bends. His truck hit Kursim’s Iveco and both skidded off into the gravel. While the Iveco pilot was able to free himself, the MAN stayed stuck, unable to move. The officials elected to have double yellow flags waved around this part of the circuit. This meant there’d be no more twists at one of the most spectacular series of corners on the Misano World Circuit.
Hahn was out in front again, pursued by Albacete, Lacko, and Kiss. The leading duo pulled away, even as Lacko and Kiss fought a spirited battle for third place. After another large interval came the group of Smith, Körber, Lenz, and French race-by-race pilot Thomas Robineau, to which Steffi Halm presently latched on, having dispatched 10 competitors over just a few laps.
While there was no more change in positions between the top four, Lenz overtook Körber and Halm got ahead of Robineau, the two of them proceeding to pass a visibly stricken Körber on the final lap, dumping the wounded veteran into 9th. Janiec followed him home in 10th.
That may have been the finishing order; but the race commission was yet to weigh in.
Albacete collected a 10 second penalty for overspeed, dropping him to 4th behind Lacko and Kiss. Smith got 60 seconds for ignoring two drive-through penalties, knocking the Englishman out of the points altogether. Lenz had 10 seconds added to his time, also for overspeed, and Robineau 20. That promoted Halm to 5th behind Albacete, followed by Körber, Janiec, Lenz in 8th (which meant pole for Race 2), English MAN pilot Jamie Anderson, and Robineau.
As the trucks arrived at the formation for the day’s second race, now more than half an hour behind schedule, this result was revised again.
Kiss was disqualified on technical grounds, so that all the racers from 4th to 11th moved up a position. Halm was now 4th, followed by Körber, Janiec, Lenz, Anderson – now on pole, –Robineau, and Steffen Faas (GER).
Anderson was the winner of the Grammer Truck Cup podium, ahead of Robineau and Faas – no change there, despite all the revisions.
„Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ (Hahn / Halm) was the top team, followed by tankpool24 Racing (Kiss / Faas) and Buggyra Racing 1969 (Lacko / Janes) – before Kiss’s disqualification, that is.
Impressions:
