Sunday at the Nürburgring Part 3 – Janiec is the fourth winner in four races

01. July 2018Nürburgring - The concluding FIA race of the 33rd Truck Grand Prix was held in front of 118,000 spectators on a clear and warm afternoon at the Nürburgring – as improbable as the victory of French race-by-race pilot Anthony Janiec.
The MAN pilot was on pole, with Körber alongside on the first row. Janiec made a successful start and took the lead, which he held onto till the flag despite unrelenting pressure from the rear. The one who felt the pressure the most was Iveco pilot Körber. At the entry to the Mercedes Arena a pursuer slammed his truck hard in the rear, pitching it into the gravel. Körber did manage to extricate himself and get back onto the track, then painfully dragged himself along, only to peel off onto the grass a few hundred metres down the road and retire.
Now Lacko was second, with Kursim, Lenz, Albacete, Hahn, Halm, and Smith in tow. Two laps later Kursim avenged his Iveco colleague and pulled ahead of the defending champion. Lenz had a problem with his rear axle and kept dropping back till he was 8th. Ahead of him was a platoon of seven trucks nose-to-tail, which crossed the line in the order Janiec, Kursim, Lacko, Albacete, Hahn, Halm, and Smith within a span of less than three seconds.
This time too the stewards had the final say. Steffi Halm and Smith got 10 seconds each added to their times for overspeeding, dropping them to 8th and 9th respectively. Lenz and Kiss were consequently promoted to 6th and 7th. And Brereton collected the last available point with 10th place – as things stood.
Then, an hour and a half after the end of the race, a new classification was announced. Kursim was given 30 seconds for having overtaken in a yellow-flag zone. This dropped him to 12th. The rest of the drivers behind Janiec all moved up a place and Reinert was now 10th.
Shane Brereton was the Grammer Cup winner for the fourth time, with British compatriots Oly Janes (Buggyra Freightliner) and Terry Gibbon (MAN) first and second runners-up.
It was a sweep for „Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ in the European Champion Team classification. Buggyra Racing 1969 (Lacko / Janes) and Truck Sport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Recuenco) came in second and third.
Hahn continues to lead the championship comfortably. He has 137 points, followed by Lacko (95), Kiss (88), Albacete (87), Steffi Halm (86), Lenz (65), Reinert (60), and Kursim (55).

Impressions: