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Saturday at the Slovakia Ring Part 1 - Lacko leapfrogs Albacete into pole

Saturday at the Slovakia Ring Part 1 - Lacko leapfrogs Albacete into pole

14. July 2018Slovakiaring - Early this morning, even before free practice could begin, the mercury had already climbed to 25°.
This is only the second time the truck racers have visited the Slovakia Ring some 40 km from Bratislava. The circuit, which hosts the 4th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship as it did last year, is the longest and fastest in contemporary truck racing. That being the case, the teams had to use every available opportunity in free practice yesterday to train and test, and intensified their preparations this morning.
Tankpool24 Mercedes pilot Norbert Kiss topped with a 2:43.506 – having raced touring cars here on numerous occasions, the Hungarian knows the intricacies of this circuit better than all his competitors. Defending champ Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner), Jochen Hahn (Iveco), and MAN pilot Antonio Albacete were no slower, and these four champions (who between them have won 10 titles) made up the Club of 2:43, all within a margin of four tenths. A further half-second off came an all-German quartet of Steffi Halm (Iveco), René Reinert (MAN), André Kursim (Iveco), and Sascha Lenz (MAN), all again within four tenths. We were in for a cracker of a qualifying session.
Steffi Halm set a scorching pace, her 2:43.497 besting Hahn’s time by 16 hundredths. Seven tenths of a second slower was Albacete, heading up a very closely matched six-pack consisting of Lacko, Reinert, Lenz, Kursim, and Kiss. We were surprised to see the Hungarian, one of the favourites here, only down in 8th – but then all he really needed to be was within the Top 10. The last two Super Pole slots were taken by MAN pilots Shane Brereton (GBR) and Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE).
With a length of almost 6 km, the Slovakia Ring offers almost no second chance to improve, or should a driver have to abort a flying lap (most of the other circuits are 2 km shorter), and so there were some minor surprises. The lap times in the Super Pole were universally – in some cases significantly – slower than in qualifying. The extreme heat within the asphalt was beginning to tell.
At the end it was Lacko who managed the best time in the conditions, after Albacete momentarily topped the timing monitor. Only two tenths of a second separated him from the sixth-fastest driver. Hahn was third, followed by Steffi Halm, Kiss, and Lenz.
After a gap came Kursim, Brereton, Vojtíšek, and Reinert, the German MAN pilot having had his quickest lap struck down for “exceeding track limits” (putting all four wheel-ends off the track delineators).
Even Kiss somehow couldn’t turn his magic on – only on a second attempt was he able to climb from bottom to 5th place.

Impressions:

Saturday at the Slovakia Ring Part 1 - Lacko leapfrogs Albacete into pole
Saturday at the Slovakia Ring Part 1 - Lacko leapfrogs Albacete into pole
Saturday at the Slovakia Ring Part 1 - Lacko leapfrogs Albacete into pole