Saturday in Le Mans Part 2 - Hahn wins 12th race
28. September 2019Le Mans - The sun peeked out from between the dark clouds at the trucks on the grid. It may have been warmer now, but the windchill was still rather unpleasant.
Jochen Hahn, the title within his grasp, could be said to be in the most pleasant starting position. Even if he’d botched it in Zolder, the bantam from Altensteig remains a starter par excellence. And the MAN starting alongside him on the front row, Sascha Lenz, wasn’t going to put himself to undue risk just to take the lead. If they kept themselves from mutual assured destruction, they’d both be pretty much assured of an honourable finish on the podium.
In the event, Hahn and Lenz stuck to the script, quickly establishing themselves in a commanding lead that denied any of their pursuers a look-in. The Iveco pilot crossed the line a second ahead of the MAN, Albacete joining them on the podium in the same position in which he’d started. Lacko in P4 lost the theoretical chance he had of standing in the way of Hahn’s sixth title. Halm drove an uneventful race to finish fifth, ahead of Kursim, Kiss, and José Rodrigues, who would start on pole for the next race. MAN pilots Shane Brereton (GBR) and Luis Recuenco (ESP) took the remaining points on offer.
Following the race, Halm was given a 30 second penalty in place of a drive-through for knocking over a penalty marker. That dropped her to P9 in the classification and promoted the four pilots who had finished behind her by a position each. Pole position for Race 2 now went to Shane Brereton.
Recuenco topped the Grammer Truck Cup podium, ahead of Dutchman Erwin Kleinnagelvoort (Scania) and Brit Oly Janes (Buggyra Freightliner).
It was pure Löwen Power on the top step of the team podium, with Albacete and Lenz outscoring „Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ (Hahn / Steffi Halm) and Buggyra Racing 1969 (Janes / Lacko).
Long after the race was over, the earlier result was overturned. Mercedes pilot Kiss was disqualified and Halm’s penalty withdrawn, restoring the Iveco pilot to P5 in the classification.
Impressions:
