Sunday in Most Part 1 - Kiss nets his second pole in a row

30. August 2020Most - The weather forecasts for today vary, according to the online service, from “light rain” to “thundershowers with 22 litres per square metre”. Many of the pilots are reminded of the Sunday in Most last year, when torrential rain submerged large sections of the circuit and put paid to all racing.
It wasn’t raining during warm-up today, but there had been considerable precipitation overnight and the track was still damp. The first lap times recorded were up to 20 seconds above those from yesterday. By and by the track was trodden dry, and at the end Hungarian Norbert Kiss topped the timesheet with a lap in the 2:10s. His MAN rival Sascha Lenz was only two tenths slower, but the gap to the rest was substantial. May we repeat, though, that the warm-up is not a competitive session in any sense, and lap times here aren’t indicative of a pilot’s performance potential.
The dreaded rain held back during qualifying as well. Kiss set the top time once again, a 2:02.899. Buggyra pilot Adam Lacko was three tenths slower; Germans Lenz and Jochen Hahn (Iveco) four tenths. Good enough times for all four to pit immediately in the interest of tyre conservation. They were followed in by Frenchman Anthony Janiec (MAN) and German Iveco pilotess Steffi Halm.
Halm’s compatriot, Iveco colleague, and former boss René Reinert also left the track, albeit unwillingly, while in 12th. Following a heavy collision with Clemens Hecker (MAN) the Iveco was so badly impaired that continuing out made no sense, and Reinert picked his way painfully back to the paddock. He’d have to start Race 3 fifteenth and last.
On track, the remaining places for the Super Pole remained hotly contested till the closing seconds. In the event, it was French teen Teó Calvet (Buggyra), Steffi Halm, MAN pilots Antonio Albacete (ESP) and Jamie Anderson (GBR), and German Steffen Faas in the tankpool24 Scania who made the cut.
After the five-minute interval, the decider. Kiss was quick as only Kiss can be in qualifying, setting a time of 2:01.772 – a good half-second faster than Lenz, with Jochen Hahn a further couple of tenths slower. One cooldown lap later, all ten went for the kill. Kiss shaved five hundredths off his Q2 time to record 2:01.727. Lenz also improved bigly, closing in to a couple of tenths behind the polesitter. Jochen Hahn also went faster, but couldn’t do better than P3 above Lacko, who was a full nine tenths off Kiss’s time.
Steffi Halm qualified in fifth, above Janiec, Calvet, Faas, Albacete, and Anderson.