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Saturday at the Hungaroring Part 2 - Lacko wins bigly in the wet

Saturday at the Hungaroring Part 2 - Lacko wins bigly in the wet

17. October 2020The weather hadn’t improved any by the start of Race 1, the track was still very wet and slippery. The formation lap was followed not by a second lap behind the pace truck, but by a start under Full Course Yellow, no overtaking allowed. The field followed polesitter Lacko in single file, the Czech setting such a brisk pace that the rest were simply unable to keep up.
By the end of the lap, when the race was green-flagged, Lacko was already two seconds ahead, with the rest spread out into groups. Janiec was tailed by the trio of Hahn, Albacete, and Kiss; the duo of Faas and Calvet followed at a respectable distance; Halm, Recuenco, and Hecker and 16-year-old Aliyyah Koloc (CZE) came next.
While her teammate Lacko disappeared into the distance - he was 10 seconds ahead after only four laps, - the quartet that came after was where it was all happening. Janiec appeared to be holding up the three trucks behind him, and even though he put wheels off the track on a number of occasions, Hahn et Cie simply couldn’t capitalise – the gap came down alright, but overtaking was next to impossible. All his pursuers could do was wait and hope to force an error, but the Frenchman made none.
In the closing laps the asphalt began to dry out, the trucks lapped quicker, and the race began to take on some colour. With two laps to go, Albacete drifted wide into Turn 1, getting his tyres off the dry line. In one fluid motion home hero Kiss, who was right up on the Spaniard’s crash guard, swung his MAN onto the grippier inside of the curve and overtook. The Hungarian ace evidently wasn’t going to stay put after that move and started to attack Hahn, attempting the same trick on the six-times champion in the same spot on the next lap. Hahn went wide, while the MAN pilot was able to hold his line and make it into the corner ahead of the German, who swung reflexively onto the inner line and was back up alongside the red MAN at the exit. But Kiss had the better traction at that point and managed to break free.
While the Hungarian now set his sights on Janiec, Hahn had to keep a wary eye out for Albacete, and he made it to the flag barely a second ahead of his Spanish archrival.
While Lacko crossed the line a massive 25 seconds in the clear, Kiss tried his best to snatch P2 from Janiec. In vain, for the Frenchman beat him to the flag by two tenths with Hahn and Albacete in tow.
But the cold shower came almost immediately after – Janiec was docked for thrice exceeding track limits. The 30 second penalty dropped him to P7 and handed Hahn the third step on the podium. Albacete, Faas, Calvet, Janiec, Halm, Recuenco, and Hecker took the remaining points.
The Goodyear Cup ranking had Faas above Calvet and Recuenco.