Saturday in Albacete

03. June 2006Albacete - There was a cloudless sky and the sun was shining brightly, but the strong wind brought cool air, so that – during this rather uneventful Friday – nobody felt like repeating last year's water battle. Instead, all the pilots came together at the home straight on Friday evening to take a group picture – a demonstration of the newly found unanimity within the FIA European Truck Racing Championship. Of the FIA pilots only Avelino da Silva Reis wasn't in Albacete. But as there were 6 guest starters registered as well, there were 29 pilots all together at the start. <br />
On Saturday it became more and more cloudy, so that we did not have to put up with such a burning heat as last year. So we wouldn't have needed water to cool down, but rather to sprinkle the race track, cause as soon as the trucks had completed some laps, they could no longer see anything because of the dirt and dust. <br />
During the first free practice the Buggyra Freightliners clearly demonstrated their superiority. Race engineer Mario Kress had been sure from the beginning that the characteristics of the circuit in Albacete were just right for his trucks. So in spite of a problem with the gear box David Vrsecky became second quite easily behind team mate Gerd Körber. Ross Garrett did not take part in the first free practice; he did not feel quite up to the mark, because in Misano when loading up a differential he had torn a muscle in his groin area. Until Saturday morning there was doubt whether he could start at all. But at the second practice Ross Garrett was back, but he was not among the fastest. Again it was Körber who obtained the fastest lap; he even improved his time by one tenth. Antonio Albacete was now only four hundredths behind the man from Rheinau, followed by another MAN pilot, Markus Bösiger. The warm-up lap of the time practice was literally craving for sanctions from the side of the stewards. Despite continuous warnings from the race director, Tony Iddon, the pilots leading the field drove so slowly that the trucks at the end of the field came to a standstill several times. And after the practice there were heated discussions between several pilots who accused each other of having slowed them down time and again, especially during the fastest laps. But the stewards did not react. <br />
For a long time Antonio Albacete appeared to be the unchallenged pole setter, cause he was on top of the ranking list, far ahead of the others. But in the last lap Mercedes pilot Markus Oestreich had an advantage of 38 hundredths and secured his pole for the start. And Gerd Körber, too, pressed the Cepsa MAN hard in the last gap, but had to content with 3rd. Beside him stood Jochen Hahn, in front of Niko Pulic - both Mercedes pilots. Behind David Vrsecky came Markus Bösiger on 7th. For the Swiss the streak of bad luck seemed to go on when the turbo hose of his truck burst. Without this misfortune he would have gained at least 4th position, according to the opinion of the experts. <br />
At the qualification race with the rolling start there was another incident, this time on the part of the stewards: the lights did not turn red, but stayed completely dark. The members of the teams responsible for giving their pilots the starting signal by radio, stood around totally at a loss, not knowing what to do. In the end the pilots took the matter in their own hands and just went off. This brought about some discussions, whether the race should have be stopped at once, especially since, already in the first lap, Frank Conti remained stranded in the gravel with his Volvo at a rather precarious spot. But the stewards let the race go on and Markus Oestreich could achieve an impressive start-finish victory. Again and again Albacete tried to attack while the crowd cheered him on. Oese's lead in the finish was a mere three tenths, but there was never the impression that his victory could be in jeopardy. Then Albacete had to watch out for Gerd Körber behind him who was waiting in ambush all the time to take his chance in case the two 'fighting cocks' got into each other's way. But the Buggyra pilot, too, had a lot of pressure, because the fourth in the lead, Jochen Hahn, was not more than one and a half seconds behind the leading Oese. Such a narrow outcome of a race was rarely seen - the difference between David Vrsecky who was 5th and the winner was a mere 2 seconds. Niko Pulic with his Mercedes finished 6th nearly undisturbed, but for the next positions there was a tough fight to the end. <br />
Not before the last lap Markus Bösiger succeeded to overtake the red Renault of Frankie Vojtisek on the outer track of a long left turn. As the Swiss needed only the last third of the lap to put a distance of more than 2 seconds between himself and the Czech, it can only be guessed how much faster the Bösiger MAN would have been had he managed to pass earlier on. <br />
The Cup Race was as exciting as the Qualifying Race, although at some time it looked as if the outcome was already clear after a third of the race. This time the light worked, local hero Albacete was directly beside pole setter Oestreich. And coming out of the first right turn, the Cepsa MAN apparently picked up speed a lot faster, and suddenly Albacete was in front of Oese. But the next difficult spot was a 180 degrees right turn some hundred metres ahead, and the German, being on the inner track, had a better position. Both trucks contacted at the rear and the Spaniard took to the gravel, while the Mercedes pilot - after some swerving - could go on. But now he had to fight off the attacks of Jochen Hahn. Side by side were the two Freightliners of Körber and Vrsecky, followed by Pulic (Mercedes). Behind them Albacete had managed to rejoin the race. Trying to get to the top he started a furious chase, but during the remaining twelve laps he only succeeded in overtaking Pulic and Vrsecky. Oestreich could put some distance between himself and his pursuers, but he did not really succeed in breaking away from his compatriots. Near the end Hahn and Körber - with Albacete in tow - could even gain some ground, so that there was a mere 1.3 seconds between 1st and 4th position. <br />
Without much harassment Vrsecky and Pulic made 5th and 6th respectively. But for 7th position there was a lot of fighting. Bösiger had lost several positions right from the start and now Vojtisek was 7th instead of the Swiss, followed by the MAN pilots, José Rodrigues and Adam Lacko, and behind them Bösiger. For 8 laps the man from Switzerland stayed on the back of the young Czech, then he managed to overtake the yellow MAN. Now Bösiger was 'glued' to the rear end of Rodrigues jun. trying in vain to pass him. Convalescent Ross Garrett was the next to attack Lacko, cause having 10th position meant gaining a point. For 3 laps the Czech put up a strong resistance, but eventually the English overtook the yellow MAN which had pushed him from the track in Misano.<br />
Albacete is still leading the overall standing with 126 points, on second is Hahn with 102, followed by Körber with 99 points.