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Sunday in Albacete

Sunday in Albacete

04. June 2006Albacete - A cloudless sky and good chances of a victory of Antonio Albacete (MAN) in the city being his 'namesake' - but actually he comes from Madrid - made more than 20,000 people come to the circuit. In the early morning they were already queuing up at the few narrow entrances. And right from the beginning - at the warm-up - the pilots presented lap times that let everybody look forward to watching the time practice. And indeed, the top pilots set times that were way better than the ones gained on Saturday. Markus Oestreich and Gerd Körber stayed far below the magic 1:57 limit with 1:56.454 and 1:56.513 respectively. Noteworthy is that most of the pilots had their fastest time already in the first timed lap. Third was Albacete, then came David Vrsecky (Freightliner), Jochen Hahn (Mercedes Benz), Adam Lacko (MAN) and Markus Bösiger (MAN).<br />
The Qualification Race could be called spectacular. At first pole setter Oestreich took the lead. Albacete tried everything to overtake Körber. In the first right turn he moved alongside the German, forcing him more and more on the outside track. And when the chicane followed the Buggyra pilot had to drive through the gravel bed to prevent a collision, but he did not lose his position. When entering the extreme 180 degrees curve, Albacete missed the exact breaking point, which sent him spinning off and let him drop back on 7th position. In the next lap he took to the gravel at the same spot and jolted over the grass while nearly the entire field passed by. When the Spaniard returned to the track, but did not speed up, it was obvious that there must have been some damage to the truck. In fact, Albacete was only crawling along the track and had to give up after only two laps because of a clutch failure. Oestreich seemed to have been broken away a bit from his pursuers. And Körber, too, had put a little distance between his truck and the two 'fighting cocks', Vrsecky and Hahn. For several laps they went on fighting for 3rd position. When they came to the notorious 180 degrees turn for the sixth time, Vrsecky braked a bit little bit to hard and Hahn took the chance to overhaul and was now safely on 3rd position. But the most exciting part of the race was yet to come. <br />
The leading trio had already lapped several pilots when they reached Mercedes pilot Roman Huertas. The marshals had already shown the blue flag to the Spaniard several times to no avail. Oese had to slow down considerably; even Vrsecky on 4th position was now close behind. Coming to a turn the German tried to overtake on the inner track, but quite suddenly the Spaniard took to the inner track as well, forcing Oese to step hard on the brakes. Körber, Hahn and Vrsecky seized the opportunity and, without even having to slow down they overtook both opponents on the outer track. Shortly before the finish Oestreich managed to catch up with Vrsecky, but the victory that had seemed to be an absolute cinch, was now lost; same with the pole position for the Cup Race. And it was a cold comfort to hear that Roman Huertas was disqualified after the race. <br />
For eight long laps Lacko and Bösiger were glued to each other like leeches when fighting for 5th position. The young Czech put up a tough resistance against all the attacks from the Swiss, and in the end Bösiger had to content with 6th position when he was 4 tenth slower. Further points received Frankie Vojtisek (Renault), Niko Pulic (Mercedes-Benz), Markus Altenstrasser (MAN), and Ross Garrett (Foden) - which meant, a lot of trademarks were represented. <br />
The Cup Race was no less thrilling. After the end of the race it took hours before the final results were announced. But first thing first. Körber made good use of his pole and took the lead, with Hahn and Oestreich behind. Soon the leading trio managed to break away from the field. Next came Vrsecky, Lacko and Bösiger. Albacete started way down the grid and gave a nail-biting performance by overtaking truck after truck, so that after 2 laps he had already left 13 opponents behind. Then he caught up with those who offered tougher resistance. Of the top trio Oese fell slightly behind while Hahn attacked Körber again and again. This thrilling duel went on for 7 laps, but then in the right turn behind the starting line, there was a bit of irritation. Hahn almost came to a standstill, Körber's truck spun around, and Oestreich was sandwiched between the other two. Then everybody drove on, but Hahn had lost his 2nd position to Oese. In these positions they remained up to the finish and, same as on Saturday, there was an all German podium. But even more dramatic were the fights for the other positions. After battling for several laps, Bösiger managed to overhaul Vrsecky and gained 4th position, which meant the best result of this year's season. Albacete had to slow down a bit, but he could not be stopped. When he had passed Ross Garrett and Frankie Vojtisek, the Spaniard caught up to Adam Lacko. And this constellation gave reason for a long evening for the officials and the media. <br />
For 5 laps Albacete tried in vain to overtake Lacko. In the penultimate lap the acting European Champion took to more drastic measures and pushed the young Czech off the track. And then, cheered by the crowd, he started to attack Vrsecky but failed to overtake him and in the end was a mere 3 tenth behind, next was Lacko close at his heels. Then, in the cool-down-lap the Czech crashed into the rear of the Cepsa-MAN, and in the Parc Fermé there was the third encounter of the two opponents. Lacko parked his truck so close to the Cepsa-MAN that the Spaniard had problems getting out of his truck, so that he had to clamber over to the passenger door to exit from there. <br />
After a four hours wait - while a lot of rumours spread - the official results were announced. <br />
At the meeting, consisting of the stewards, the parties involved and their respective team managers, people apparently didn't mince words. In the end, Adam Lacko was disqualified for both races. This did not mean, however, that although his position was free now, the other pilots behind him moved up. This is something new in the truck racing history. Albacete got a time penalty of 25 seconds and so got not any points for this race. So now Gerd Körber is leading the overall standing with 129 points, followed by Albacete (126), Hahn (123) and Oestreich (102).