Friday on the Nürburgring

06. July 2007Nürburgring - The weather was steadier than feared before; it stayed mostly dry. But strong squalls tested the stability of the marquees again and again, but nothing toppled down so far. In the morning the alterations of the time schedules caused some strenuous activities, although for today almost everything remained as planned, only instead of the timed practice for the second group there was an industrial presentation. As we know the FIA decided yesterday afternoon not to divide the 26 FIA pilots into two groups, which would have caused gaps in the programme. Originally the organizers planned to hold all the races in two groups, except for the Cup races.
The pilots of the first group had to put up with a rather damp surface in the free practice, nevertheless, Markus Bösiger, David Vrsecky and Jochen Hahn definitely called the tune. The second group came upon much brighter conditions, and consequently Antonio Albacete, Egon Allgäuer and Gerd Körber were about 4 seconds faster. In the second free practice the conditions were the same for both groups, but there were the same protagonists as before.
In the joint timed practice Bösiger secured his pole with 1:54,968, ahead of Buggyra team mate Vrsecky. From the second row on the grid Albacete (MAN) will be starting tomorrow ahead of Mercedes pilot Hahn. The top ten are completed by Körber, Allgäuer, Jean-Philippe Beloc, Stuart Oliver and Chris Levett – five more MAN pilot – and on tenth Ross Garrett (Renault) as substitute for Frankie Vojtisek, who is still on sick leave.
For the first time the new Super truck with the V8 engine was presented by MAN. In addition there was an extensive stunt programme, and later on the training for tomorrow’s Go-and-Stop event fascinated the crowd on the fully occupied T3 grand stand once more.