Sunday in Assen
10. May 2009Already yesterday the weather was much better than predicted, and this morning there was bright sunshine, too. Shortly after 8 a.m. Buggyra, Cepsa and Jochen Hahn got together with Goodyear. There was rumour going around the paddock that not all the new 2009 tyres were identical, but that there were also tyres whose rubber compound is very similar to that of the 2008 series. In order to eliminate a priori a deliberate advantage of any pilot, the top quartet made a gentlemen’s agreement that they would draw lots for the tyres. At the warm-up, however, the crowd watched the same scenario as yesterday, a rather predominant Antonio Albacete, followed by the equal contenders Jochen Hahn, Markus Bösiger and David Vrsecky. The following timed practice was stopped rather abruptly and unsatisfactorily. Dominique Orsini’s Mercedes conked out at a dangerous spot. About 5 minutes before the finish the red flag was waved. However, the clock was not stopped but the qualifying was interrupted. Especially the leading drivers were far from pleased, because almost everyone had only just changed their set-up in the pit lane and was now all set for at least two more fast laps.
Albacete secured pole ahead of Hahn, Bösiger, Vrsecky and Chris Levett. And what’s more – when checking Hahn’s MAN the scrutineers found that the track gauge exceeded the permissible size by 7 mm. This was certainly a subject for debate, not only because of the extremely marginal exceeding of the maximum width, but because it was quite possible that the change in the axle symmetry was a consequence of yesterday’s rear shunt. Anyway, Hahn was disqualified and had to start from the back of the grid for the Sunday race.
There were now three potential contenders for the podium. Pole setter Albacete led away from the start, followed by Bösiger, Vrsecky and Levett. After only 2 laps the Czech retired to the pit lane because of a damaged tyre. Levett was now on a podium place. While the leading duo drove lap after lap rather lonely – Albacete with a safe distance to Bösiger – Hahn again drove at a furious rate, same as yesterday. After only one lap he had left 10 trucks behind, and after two more laps he had moved his MAN up to 6th place behind the two Renault drivers Frankie Vojtisek and Markus Altenstrasser. Those two managed to hold him off for some time, but when there were only 3 more laps to go, Hahn had gained 4th position and started to challenge Levett for 3rd place. But the Englishman fended off the constant attacks and defended his podium place and finished just 2 tenth seconds clear of Hahn. Behind the two Renaults, Egon Allgäuer crossed the finish line on 7th, followed by Stuart Oliver (MAN), Anthony Janiec (Renault) and Balazs Szobi (MAN). After the race Altenstrasser was disqualified because his truck did not meet the technical regulations, which meant that Javier
Mariezcurrena (MAN) was promoted to 10th, the last place for the points.
The team ranking was won by Team HahnOxxo (Hahn/Szobi), ahead of Renault (Altenstrasser/Vojtisek) and Buggyra (Vrsecky/Bösiger). As a consequence of Altenstrasser’s belated disqualification, the second and the third placed team had to swap places.
After the disqualification of the Austrian, Janiec was promoted to 8th and found himself suddenly on pole for the second race. But the young Frenchman could not make use of this chance. Oliver led from the start, followed by Allgäuer and Hahn. After only one lap the German took the lead and defended this position until he crossed the finish line. Allgäuer, too, had passed Oliver and was now on 2nd. Albacete had managed to overtake Bösiger and was aiming for the podium. So he passed first Vojtisek, next was Oliver and eventually he left Allgäuer behind, too. Bösiger drove hard on the heels of his Spanish opponent and followed suit, thus securing 3rd place on the podium. Vrsecky, who had to start from the back of the grid because of his truck’s failure in the first race of the day, fought his way through the field and after 10 laps he had gained 16 places, finishing in 5th behind Allgäuer, and ahead of Vojtisek, Oliver, Altenstrasser, Szobi and Janiec.
But those were not yet the final results. Again there were penalties imposed and disqualifications, which jumbled the points in the overall standing again.
Levett had to drive once through the pit lane in mid-race, because he was a bit too fast at the start. At first he had been disqualified completely for overspeeding, but when they lodged a protest he was allowed to return; same with Mariezcurrena. Altenstrasser incurred a 10 seconds penalty, Szobi and José Rodrigues were disqualified for ignoring the flag.
Finally Janiec was promoted to 8th and Altenstrasser fell back to 9th. Behind the Austrian, Levett was on 10th position.
The team ranking was won by Buggyra, ahead of Renault and Team HahnOxxo.
The overall ranking is led by Albacete with 58 points, followed by Bösiger (39), Vrsecky (31), Hahn (27), Vojtisek (27), Allgäuer (22), Altenstrasser (17), Oliver (17) and Levett (15).
In the team championship Buggyra (86) is ahead of Renault (65) and Team HahnOxxo (56).