Friday in Nogaro

19. June 2009Nogaro - An overcast sky and temperatures just over 20 °C (68 °F) – what a contrast to the previous day with temperatures of more than 35 °C (95 °F). During the press drivings in the morning there was a tight squeeze in the pit lane. For all those pilots who had been participating in the press drivings, there was an additional one-hour free practice in the afternoon. And that’s where right in the first lap Antonio Albacete’s truck suffered a turbo failure. About 15 minutes before the end of the practice the replacement of the turbo charger was completed, but after only one lap the Spaniard again returned to the pit. The mechanics were busily searching for the cause of some strange noises coming from the MAN RaceTruck, but when they had finally found the reason it was too late to return to the circuit. For Jochen Hahn – who had the biggest problems with his turbo chargers so far – as well as for the two Buggyra-Freightliner pilots Markus Bösiger and David Vrsecky everything went like clockwork.
In the two official free practices there was again the familiar situation – Bösiger, Hahn, Albacete, but without Vrsecky whose team had decided to forego doing additional laps, and instead made good use of the time to do some maintenance work they had not get around to doing before.
Once again Chris Levett was in the thick of the fight with the leading pilots, a mere 7 tenths behind Albacete, and also Balazs Szobi was on a level with the fastest Renault pilot, Markus Altenstrasser. Dominique Lachèze, who is here registered as a guest driver with a MAN of the Birds Team, clocked the same lap times as the two ex-champions Egon Allgäuer (MAN) and Frankie Vojtisek (Renault).
The new surface on the track was to the liking of the pilots and they were all happy with it. But, of course, the ‘acid test’ will start tomorrow with the first timed practice.