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Sunday in Zolder

Sunday in Zolder

13. September 2009Zolder - During the night the temperatures dropped to 10 °C (50 °F), and to make things worse it started drizzling in the early morning. As on Sundays there is a Holy Mass being celebrated in a small chapel situated on the grounds of the circuit, the racing activities never start before 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. By then the track had dried out a bit; the sky was overcast, but it stayed dry and the 14,000 spectators could watch the races without getting wet. As the track conditions improved continuously, the timed practice was as exciting as yesterday. Almost everyone clocked his fastest lap time in the last third of the 20 minute practice. Again the top quartet secured the first four places on the grid, this time in the following order: MAN - Antonio Albacete (ESP), Buggyra - David Vrsecky (CZE), MAN - Jochen Hahn (GER) and the second Buggyra - Markus Bösiger (SUI). For the first time the Hungarian Balazs Szobi was ahead of his MAN colleagues Chris Levett (GBR) and Egon Allgäuer (AUT) in the qualification.
The following race was relatively uneventful. Vrsecky outgunned Albacete at the start. But also on Saturday the Czech had led almost until just before the end of the race, and certainly the Cepsa Team nourished the hope that the Spaniard would again be able to pass Vrsecky during the last laps. But this time the Czech stayed firmly in control; he effortlessly fended off Albacete’s attacks and crossed the finishing line 7 tenths ahead of the Spaniard. There was a battle between Hahn and Bösiger for 3rd place, but in the 5th lap the Swiss had to retire because of a damaged left front tyre – probably caused by some object lying on the track. But really exciting was the fight for the 4th position. Allgäuer made a good getaway and was ahead of Levett and Szobi, and for a long time the Austrian held his position against the young Brit, but in the 10th lap the blue MAN succeeded in overtaking the yellow one, while Szobi was still in 6th, a position the Hungarian certainly would have satisfied with, but in the final lap, only a few hundred metres before crossing the finishing line, he ended up in the gravel bed, and another MAN pilot – Stuart Oliver (GBR) – whose engine had been replaced the night before, finished 6th. Behind him was the entire Renault armada: Markus Altenstrasser (AUT), Frankie Vojtisek (CEZ) and Anthony Janiec (FRA). The Russian MAN pilot Alexander Lvov completed the top ten.
In the second race Vojtisek, the number eight in the first race, was on pole position, ahead of his team mate Altenstrasser. The winner of the first race, Vrsecky, was 8th on the grid, with Albacete lining up alongside him and Hahn directly in front of the Czech. Same as yesterday, Bösiger had to start from the back of the field of 22 trucks because of his early retirement in the first race. From the start pole setter Vojtisek took the lead, Altenstrasser and Allgäuer entered the first left-hand turn side by side, but soon the MAN pilot was ahead; Hahn was close behind the Altenstrasser Renault. But before they entered the finish straight the man from Altensteig was already in 2nd position and started to reel in Vojtisek. And after one more lap Hahn had pulled out a lead which he held unchallenged until the chequered flag. But the positions behind him were fiercely contested.
In mid-race Albacete and Vrsecky were already on 3rd and 4th positions, respectively, Levett was on the back of Vojtesek, Altenstrasser had dropped back on 8th and Bösiger had managed to work his way up to 10th. The audience was waiting eagerly for the outcome of the encounter of the two pilots from the Alpine countries, as Altenstrasser and Bösiger clashed already several times rather spectacularly and fiercely this season. But this time their ‘meeting’ was quite amicable. Meanwhile Albacete and Vrsecky went on chasing Allgäuer, until – with only 3 more laps to go – the Spaniard dropped out because of gearbox damage. That left the way clear for Allgäuer to take a podium place. And as naturally the MAN pilot was eager to grab the runner-up spot, he defended this position tooth and nail and eventually came through to be classified 2nd. At the victory ceremony Allgäuer was on the second podium place, with Vrsecky on third. But later the stewards decided that an incident in the final bend had not been quite correct, and the Austrian collected a 2 second time penalty, and the Czech was promoted to take the second place. Behind the leading trio there was a group of four - Vojtisek, Levett, Oliver and Bösiger – who finished within 2 seconds. Altenstrasser came home 8th, and Janiec and Szobi took the last two of the points-scoring places.
In the overall ranking Albacete’s and Vrsecky’s scores are level now (383), which means that Vrsecky for the first time this season moved to the top of the points standing, because he holds the greater number of first places. Hahn (279) now lies 3rd on the championship points table, ahead of Bösiger (268). Levett (184) was classified 5th, followed by Allgäuer (175).
In the team ranking the first race was won by Team HahnOxxo (Hahn / Szobi), ahead of Buggyra (Vrsecky / Bösiger) and Team Frankie (Altenstrasser / Vojtisek). In the second race Buggyra was ahead of Team HahnOxxo. Third place was again won by Team Frankie.