Saturday in Donington

23. April 2011Donington - Today the morning was a bit hazy and there was hardly any sunshine at first, but later on the temperatures reached again 25 degrees. And after the practice session the smiles on the faces of MAN pilot Uwe Nittel (GER) and fellow German Markus Oestreich (Renault) were as bright as the sunshine. Nittel had won the first free practice and Oestreich the second one. And the two Germans also set the pace in the decisive super pole the top ten in the timed practice had qualified for. With an advantage of more than six tenths Oestreich secured pole position ahead of Nittel. But Nittel and the pilots immediately behind him – Buggyra pilot David Vrsecky (CZE), Oestreich’s Renault team mate Markus Bösiger (SUI) and the two MAN pilots Antonio Albacete (ESP) and Jochen Hahn (GER) – were split by merely 2 tenths of a second of each other.
The top ten were completed by the third MKR Renault pilot Adam Lacko (CZE) and the three British drivers Chris Levett (Buggyra), Matthew Summerfield and Stuart Oliver (both MAN pilots).
The first race was plain sailing for Oestreich who gained a strong start-finish victory. Nittel’s getaway was less smooth; after some skirmish with Vrsecky and Bösiger which he managed to fend off he was overhauled by his charging team colleague Albacete. Behind Vrsecky followed Bösiger and Hahn ahead of Lacko in 7th position. Meanwhile Oestreich had a relatively lonely race, Albacete and Nittel followed “peacefully” and rather unchallenged by Vrsecky, while Hahn tried to snatch away 5th position from the Swiss pilot Bösiger. Obviously there must have been some contact, and Bösiger dropped back behind Lacko while Hahn even had to retire with tyre damage a bit later. For a short while the Swiss had Summerfield’s MAN glued to his rear bumper, but eventually he managed to pull away from the Brit. But finally the vice-champion had to content himself with 6th position behind his team mate Lacko.
Behind Summerfield in his unexpected 7th position the remaining points-collecting places were taken by Levett, the Finnish driver Mika Mäkinen (MAN) and the French Renault pilot Anthony Janiec. That was the order they finished the race in, but after the victory ceremony began the discussions. Levett and the MAN pilots Alex Lvov (RUS), José Bermejo (ESP) and David Jenkins (GBR) all incurred 30-second penalties for hitting the penalty marker (several times). This meant that Levett dropped out of the points, Mäkinen and Janiec both moved up one place, and Oliver was promoted to 10th position.
What observers might have thought was an unfortunate start for Nittel which resulted in Vrsecky taking to the grass, the stewards saw as blocking of opponents, and the German was relegated 3 positions on the starting grid for the second race.
In the second race the top 8 finishers from race 1 line up in reverse order, so that Mäkinen was on pole, followed by Summerfield, Bösiger and Lacko. On the fourth row the winner Oestreich lined up alongside Janiec and ahead of Nittel. Hahn, who had dropped out in the first race, had to start from the back of the field. The Belgian driver Jean-Pierre Blaise (Renault) could not take part because of gearbox damage.
The start was a turbulent one. Summerfield took the lead, Albacete made a superb getaway and pulled away, and all the other top pilots followed suit. But after only a few hundred meters at the downhill passage before entering the „Old Hairpin“ an incident upset the order of the field considerably. Allegedly Vrsecky’s Freightliner had touched one of the MKR Renaults, several trucks got out of control, some of the vehicles went into a spin, Vsrecky, Oestreich and Bösiger took to the grass and when they rejoined the track they found themselves at the back of the field. Summerfield was still leading the field and for some time he managed to hold off the advances of his chasers, but in the end he was no match for his hard-charging opponents who were clearly faster. The first to overtake him was Lacko, followed by Albacete and Nickel who had worked his way up from his no. 9 starting slot. When there were only a few more laps to go, Albacete overtook Lacko, and now it was already obvious who would get on the podium, because the leading trio was far ahead of Levett, their nearest chaser. By now Bösiger, Oestreich and Vrsecky were charging through the pack to get up into the points, while Hahn had already achieved this goal by working his way up bit by bit. But for him it was too late to snatch 5th position away from Summerfield.
Bösiger was by then back in the leading field, but he was again involved in a coming together of several trucks. Again the Swiss dropped back, and finally had to make do with 10th place, the last position in the points. Oestreich emerged relatively unscathed; he managed to overtake Mäkinen and crossed the finish line in 8th behind Lvov. Vrsecky finished in 11th – without gaining points.
In the team ranking both races were won by Cepsa Trucksport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Nittel). In the first race MKR Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich) gained 2nd place ahead of Buggyra (Vrsecky / Levett), in the second race MKR Team 14 Juniors (Lacko / Janiec) took 2nd place, followed by Buggyra.
In the championship ranking Albacete took the lead with 25 points, followed by Oestreich (23) and Nittel (20).

Impressions: