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Sunday in Albacete

Sunday in Albacete

05. June 2011Albacete - An almost cloudless sky and brilliant sunshine early in the morning did already indicate that it would not rain – quite the contrary. And indeed, in late afternoon the huge crowd – there wasn’t any official information available yet by the evening about the exact number – could enjoy temperatures of around 30 degrees. There was no longer any talk about yesterday’s incident when allegedly several pilots had left the pit lane despite the red light to drive to the starting grid. It only became known that the Spanish MAN pilot José Bermejo had been disqualified because of unsporting behaviour.
The warm-up in the morning was plain sailing for the German MKR Renault pilot Markus Oestreich. Behind Cepsa MAN driver Antonio Albacete (ESP) and the Swiss pilot Markus Bösiger (MKR Renault) followed Jochen Hahn (GER) with his black MAN on fourth position, lagging more than 1.2 seconds behind. In the following timed practice suddenly Oestreich’s team mate Adam Lacko (CZE) was in the lead, followed by Albacete, Oestreich, Uwe Nittel (GER) in his MAN, Hahn, Bösiger, the two Buggyra Freightliner trucks piloted by David Vrsecky (CZE) and Chris Levett (GBR), as well as the French Renault pilot Anthony Janiec and the British driver Stuart Oliver (MAN).
But when the SuperPole of the top ten started, it became evident that Hahn still had an ace up his sleeve. Again his opponents noticed with bewilderment that the Swabian indeed drives in a different league at the moment. Hahn was more than half a second quicker than Lacko; and Nittel, who posted 3rd fastest time, was another half second slower. Behind them the time differences of Albacete, Vrsecky and Bösiger weren’t that big. Lagging a bit behind were Levett, Oliver and Janiec. Oestreich was out of luck, as he had his fastest lap times cancelled for hitting a tyre wall which meant he had to start from 10th position on the grid.
Compared to what we had to witness in the previous races, the first race of the day turned out to be rather civilised. Hahn led away from the start and his chasers followed in exactly the same order they had lined up on the starting grid. You would have expected that – in order to secure pole position for the second race – particularly Oestreich would overtake Janiec and Oliver, whose trucks have got a somewhat lower potential. But finally the MKR pilot had to be satisfied with 9th position behind the Brit and the Frenchman. Behind the clear winner Hahn, Lacko and Nittel secured second and third podium place respectively. Local hero Albacete had to settle for the unrewarding 4th place ahead of Vrsecky, Bösiger and Levett.
This means that Oliver would start from pole in the second race where the top 8 finishers from race 1 line up in reverse order. The MAN pilot made a good start and emerged from the first turn – which is actually always a problem area – still leading the field with the chasing pack headed by Levett in tow. Right in the first lap Albacete had managed to work his way up from 5th slot on the grid to 2nd position. But Oliver resisted all passing attempts, and in mid-race it came down to a big showdown. In a sharp left bend the Spaniard was close behind the yellow MAN and suddenly the two trucks collided which looked rather unspectacular but was of far-reaching consequences, and Oliver was pushed wide into the trackside gravel. Hahn who had “quietly” made up 5 places and was by then in 3rd position, benefitted from the incident, so that Oliver suddenly found himself in 3rd with Bösiger glued to his rear bumper. In the final lap there was a bit of a skirmish with the Swiss who eventually made a successful passing move, and instead of the win he had certainly hoped for Oliver had to settle for the unrewarding 4th position. The remaining places within the points were taken by Vrsecky, the Spanish MAN pilot Javier Mariezcurrena, Lacko, Oestreich, Levett and Janiec.
Afterwards the stewards had a lengthy discussion which, several hours after the final race, led to some changes in the results.
Albacete was relegated 2 positions and Bösiger dropped to 4th. Hahn was declared the winner, followed by Oliver, Albacete and Bösiger. All other positions remained unaffected. However, all these results still seem to be provisional, as Cepsa reserves the right to lodge an appeal against Albacete’s penalisation.
The team ranking in the first race was won by Cepsa-Trucksport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Nittel) ahead of MKR Team 14 Juniors (Lacko / Janiec) and Buggyra (Vrsecky / Levett). The winner in the second race was MKR Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich), followed by Buggyra and Cepsa Trucksport Lutz Bernau.
In the overall ranking Hahn still holds the lead with a total of 147 points followed by Albacete (109), Oestreich (103), Lacko (79), Nittel (76), Vrsecky (69) and Bösiger (68).

Impressions:

Sunday in Albacete
Sunday in Albacete
Sunday in Albacete