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Sunday at the Smolenskring

Sunday at the Smolenskring

31. July 2011Smolenskring - And again it was a sizzling hot day with temperatures of around 35 °C (95 °F), and not a breeze was stirring. In the afternoon dark clouds gathered at the sky, but it stayed dry. The warm-up in the early morning went off rather uneventful, although you got the impression that all the pilots took these few laps seriously. But things got really serious a bit later in the timed practice, particularly for the Frenchman Anthony Janiec (Renault). Try as he might to get into the top ten, he did not succeed; neither did MAN driver José Bermejo (ESP) and the French Mercedes pilot Florian Orsini. And the SuperPole turned out to be a real thriller; it was not till the final lap that Renault pilot Markus Bösiger (SUI) secured pole position – his first one this season. MAN pilot Jochen Hahn posted second fastest time, ahead of the two Czech drivers David Vrsecky (Buggyra Freightliner) and Adam Lacko (Renault). Behind them lay the two MAN pilots Antonio Albacete (ESP) and Uwe Nittel (GER), followed by the Englishman Chris Levett (Buggyra Freightliner), Renault driver Markus Oestreich (GER) as well as the two MAN pilots Stuart Oliver (GBR) and the Russian local hero Alexander Lvov.
And so, for the first time this season, Bösiger lined up on pole position in the first race. However, Bösiger doesn’t really have a reputation for making superb getaways from the start; hence Hahn outgunned him already in the first bend to take a lead he was never to lose. And it seemed that the runner-up spot was a sure thing for Bösiger, but – just like the day before – the Renault again started having problems with the brake in the penultimate lap, so that his team colleague Lacko who had been following close behind, managed to pass the Swiss driver. Now the podium places were already determined. A lot more exciting was the battle for 4th position. Lap after lap Albacete followed hard on the heels of Vrsecky. Time and again it looked as if the Spaniard would succeed in passing the Buggyra pilot, but the Czech driver resisted all passing attempts. And, in addition, both Albacete and Vrsecky were under pressure from Oestreich. In lap 9 the German driver incurred a drive-through penalty and had to pass through the pit lane, allegedly because of some incident with Nittel in the early stage of the race. The lanky man from Fulda dropped back to 10th position where he was again involved in some fierce battles with Levett. In lap 12 Albacete’s red Cepsa MAN suddenly lost momentum. The Spaniard slowed down considerably and eventually came to a halt on the grass because of a defective rear axle. Behind Vrsecky, Lvov drove totally unchallenged in 5th position ahead of his team mate Oliver. Throughout the race the British driver had to fend off tough challenges from Nittel who was definitely faster. And according to the opinion of the stewards the matter turned into aggressive activity more than once. Nittel was handicapped by the fact that he was under observation and could not risk any move that might be interpreted as unsporting behaviour. But instead the Stewards seemed to blame Oliver, because after the race he incurred a 30-second penalty which dropped him back to 10th position. The pilots finishing behind Nittel were Janiec and the two “fighting cocks” Levett and Oestreich; all of them were promoted one position because of Oliver’s penalization. This meant that Levett would start from pole in the second race where the top 8 finishers from race 1 line up in reverse order.
And again the race turned into a “material battle” with the result that the stewards held a lively discussion after the race. Right in the first bend the visitors could watch total mayhem. Several of the pilots starting from the front rows didn’t get away well, and the trucks driving behind them crashed into the front-runners. Several pilots used the gaps arising from the chaos to their advantage, and suddenly Lacko had a rather lonely race heading the pack, followed by pole setter Levett, Vrsecky and Bösiger. While the foursome managed to pull away a bit, a lot of trucks collided time and again. Albacete crashed into Oestreich who in turn ran into Oliver’s MAN while spinning around. Both drivers dropped back several places. A bit later Levett was forced to retire due to servo pump failure. Now only some mechanical defect could have prevented Lacko from winning the race, and also Vrsecky and Bösiger crossed the finish line unchallenged in 2nd and 3rd position, respectively. Meanwhile Albacete had worked his way up to 4th, but then he incurred a drive-through penalty and Oestreich was even shown the black flag – meaning disqualification. Now Hahn was in 4th position, ahead of Lvov and Janiec with Albacete in 7th. In his badly damaged Cepsa MAN Albacete was locked in combat with Renault pilot Janiec which went on for 4 laps. But eventually, with only 3 more laps to go, the French driver was outpaced by the Spaniard. Bermejo finished in 8th, followed by Oliver and Orsini who collected his first point this season. Right at the back of the field was Nittel doing his utmost to bring his heavily battered MAN home. Actually the German pilot did only hang on because he had the team ranking in mind.
And the team ranking was won by MKR Team 14 Juniors (Lacko / Janiec) in the first race, ahead of MKR-Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich) and Buggyra (Vrsecky / Levett). In the second race MKR Team 14 Juniors took again the top podium place, followed by Cepsa-Trucksport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Nittel) and Buggyra was again in 3rd position.
With 287 points Hahn is still holding his lead in the overall ranking, followed by Albacete (222), Oestreich (176), Lacko (170), Vrsecky (167), Nittel (157) and Bösiger (148).

Impressions:

Sunday at the Smolenskring
Sunday at the Smolenskring
Sunday at the Smolenskring
Sunday at the Smolenskring
Sunday at the Smolenskring