Saturday in Most
27. August 2011Most - After the tropical temperatures in Most the previous days the thermometer plummeted to 20 °C (68 °F) in the morning. There was a heavy cloud cover, but at least it stayed dry. In the warm-up the truck racers clocked even faster times than in the free practice sessions the day before. Although the seven fastest drivers were split by a mere second, it was only a preliminary skirmishing before the more important timed practice one and a half hours later. The Swiss Renault pilot Markus Bösiger clocked an absolutely fantastic time in his first lap (2:02.652m) and afterwards returned to the pit lane immediately because he wanted to go easy on his tyres. But all the other top pilots were also satisfied with one fast lap, because it was only about getting into the top ten for the SuperPole, and the other nine pilots who managed to do so besides the Swiss driver were the two MAN pilots Uwe Nittel (GER) and Antonio Albacete (ESP), the Renault pilots Markus Oestreich (GER) and Adam Lacko (CZE), the German Jochen Hahn (MAN), the two Buggyra Freightliner pilots David Vrsecky (CZE) and Chris Levett (GBR) as well as the two yellow Allgäuer MAN trucks piloted by Stuart Oliver (GBR) and Alex Lvov (RUS).
The SuperPole started accompanied by a light drizzle. The truck racers started in the order they had finished the timed practice. Good prospects for Bösiger to secure pole for the race, but the Swiss messed up in the first lap as he made a mistake under braking, while his opponents seized the opportunity to clock fastest time as long as the weather was still rather moderate. In the following laps Bösiger managed to improve his times a bit – despite the slippery track – but his opponents were still faster, although they all were also 12 to 15 seconds slower than in the timed practice a few minutes ago.
Pole position fell to Lacko ahead of Hahn and Vrsecky. Lvov surprisingly qualified 4th although he had just made it into the SuperPole in 10th position. The third row on the grid was occupied by Nittel and Bösiger, followed by Levett and Albacete as well as Oestreich and Oliver.
Right at the start of the race there were again some rain drops, but that was all. Meanwhile the temperatures were down to 15 °C (59 °F) and there was a bleak wind, but pole setter Lacko was not at all impressed. He led away from the start and was on his way to an unchallenged start-finish victory. Behind him Hahn and Vrsecky were involved in a minor skirmish with the Czech driver coming out as winner. And that’s when the 3 podium places were already determined.
Lvov held his 4th position until the flag, although everybody had expected that his nominally stronger opponents would pressurize the Russian so much that he made a mistake. But his chasers were fully occupied fighting with each other. Although Albacete – who from his 8th position on the grid had sped past several opponents right at the start – and Bösiger were glued to the rear bumper of the Allgäuer pilot, you got the impression that neither the title contender nor the reigning runner-up champion ever had a real chance to pass. Close behind were Oestreich in 7th position and Nittel in 8th – which means pole in the second race. The two remaining places in the points were taken by Oliver and the Finnish driver Mika Mäkinen (MAN).
Everybody, and particularly the fans of the brand with the three-pointed star, was eagerly looking forward to watching the duel involving this season’s rookie, Steffi Halm, and the “old hand” Heinz-Werner Lenz (both from Germany). After all, Lenz was driving the Mercedes Benz RaceTruck Markus Bauer, Halm’s team boss, had had his eye on, but Lenz beat him to the punch. After the timed practice Halm was 1 position ahead of the entrepreneur from Plaidt and was also 1 second faster. But her direct opponents in the race were the nominally faster pilots Jean-Pierre Blaise (Renault) from Belgium and Zoltan Birnbauer (MAN) from Hungary who both have got some additional horsepower under the bonnets of their trucks. Halm didn’t succeed in passing the Belgium, however, managed to overtake Birnbauer, and they crossed the finish line within seconds of each other. And only then Lenz brought his orange-colourd RaceTruck home.
In the second race, where the top eight finishers from race 1 line up in reverse order, Nittel was on pole with Oestreich alongside him. Vrsecky and Lacko lined up on the 4th row, directly behind Hahn.
In the meantime it had been raining heavily. When the second race started the rain had decreased, but the track was covered in puddles, so that at first the racers had to do two formation laps while following the pace car before the rolling start. And then everything happened in quick succession. Neck and neck Nittel and Oestreich powered towards the first chicane. Hahn, who had already pulled away, got a hefty push from behind, missed the 90-degree bend and sped straight ahead, while the rest of the field meandered through the chicane, so that suddenly the man from Altensteig was far ahead of the field.
The Spanish driver José Bermejo had to take the shortcut, too. On the wet grass he lost control of his MAN and crashed with full force into the rear of Oestreich’s Renault – which meant the end of the race for both pilots. By then the observers were already quite sure that Hahn would incur a drive-through penalty.
Both Bösiger and Albacete had a lousy start. In the general mayhem they had to let Lvov and Vrsecky pass. Spurred by his local audience he was unstoppable. And when Hahn had to do his drive-through penalty, the Buggyra pilot suddenly found himself leading the field, followed by Lacko and Bösiger. And there was another hefty collision involving Nittel and Levett, and both pilots had to retire, too. After some unclear situation Albacete had dropped back considerably, while Lacko was able to make up 5 places within only two laps.
After having accomplished his penalty Hahn established himself in 7th position, close behind Albecete who had worked his way back up from 10th place. In front of the two leading pilots in the championship there was the French Renault pilot Anthony Janiec who had sliced his way through the pack from 11th position, followed by Lvov. Albacete and Hahn succeeded in overtaking the Russian driver, but Janiec vehemently resisted all attempts. At the very last moment Albacete managed to snatch away 4th position from the Frenchman, but Hahn had to settle for 6th.
At the exit of the almost 180-degree turn located at the opposite side of the track Bösiger, who was evidently faster than Lacko, passed his team mate effortlessly, but there wasn’t enough time left to mount an attack on Vrsecky. In the end the Swiss and the Czech were separated by less than 4 tenths. Behind Hahn, Lvov finished in 7th, followed by Oliver, Mäkinen and Lenz.
In these treacherous track conditions the German driver could put all his experience of 20 years of truck racing to good use. After only a few laps Lenz had worked his way up to 11th – and Steffi Halm was close behind him. But then the young pilot had some minor problems with shifting gears and lost all her speed. Blaise took the opportunity to pass her – while Lenz managed to snatch away 10th position from the Frenchman Jeremy Robineau (MAN). But instead of the German pilot it was Robineau who collected the point, because according to article 4.1 of the FIA Sporting Regulations 2011 only those pilots, who have taken part in at least one of the first 5 rounds of the Championship, can score points. However, the round in Most is already the 7th event this season, but for Heinz-Werner it’s the first race he participated in.
Much later it was announced that Lacko had incurred a 12 second penalty for mounting an unfair attack on Albacete which meant that the two opponents swapped places.
With 304 points Hahn is still holding the lead in the overall ranking, followed by Albacete (238), Lacko (197), Vrsecky (192), Oestreich (180), Bösiger (163) and Nittel (160).
In the team ranking both races were won by MKR Team 14 Juniors (Lacko / Janiec). In the first race Cepsa-Trucksport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Nittel) was in 2nd position and in the second race 2nd place was taken by Buggyra (Vrsecky / Levett). MKR-Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich) was in 3rd in both races.
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