Sunday in Le Mans – Jochen Hahn Champion 2011

09. October 2011Le Mans - After a long and noisy night which provided the expected full entertainment and a grand display of fireworks, the teams again had to proceed to business early in the morning. It wasn’t even seven o’clock yet when the TRO staff started to hand over to the teams of the top-ten pilots the allotted Goodyear tyres which are stored in locked containers overnight. At least it was no longer as cold as on Saturday, but again the sky was overcast and the track did not have much grip and was a bit slippery, so that people did not attach too much importance to the warm-up. But also the results in the timed practice were rather surprising. About 54,000 visitors watched as, just like on Saturday, Markus Bösiger (SUI) again clocked fastest lap time ahead of his Renault colleagues Anthony Janiec (FRA) and Markus Oestreich (GER). It was certainly a surprise when Janiec posted second-fastest time, but even more surprising was the fact that the red hot title favourite, MAN pilot Jochen Hahn (GER), only just made it into the SuperPole by clocking 10th fastest time. Besides the three fastest pilots and Hahn, the top-ten for the SuperPole were completed by MAN pilot Uwe Nittel (GER), the two Czech drivers Adam Lacko (Renault) and David Vrsecky (Buggyra Freightliner), the two MAN pilots Norbert Kiss (HUN) and Antonio Albacete (ESP) as well as the Englishman Chris Levett (Buggyra Freightliner).
And again the running order changed considerably; eventually Vrsecky claimed pole, ahead of Lacko, Bösiger, Oestreich, Janiec, Albacete, Nittel, Hahn, Kiss and Levett. But that wasn’t the final order either, because – according to the stewards – Lacko, Bösiger, Albacete and Levett had been driving under a yellow flag while clocking their fastest lap times. This meant that Bösiger was relegated to 4th slot on the grid and Lacko even to 5th. Albacete’s and Levett’s positions remained static.
In the following race the winner of the championship could possibly be determined already. Only if Albacete won the race and Hahn missed out on the points, the Spaniard would still have a chance to win the title. While the German could take it easy, Albacete was under a lot of pressure.
With so much at stake the Spanish pilot stormed forward right from the start, taking advantage of any gap no matter how narrow it was. But that certainly wasn’t the reason for the worst accident of the season. According to observers who had a better view from where they stood, pole setter Vrsecky didn’t really get away well; that’s why many pilots tried to take the opportunity and pass the Buggyra. When he tried to overtake the Czech, Albacete had certainly chosen the most spectacular route along the wall, but there wasn’t enough room for the other pilots, either. There was no way to escape, the first trucks made contact which sent them spinning, and then several trucks crashed into each other at 160 km/h (100 mph). Then everything was veiled in a huge cloud of dust. The drivers most affected by the crash were Vrsecky – who barely managed to pull into the pit lane, but there was no way to repair his Freightliner on the spot – as well as Nittel and Albacete. Both their trucks were so badly damaged that many experts thought the two vehicles were write-offs. The mayhem at the top even affected the mid-field, where Stuart Oliver (GBR) and Miki Mäkinen (FIN) were stranded in the gravel with their MAN trucks which were no longer manoeuvrable.
The race was stopped immediately. While the wrecks were towed off, Albacete was taken to hospital, just as a precaution. And while the trucks lined up on the grid for the re-start, several people already congratulated Jochen Hahn on the championship title. You could see that at that moment the man from Altensteig felt a bit awkward. He certainly had not wanted the battle for the title to turn out that way.
Everybody was really shocked and consequently behaved rather civilized at the re-start and also during the race. Oestreich took the lead right away, followed by Bösiger, Hahn and Lacko. And while everybody already assumed that MKR would take a double victory, Bösiger suddenly radioed in that his engine was losing power, so that the Swiss pilot – who wasn’t able to put up much resistance – was overtaken first by Hahn and Lacko, and later by Janiec, too. And towards the end of the race he came also under pressure from Levett, but the Renault pilot was able to hold off the challenge from the Brit and finished in 5th. Kiss came across the line in 7th, followed by MAN pilot Javier Mariezcurrena (ESP), who secured pole position for the second race where the top eight finishers from race 1 start in reverse order. Iveco pilot Gerd Körber (GER), who – after his disqualification for overspeed in the timed practice – had to start from the back of the field, and local hero Jeremy Robineau (MAN) completed the positions within the points.
Once people had recovered from their shock about the accident and when they were informed that Albacete was safe and sound, the Hahn Team could at last relax and celebrate Jochen’s first championship title.
In the final race of the season at first Kiss took the lead ahead of Bösiger and pole setter Mariezcurrena. But soon the Hungarian was passed by Bösiger, and then the Swiss driver seemed to be en route to an unchallenged victory, but suddenly his chasers, headed by Kiss and Oestreich, again mounted an attack on Bösiger. Kiss started a spectacular action, he sped across the grass and squeezed Bösiger’s Renault wide onto the outer track; both trucks lost speed considerably. That was the moment when Oestreich overhauled both “fighting cocks” and went up and away.
By winning the last race the lanky man from Fulda made up 1 position in the overall ranking and now holds 4th place, ahead of Vrsecky who could not take part in the final race.
Bösiger was all the time glued to the rear bumper of Kiss’s MAN, but the Swiss had no chance to wreak revenge on the Hungarian for his previous action.
Janiec finished in 4th, ahead of Hahn who already enjoyed his championship win to the fullest by drifting through every bend in the final lap. Levett grabbed 6th, followed by Mariezcurrena, the Russian pilot Alex Lvov (MAN), Mäkinen and Oliver.
Behind the new champion Hahn with 402 points the final championship table is as follows: Albacete (355), Lacko (317), Oestreich (287), Vrsecky (287), Bösiger (262) and Nittel (215).
In the team championship the first race was won by MKR-Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich), ahead of MKR Team 14 Juniors (Lacko / Janiec) and Buggyra (Vrsecky / Levett). In the second race MKR-Technology was again the winner, followed by OXXO-Mäkinen (Kiss / Mäkinen) and MKR Team 14 Juniors.

Impressions: