Saturday in Misano – Part 1

18. May 2013Misano - Saturday dawned bright and clear, our first glimpse of the warm weather we`ve gotten used to at Misano this time of the year. The temperature quickly pushed past 25 degrees, the mercury reflecting the growing impatience of the protagonists of this year`s European Truck Racing Championship to get on with it.
The race trucks had already started lining up a good half-hour before the first free practice session at 9:10 am. And then, when it was go, reigning champ Jochen Hahn (GER) raced to the top of the timesheet, as we`ve seen him do only too often in the last couple of seasons. His MAN compatriot Antonio Albacete (ESP) was the only other driver with the speed to match.
Hahn would go even quicker in the second free practice, followed by a pack of five - Hungarian MAN driver Norbert Kiss (Team Oxxo), Albacete, the Czechs David Vrsecky (Buggyra Freightliner) and Adam Lacko (MKR Renault), and Albacete`s new teammate Markus Oestreich, - all within seven-tenths.
The next, somewhat slower, group consisted of Swissman Markus Bösiger (MKR Renault), Finn Mika Mäkinen (MAN), and the Germans Gerd Körber (Iveco) and René Reinert (MAN).
These 10 all made it intact through timed practice to the SuperPole (the shootout that decides the first 10 places on the grid), though Hahn could manage only the third-best time. But when it really mattered, he simply stepped up the pace to seize pole position with a blistering 2:03.223, four-tenths faster than Vrsecky, who was followed by Kiss, Albacete, Lacko, Oestreich, Mäkinen, Bösiger, Reinert und Körber.

Supported by Meritor Translation: Eliot Lobo

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