Sunday in Navarra - Part 1

02. June 2013Navarra - The thick cloud cover over the Circuito de Navarra couldn´t completely keep out the sun, which broke through more often today. It was nice and warm in the sunshine, but in the shade, the freezing wind made you wish you´d had your warmest winter wear on.
The truck racers started their warm-up on time at 9 am, and the Hungarian MAN pilot Norbert Kiss was again fastest, as he was in yesterday´s timed practice and in the SuperPole. In the timed practice that followed, most of the top drivers put down only one lap, being confident of making it into the SuperPole. Which they duly did. Stephanie Halm (GER) again set a top-10 time with her yellow-and-black MAN, but the young German had tough contenders breathing down her neck — Czech Frankie Vojtíšek (MAN) and the two Renault pilots Jean-Pierre Blaise (BEL) and Anthony Janiec (FRA) are always good for a place in the top 10. They drove up to five, some even six, laps in desperate attempts to displace Steffi from the SuperPole, but none was successful.
Besides Kiss and Halm, five of the other qualifiers were MAN drivers — Antonio Albacete (ESP), Markus Oestreich, Jochen Hahn, René Reinert (all GER), and Mika Mäkinen (FIN). Adam Lacko (CZE) and Markus Bösiger (SUI) in their MKR-Renaults, and the Czech David Vršecký (Buggyra Freightliner) were the only "outsiders".
In the SuperPole, the shootout that decides the top 10 places on the starting grid, local hero Albacete made it clear to his Hungarian MAN colleague Kiss who rules the roost here at the Circuito de Navarra with an unassailable 2:08.484 on his very first lap. Oestreich took third behind Kiss with an exciting lap, after having hung way behind throughout the session, giving the impression that there was something wrong with his truck. But when it really mattered, Oese struck back, knocking Hahn into fourth. Lacko, Vršecký, Reinert, Mäkinen, Bösiger, and Halm rounded out the top 10 on the grid.

Supported by Meritor Translation: Eliot Lobo

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