Thursday, 28.03.2024 | Deutsch | English
Sunday on the Nürburgring – Part 2

Sunday on the Nürburgring – Part 2

14. July 2013Nürburgring - A massive crash only a few hundred metres into Sunday’s first race, in the hairpin in front of the Mercedes Arena, left trucks stalled at angles to and across the track. The cloud of dust that arose was so thick that it blocked sight of the mess for a while, and when it cleared there was relief all round that no serious damage had resulted. But then the race was stopped a little later after the MAN of Oestreich spun off into a tyre barrier in the section of the Nürburgring that leads into the shorter truck race circuit. And the action had only just begun!
It was decided that the trucks would restart in the same order as the original grid, the 20-minute interruption giving the marshals the opportunity to clear the Mercedes Arena of all the debris of plastic and gravel strewn around the track. Reinert, whose MAN had been worst hit in the tohubohu at the first corner, was allowed to drive into the pits to have the worst damage to his truck rectified. But he’d have to take the restart at the end of the 25-strong field instead of ninth, the place in which he’d qualified.
The restart was significantly less dramatic. Polesitter Albacete shot directly into the lead, followed by Hahn, Kiss, Vršecký, Oestreich, and Lacko. The pack of pursuers stretched apart somewhat as the race wore on, even as the leading duo pulled away from the rest. The vast majority of the 165,000 spectators were but naturally Hahn fans, and they very vocally egged their hero on to renewed attacks on Albacete. But Hahn’s green-and-white Castrol MAN just wasn’t able to get up alongside the red Cepsa MAN, the Spaniard taking the flag not quite half a second ahead. There was little action of note down the field, Kiss taking third place ahead of Vršecký, Oestreich, and Lacko. Major, who finished seventh, was handed a drive-through penalty that dropped him to 12th and promoted Bösiger, MAN pilots Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE) and Stephanie Halm (GER), and the Frenchman Anthony Janiec (Renault).
With his eighth place, Vojtíšek now had pole for the last race of the weekend, his first since switching to MAN last year. But pole position was of little avail for the Czech ex-champion. He was able to hold back the pressure from the rear for only four laps before his MAN started to weaken, and peeled off the track a couple of laps later. There had, meanwhile, been a couple of collisions shortly after the start, Albacete being one of their most prominent victims. The Spaniard had to withdraw only two laps into the race with a punctured rear tyre. Bösiger was in second place for two laps, but then dropped back down to sixth, well within the points. But in the final lap his engine packed up and the Renault skidded heavily on its own oil at the end of the finish straight, followed into the gravel trap in front of the Mercedes Arena immediately after by three or four others.
In the mean time Kiss had taken over the lead, with Oestreich on his rear bumper for several laps. But the “long ’un” from Fulda never really got a chance to overtake, so he let the Hungarian draw away to victory. Oestreich himself had Hahn breathing down his neck, followed just a second behind by Vršecký, who in turn had overtaken Lacko three laps before the finish in an all-Czech duel. And that’s the way they finished. Major arrived home comfortably in sixth, ahead of German race-by-race pilot Gerd Körber (Iveco). They were followed to the flag by the two Frenchmen Anthony Janiec (Renault) and Jeremy Robineau (MAN), and Steffi Halm in 10th place. The young German had fought her way up after her yellow MAN had been knocked off the track in the very first round by a collision with Robineau in the entry to the Mercedes Arena. She was only able to get back into the race after the whole field had passed, and then battled her way up till the end, right into the points!
The second race of the Mittelrhein Cup brought the TGP weekend to its conclusion. Like yesterday, the race today too was interrupted, this time twice. Despite having to take three starts, Reinert wasn’t one bit perturbed, the man from Lausitz winning once again — supremely.
Albacete continues to lead the overall classification with 210 points ahead of Hahn (198), Oestreich (166), Vršecký (152), Kiss (149), and Lacko (116).
The team classification in today’s first race was identical to yesterday’s — Truck Sport Lutz Bernau (Albacete / Oestreich) ahead of Castrol Team Hahn Racing (Hahn / Mäkinen) and MKR Technology (Lacko / Bösiger). OXXO Energy Truck Race Team (Kiss / Major) was on top in the second race, ahead of Bernau and Hahn.

Supported by Meritor Translation: Eliot Lobo

Impressions:

Sunday on the Nürburgring – Part 2
Sunday on the Nürburgring – Part 2
Sunday on the Nürburgring – Part 2
Sunday on the Nürburgring – Part 2
Sunday on the Nürburgring – Part 2