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Saturday in Most – Part 1

Saturday in Most – Part 1

31. August 2013Most - The late summer weather continued into Saturday here at Most, the temperatures a tad over 20°C. Since the
FIA European Truck Racing Championship round at Autodrom Most is a three-day event and the free practice was over yesterday, the racers kicked off today with the warm-up. Once again it was Antonio Albacete who set the pace, blazing to the best time of the session in the very first of his five laps out on the track. Only the Czech David Vršecký (Buggyra Freightliner) and the German Markus Oestreich (MAN) could hang on even halfway; all the others were far slower. Most surprisingly of all, defending champ Jochen Hahn’s best time was more than two seconds slower than his Spanish MAN colleague, and this too he had managed only in his fourth lap — after he’d been quickest yesterday! But as it is with the warm-up, you couldn’t know who had let the cat out of the bag and who was still holding something in reserve.
An hour and a half later, in the first timed practice, it began to look quite different. Most of the top drivers returned to the pits after just one flying lap, certain that they’d been quick enough to qualify for the SuperPole. Albacete was still up there at the top, but now Hahn was only two-tenths slower — we were in for some excitement in the SuperPole. The rest – Vršecký, the two MKR Renault pilots Markus Bösiger (SUI) and Adam Lacko (CZE), Oestreich, Mika Mäkinen (FIN), Benedek Major (HUN), René Reinert (GER), and Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE) – followed at a respectable distance.
But it’s the SuperPole that decides who will occupy the first five rows on the starting grid and in what order, and here Hahn pulled a rabbit out of a hat in his very first lap with a time of 2:01.882s, the fastest of the weekend so far, and which eventually stood unsurpassed at the end of the SuperPole. Albacete took second place a good half-second faster than Vršecký, followed by Oestreich, Bösiger, and Lacko — six-tenths of a second covering these five. The following places went to Major, Vojtíšek, Reinert, and Mäkinen.
The Hungarian pilot Norbert Kiss, a permanent candidate for a podium place this season, didn’t have it so good. Once again his truck sprang a steering defect, this time right at the start of timed practice, with the consequence that he had to start from the end of the field.
Ellen Lohr was hit even harder. She had managed only a few laps in her Mercedes-Benz yesterday because of technical problems, and today her engine was found to have sustained severe internal damage. Team boss Markus Bauer has already ordered a replacement from Germany, and we hope the tankpool24-Team will race at least on Sunday.

Impressions:

Saturday in Most – Part 1
Saturday in Most – Part 1