Sunday in Le Mans Part 2 - Hahn wins and takes the lead

13. October 2013Le Mans - The sun was radiant but the temperatures were still barely above 10°C as the truck racers got ready to take the start in the penultimate race of the season. Sure, there were 21 trucks on the grid, but all the attention now was focused on two MANs — Hahn’s green-and-white Number 1 Castrol truck and Albacete’s bright red Number 2 Cepsa truck. Whichever of the two had a 10 point advantage over the other at the end of the race would have won the championship. Albacete was four points ahead, but Hahn was in a decidedly superior starting position. Should the trucks finish in the order in which they started, he would have collected 11 points more than Albacete, which meant a lead of seven points in the standings. But to be safe he would have to win the race, because there was little chance that Albacete would be content to hang onto his eighth-place start.
Polesitter Kiss eased into the lead, shadowed by Hahn. But those who expected the German to overtake the Hungarian anon were to be disappointed. Midway through the race Kiss had pulled out a gap of three seconds, before he began inexplicably to weaken. In the mean time Albacete had pressed ahead into fifth, and when teammate Oestreich ahead of him was awarded a drive-through penalty, was handed fourth. He now had a five-points deficit to Hahn, which meant only one in the overall standings. But Hahn then reeled Kiss in and crossed the finish line in the lead, which now gave him a six-points advantage over Albacete going into the final race.
In the entire drama, Vršecký’s third-place finish was almost ignored. Behind Albacete Lacko finished fifth, ahead of Bösiger, Renault pilot Anthony Janiec (FRA), and Major, who was thus presented pole position for the season-ending race. The final two points-place finishers were the Belgian Jean-Pierre Blaise (Renault) and Oestreich. The MAN pilot had had to fight his way back up from the rear of the field, all for a single point.
Castrol Team Hahn Racing (Hahn / Mäkinen) was the top team ahead of OXXO Energy Truck Race Team (Kiss / Major) and MKR Technology (Lacko / Bösiger).

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