Saturday in Navarra Part 2 - Albacete wins pole to flag

07. June 2014Los Arcos - Following the SuperPole the trucks were held in parc fermé for inordinately long, but the first race nevertheless kicked off on schedule — the first start, to be more specific. The mercury had long pushed past 30°, and the track surface was simmering at over 50°.
For Hahn the heat was simply too much. A defective generator put paid to the defending champ’s hopes of even starting the race. But the action didn’t last a full lap. Right after the start there was a hefty collision involving the Portuguese pilot José Souza (Renault) and Lion MAN driver Artur Ardavichus (KAZ). The race was immediately stopped when, on the second lap, the marooned trucks were almost hit by some of the others travelling at race speed. The Renault was towed away and the MAN moved behind the Armco barriers, while the spilt diesel was mopped up.
The restart took place 25 minutes later in the original grid formation. In the very same curve as earlier, only a few hundred metres from the startline, Reinert then collided with the Freightliner of Vršecký and was dragged along piggyback for some distance. Having managed to disentangle himself, the German fell far back and then eventually retired, but not before he’d almost gotten dragged into a third spectacular crash. Braking into a sharp right-angle bend, Rodrigues slammed broadside into Dutchman Erwin Kleinnagelvoort’s Scania, leaving very little room for passage.
It came out later that a brake hose on the Renault had been ripped off.
The pressure dropped significantly thereafter, and the race ran at a relatively more leisurely pace. Albacete continued to lead the field with Kiss in his wake, but then it spread out rapidly. Lacko drove serenely to third place, and Bösiger followed him – rather contentedly, it appeared – at some remove. Vršecký managed to browbeat Halm into relinquishing fifth position. Teodosio had to make do with seventh, and Spaniard Javier Mariezcurrena (MAN) very effectively defended his eight place, and with it pole position for the following race, against hard-charging Hungarian Benedek Major (MAN), who’d started the race from the rear of the field. Frenchman Anthony Janiec (MAN) took the final point.

Impressions: