Saturday in Zolder Part 1 - Jochen Hahn on pole

20. September 2014Zolder - Early in the morning, under clouded skies with the temperature at around 18°, the track was still somewhat damp for the first warm-up at the seventh round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on the Zolder circuit in Belgium. The only driver to crack 1:59 Min in this session was Spanish championship leader Antonio Albacete (MAN). It was only a couple of hours later, time for first qualifying and the subsequent SuperPole, that the sun finally managed to break through the blanket of cloud.
The track had dried out by now and Hungarian Norbert Kiss (MAN) promptly zapped the field with a 1:57.337 Min. in his only lap out, before ducking into the pits. Most of the other top drivers followed suit, confident that one lap was good enough for the SuperPole.
Kiss was joined by Jochen Hahn (GER) and Antonio Albacete (ESP), both MAN, Czech David Vršecký (Buggyra Freightliner), Markus Bösiger (MAN) of Switzerland, the second Buggyra pilot Adam Lacko, and another MAN armada with René Reinert (GER), Benedek Major (HUN), Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE), and Anthony Janiec (FRA) in the Top 10.
But the Hungarian just wasn’t able to attain to his earlier time, while Vršecký seemed poised for pole with his 1:57.713 Min. — till Hahn in his last lap blazed past the startline in 1:57.483 Min. Kiss, however, was still on the track at this point, driving like a man possessed and squeezing in only by the skin of his teeth…a lap of 1:57.278 Min.!
Albacete, Bösiger, Lacko, Reinert, Major, Vojtíšek, und Janiec took the remaining places on the first five rows of the grid behind Hahn and Vršecký. But then the race director weighed in. Kiss was stripped of his quickest lap because he’d been found to have blocked Albacete on his. This dropped the Hungarian to third place behind Hahn and Vršecký.

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