Saturday in Spielberg Part 1 – Kiss in command

16. May 2015Spielberg - It’s Saturday and there’s nothing to suggest summer here at the second round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on the Red Bull Ring. The lowering sky has shut out most of Styria’s panoramic mountainscape, and the temperature is at a chilling 12° — but at least it isn’t raining. The morning’s warm-up took place on dew-saturated asphalt, but the laps were still markedly quicker than in free practice yesterday.
For the umpteenth time it was Hungarian champ Norbert Kiss who set the pace, but his rivals weren’t significantly off it, MAN colleague Jochen Hahn (GER) coming closest.
Qualifying was once again – after ages – a slugfest entirely to the fans’ liking. As is customary, some of the top drivers did one searing lap and then sought the pits, Hahn topping the timesheet with 1:06,050s. But many trucks also stayed out, and the times suddenly started to tumble. Spaniard Antonio Albacete (MAN) stole up on Hahn with a lap just five-thousandths slower; Kiss was still only fifth or sixth. That should have sufficed for the SuperPole, but the Hungarian wasn’t taking any chances. Back on the track, he drove like the wind, clocking 1:05.297s.
The MAN triumvirate was joined by David Vršecký (CZE) in his Buggyra Freightliner, the two Germans Gerd Körber (Iveco) and Ellen Lohr (MAN), Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner), René Reinert (GER) in an MAN, Iveco pilot Markus Altenstrasser (AUT), and Englishman Ryan Smith (MAN) for the SuperPole.
Here too Kiss was in command; his pole-setting 1:05.049s simply unbeatable although five other did crack the 1:06 barrier. Lacko will line up alongside him on the grid, having shut Hahn out by a 10th at the very close of the session.
Vršecký, Albacete, Körber, Lohr, Reinert, Smith, and Altenstrasser make up the rest of the top 10 on the grid.

Impressions: