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Sunday in Spielberg Part 1 – Lacko takes no-contest pole in driving rain

Sunday in Spielberg Part 1 – Lacko takes no-contest pole in driving rain

01. May 2016Spielberg - The forecasters were spot-on with their prediction of rain for the second day of this first round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. The sky was overcast, and the rain started the minute the trucks rolled out for the morning’s warm-up.
The lap times were more than 10 seconds on average longer than yesterday’s.
An hour later, when it was time for qualifying, the rainfall had intensified, and the lap times were even longer.
In such unpredictable conditions it was clear that nobody would be pitting prematurely to conserve tyres. Czech Adam Lacko’s (Buggyra Freightliner) 1:18.563s early on was good enough to put him at the top, followed by MAN pilot Jochen Hahn (GER) more than a second slower. Behind Hahn was a quartet spread apart by just one-tenth - Mercedes pilot Norbert Kiss (HUN), Czech Jiří Forman (Buggyra Freightliner), and the two MAN drivers Anthony Janiec (FRA) and Sascha Lenz (GER). The others who qualified for the SuperPole were German Gerd Körber (Iveco) and an MAN trio with René Reinert (GER), Ryan Smith (GBR), and Frankie Vojtíšek (CZE). This is the way it looked seven minutes before the end of qualifying. Home hero Markus Altenstrasser (Iveco) was at the time in 12th. The Austrian had finished on the podium in both yesterday’s races, but now was in danger of being left out of the Top 10 starters altogether.
But then, suddenly, the red flags were out - Kiss’s truck stood stuck in the gravel in a dangerous position. Everyone had to return to the pit lane till the Mercedes was recovered.
Then, till the qualifying duration was completed, the trucks were allowed back out, Kiss’s included. But not one driver was able to improve his (or her) time, and Altenstrasser lost out on the SuperPole.
Immediately after, the Top 10 were back out to clinch the best starting positions on the first five rows of the grid. The track surface was clearly more treacherous now, for Lacko’s pole-setting time was once again three seconds longer than his time in qualifying. Nobody else was even halfway close - Hahn was almost 2.5 seconds slower in second place.
The rest of the field was also much slower in the SuperPole than in qualifying - up to seven seconds slower!
The slots behind Lacko and Hahn were taken by Körber, Reinert, Janiec, Forman, Smith, Kiss, Lenz, and Vojtíšek.

Impressions:

Sunday in Spielberg Part 1 – Lacko takes no-contest pole in driving rain
Sunday in Spielberg Part 1 – Lacko takes no-contest pole in driving rain
Sunday in Spielberg Part 1 – Lacko takes no-contest pole in driving rain