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Sunday in Most Part 1 – Hahn secures his 2nd Pole

Sunday in Most Part 1 – Hahn secures his 2nd Pole

04. September 2016Most - Morning on this last day of the 6th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Autodrom Most broke to much brighter weather prospects than had earlier been forecast. There’s a good chance that it will stay dry, but a heavy storm could still roll in.
Meanwhile, local hero Adam Lacko was working up a storm on the track in his Buggyra Freightliner in morning’s warm-up with a 2:02.153, his best time this weekend.
But what really counts is one’s time in qualifying and, above all, the SuperPole. While the teams usually run on used tyres during warm-up, they must use the same tyres in qualifying that they’ll be racing on later in the day.
That’s why, if a driver is confident of a Top 10 position after his first flying lap in qualifying, he returns to pit lane to conserve his tyres, waiting out the rest of the 20-minute session with an eye on the times of those still out in pursuit of a quicker lap.
MAN ace Jochen Hahn immediately put his name on top of the timing screen with a lap of 2:02.438. Lacko was two-tenths off the German’s pace. The two hot favourites for the title were rejoined in pit lane by a MAN trio of René Reinert, Steffi Halm (both GER), and Anthony Janiec (FRA); Norbert Kiss (HUN) in his tankpool24 Mercedes, and Iveco pilot Gerd Körber (GER). “Mr Truckracing”, the paddock’s term of endearment for Körber, flirted with exclusion from the SuperPole while first MAN drivers Ryan Smith (GBR) and Sascha Lenz (GER) went quicker than he, then Czech Jiří Forman (Buggyra Freightliner) as well. To avoid that eventuality the Iveco pilot took off once again shortly before the close and managed to reclaim that coveted SuperPole slot from a no less desperate Forman, who badly needs to do well in front of his home fans.
First out in the ensuing shootout with all guns blazing, Hahn laid down the law with an absolute shocker - a 2:01.847, which was the first lap this weekend under 2:02s. So convinced was the thrice-champ that he’d locked out pole position that he pitted straightway. Lacko too did a very good lap, but was still four-tenths off.
Reinert lapped third-quickest, ahead of Janiec, Halm, Körber, Lenz, Smith, Kiss, and Forman.
The two lattermost had their times cancelled for knocking over the penalty markers.
A long while after the end of the session Reinert was banished to 10th, all his SuperPole times struck off because of overspeeding.
German MAN pilotess Ellen Lohr had been penalised in qualifying earlier for the same infraction and sent to the end of the 15-truck-strong field.

Impressions:

Sunday in Most Part 1 – Hahn secures his 2nd Pole
Sunday in Most Part 1 – Hahn secures his 2nd Pole
Sunday in Most Part 1 – Hahn secures his 2nd Pole