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Saturday in Jarama Part 1 – Pole for Lacko

Saturday in Jarama Part 1 – Pole for Lacko

01. October 2016Jarama - The skies were clear as the race trucks rolled out onto the track this morning for the first free practice at this 8th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on Circuito del Jarama, but it was still chill at 12°C. In the hills around Madrid the nights tend to get real cool indeed.
The weather apart, “cool” also described how the 21 racers went about their fam laps. All eyes were initially on the three generations of the truckrace-crazy Rodrigues family from Portugal. While José Fernando Araujo, who’s been racing his Renault for Team 14 this season in the French national championship, dug the spurs in, his father Eduardo and son José Eduardo drove their MANs at a more relaxed pace.
The quickest in the session were the two title contenders, German Jochen Hahn (MAN) and Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner), even though they clearly weren’t going flat out. None of the rest was closer than a second and a half off their pace; it looked somehow like everyone was restraining themselves a bit – as if their whole and sole focus was on qualifying to come.
It was 25° in the shade and in the mid-30s in the sun when that began. Now there was no more holding back, and the lap times duly tumbled. Hahn was in stunning form with 1:57.800s, a full second faster than Lacko. Remember, though, that what really matters here is to set a time within the Top 10 – the gloves really come off in the SuperPole that follows.
The two leaders were loping back up pit lane after a single flying lap each. MAN pilots Anthony Janiec (FRA) and René Reinert (GER) did likewise, even if their times weren’t anywhere close. Joining them were Hungarian Norbert Kiss (Mercedes-Benz), Germans Sascha Lenz and Steffi Halm (both MAN), and Buggyra pilot Jiří Forman (CZE). A little later Ellen Lohr (GER) too was in with her MAN.
Two minutes before the close, Czech Frankie Vojtíšek (MAN) shot up to 8th, and Forman and Lohr were now in danger of dropping out of the Top 10. The MAN pilotess had, as a precaution, already proceeded back out onto the track, to be in a position to counter if necessary.
Meanwhile Eduardo Rodrigues and Lohr’s compatriot André Kursim in his tankpool24 Mercedes were doing their best to make it... but all their effort was in vain.
After a five-minute break it was time for the shootout.
While most of the Top 10 were able to improve their times from Q1, Hahn was one of the few who actually went slower than he’d gone only a few minutes before. That allowed Lacko to lasso pole with a 1:57.953. Hahn was only a tenth slower, but nowhere close to his Q1 time, which would clearly have put him in pole.
Kiss took third spot on the grid, ahead of Reinert, Halm, Lenz, Janiec, Lohr, Vojtíšek, and Forman.

Impressions:

Saturday in Jarama Part 1 – Pole for Lacko
Saturday in Jarama Part 1 – Pole for Lacko
Saturday in Jarama Part 1 – Pole for Lacko