Sunday in Jarama Part 1 - Hahn is super on pole

02. October 2016Jarama - There was a small controversy yesterday over the result of the first race at this 8th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship on Circuito del Jarama.
It was rumoured that Norbert Kiss (Mercedes-Benz) had been penalised 30 seconds, but the Hungarian started the second race from 5th place in the formation according to his finish in the first, instead of 9th, from which place he actually should have started according to the Final Result.
As the trucks started up for their warm-up laps; the thermometer seemed unwilling to budge from the low double digits.
The racers all adopted a measured pace – understandable if you think of this as a circulation exercise for both, truck and driver. The real workout would come later. For what it’s worth, the Buggyra Freightliner of Adam Lacko (CZE) was quickest.
In qualifying an hour later, seven of the trucks were out for only one flying lap, their drivers certain of a spot in the SuperPole – and they’d need to preserve their tread rubber for that blast, and the two races besides thereafter.
Championship leader Jochen Hahn and Lacko were the first back in the pits, despite knowing they were only 4th and 6th on the timing monitor.
René Reinert (MAN) topped with 1:59.460s, followed by French marquesMAN Anthony Janiec, Kiss (Mercedes), Hahn, Steffi, Lacko, and Sascha Lenz (all MAN). A few minutes later these trucks were standing along pit lane in a tidy row, ready for the next shot at improving their times in the 10-minute SuperPole, when they’d have far fewer trucks in their way. Shortly before the end of Q2 the Buggyra Freightliner of Jiří Forman (CZE) was added to this queue.
Ellen Lohr (GER) in her MAN, Portuguese race-by-race pilot José Rodrigues (Renault), and André Kursim in the second tankpool24 Mercedes continued to slug it out, the trio only three-tenths apart. In the end it was the German cub who came off third-best.
In one hell-for-leather lap in the SuperPole Hahn set the quickest time of the weekend, a 1:57.771. Lacko’s best was two-hundredths slower. All 10 racers likewise set their fastest times on their first flying laps. José Rodrigues’ top lap was struck off shortly before the close for touching a penalty marker. And so the field will start in the following formation behind Hahn and Lacko: Kiss, Reinert, Janiec, Halm, Lenz, Lohr, Forman, and Rodrigues.

Impressions: