Misano This and That
01. June 2017The second round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship at the Misano World Circuit was bathed in the glorious early-summer sunshine that draws holidaymakers in their many thousands to Italy’s Adriatic coast at this time of year. This weekend, we admit, the weather across Europe has been equally splendid.
The 40,000 spectators and the ETRC circus thoroughly enjoyed the weather, but all couldn’t say the same for the racing – a rather frustrated Jochen Hahn for one. “It’s never looked good [for me] in Misano – never managed a great score here,” he groused. Truth is, the bantam from Altensteig hasn’t fared all that badly here in past years – there’ve been some weekends the quadruple champ has come away from with fewer points. But to finish with only 21 out a possible maximum of 60 was a disappointment not only for the Iveco pilot but also his entire team, not least because engine reliability problems prevented him from starting Race 4 – which, owing to his pole position, would almost certainly have led to a win and an additional 10 points.
The outstanding performance by Czech Adam Lacko – 58 out of 60 – led some observers to go as far as to declare Lacko the master of Misano. Again, the fact is Hahn – before Lacko moved to Buggyra in 2014 – was always the higher scorer here, and the Czech’s advantage since then has been marginal at best.
So a poor performance as far as optics go, at least by Team Hahn’s ambitious standards, even if the real reason for his unsatisfactory score was a serious technical problem that couldn’t be solved on site. But the season has only just begun, and there’s ample time till the next round at the Nürburgring for the engineers responsible to get onto it – and get it out of the way.
Despite all the hype around the Hahn/Lacko rivalry, Steffi Halm emerged as the biggest star in the paddock. Wherever the young German was spotted you’d hear cries of “Steffi! Steffi!” from the Italian fans. Reinert Racing’s power girl finished thrice on the podium in her MAN-in-blue and reinforced her second place in the standings with a haul of 40 points.
Less spectacular was Spaniard Albacete’s stealthy advance. The MAN regular finished every race in the top four, a solid showing that’s lifted him to fourth.
Misano is one of Hungarian Norbert Kiss’s favourite circuits and the scene of some of his greatest ETRC exploits. But his advance up the Race 2 field a bit more vehemently than was acceptable to the stewards cost the Mercedes pilot six points.
Gerd Körber, the second Iveco pilot, had to be content with 21 points, just like his teammate Hahn. „Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ were joined in the Club of 21 by their fast-rising compatriot Sascha Lenz. Had you suggested to the MAN pilot before the season that he would win 21 points at the Misano World Circuit, he’d have called you crazy. But after the final race there was actually an air of disappointment in the Lenz marquee. The youngster had been on course for podium finishes in Races 2 and 4, but was tossed down the field on both occasions for no fault of his. Later Sunday evening, however, he’d recovered his humour: “Who’d have thought that I would pick up just as many points here as the reigning champion?”
An interval of five weeks till the Truck Grand Prix is somewhat extraordinary. For those outfits that left Misano less than satisfied with their performance, that’s time enough for exhaustive root cause analyses. Even the biggest winners of the weekend, Adam Lacko and his Buggyra team, won’t be taking things easy. After all, the #33 Freightliner that David Vršecký’s replacement Enes Draganovic drove in Misano had to be worked on the entire Saturday so that it couldn’t once go out and race. It could as well have been Lacko’s #55 Fatfox.
Impressions:
