Friday in Most

01. September 2017Most - The 6th round of the FIA European Championship at Autodrom Most marks the 25th anniversary of FIA truck racing at this storied circuit in the Czech Republic. The occasion surely deserves better weather, the kind that prevailed in the west of Czechia only a few days ago. Instead, what we’ve had today is only continuous rain and 13° chill, and ambient and track conditions that are the exact opposite of what the teams and drivers experienced at the Hungaroring not even a week ago.
This is very likely why not all of the race trucks came out for the VIP and press rides and, consequently, for the one hour of supplementary practice on the slippery circuit – this allowance is only for those drivers who’ve volunteered to give the taxi rides. (Only 11 of the 18 entries were seen on the track.)
The forecasts predict a let-up in the rain on both race days, so many will have questioned the utility of one hour of training in such conditions as obtained. Others will have wanted to avoid any big risks, and – if they went out at all – taken it real easy on the track. And so the spread between individual lap times was rather large.
Norbert Kiss (Mercedes) was quickest in 2:21.838 – that’s 20 seconds slower than Jochen Hahn (GER) took last year. Even so, the Hungarian was more than two seconds quicker than Hahn in his Iveco, which should give you a clearer picture of the situation out on the track.
It wasn’t raining quite as heavily when the first free practice session kicked off in the late afternoon, and the other drivers started crowding closer to the duo on the timing monitor as the lap times progressively dropped. Home hero Adam Lacko was quickest in his Buggyra Freightliner with a time of 2:18.618, followed by Hahn around two tenths slower.
Soon after, the race trucks took off on the parade into the Most town centre where, sheltered in tents, the pilots cheerfully signed autographs for the hundreds of eager fans.

Impressions: