European Truck Racing / Truck Race Information Service

Sunday in Le Mans Part 1 – Lenz stuns with his first Super Pole

24. September 2017Le Mans - The sky’s still clear on Sunday morning at this 8th round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship in Le Mans. It’s considerably warmer than it was yesterday, the track surface doesn’t appear as slippery, and the warm-up laps at a quarter past eight were faster than in free practice the same time yesterday.
Hungarian Norbert Kiss was quickest in his tankpool24 Mercedes with a 2:06.398, but Czech Adam Lacko (Buggyra Freightliner) and the two German MAN pilots Steffi Halm and Sascha Lenz were right up there as well.
It was around 16°C when the FIA entries spilled out for qualifying an hour later, and the asphalt appeared to offer even better grip.
With her 2:05.092 Steffi Halm came closest to the 2:04 mark, with Kiss only two tenths slower. Iveco pilot Jochen Hahn (GER), Lacko, Lenz, Gerd Körber (Iveco), and Czech David Vršecký rejoined them in pit lane after a single flying lap apiece, sure of their positions in the Top 10. The last three slots for the Super Pole remained open as Portuguese José Rodrigues, Brit Shane Brereton (both MAN), the second tankpool24 pilot André Kursim (Mercedes), and Spanish thrice European champion Antonio Albacete (MAN) continued their race against the clock. Albacete clearly had problems with his truck, and after his only fast lap was cancelled he found himself not only out of the Super Pole but, indeed, at the very bottom of the timing monitor, which means he’ll have to start last.
After a five minute interval the shootout began, and the times dropped precipitously. Lacko drove a 2:04.875, Kiss was five hundredths slower, Lenz was a tenth further off, and Steffi Halm two tenths down on her teammate.
Following a cooling-off lap the truck racers were back on full throttle. This time there was a shock result for the entire competition – from Sascha Lenz. His
2:04.783 was a tenth faster than Lacko’s best – an emphatic declaration to truck racing’s premier league that the young German privateer has arrived. It also proved that his Super Pole time yesterday, the first sub-2:04 by anybody this weekend, was no coincidence, even if he was stripped of it subsequently for knocking over a corner marker.
The polesitter will have Lacko alongside for the start. Kiss and Hahn, Halm and Vršecký, José Rodrigues and Körber, and Brereton and Kursim will start behind them, on Rows 2 through 5.