Hungaroring Preliminary Report
19. June 2019The second round of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship comes round this weekend, and it will take place at the Hungaroring near Budapest. The activities begin just before noon Friday with the truck racers taxiing VIPs and journalists around the track over two hour-long sessions, followed by an hour of supplementary free practice and 30 minutes of regulation free practice. That’s a whopping 210 minutes – three and a half hours – of track time, with the half-hour briefing in between, far more than a normal day’s work for a truck racer. But then the 21st of June is the longest day of the year, and the rigour should prepare them adequately for the weekend at the Slovakia Ring a fortnight later, where they’ll be at work even longer, starting the Friday with the VIP and press rides at 10 am and calling it a day only at 7:30 pm – after 220 minutes on the track.
Back to Hungary, though, and a circuit you’d be forgiven for calling Norbi-land. Even if the tankpool24 Racing ace’s fans aren’t as euphoric as in 2015, when the FIA European Truck Racing Championship returned to Hungary after an eternity, and Kiss was headed for his second title in succession, the home hero is permanently under the spotlight here, like a pop star.
At the season-opener in Misano he demonstrated outstanding speed and control in the rain – and there’s quite a bit of that in the offing this weekend, though the local forecasts tend to contradict one another, predicting anything from summer-as-usual to severe thunderstorms.
On paper – and in the standings after Round 1 – the title favourites remain unchanged: Jochen Hahn (GER), in the 2018 championship-winning Iveco, trails Czech Buggyra pilot Adam Lacko in the all-new golden-jubilee Fat Fox by all of two points.
But Misano should have made it clear to the two pilots who have dominated the last three seasons that 2019 is going to be anything but a walk in the park. Not only is Norbi back with a bang; the Löwen Power duo of Spaniard Antonio Albacete and German Sascha Lenz aren’t too far behind either. The two MAN pilots have made it their mission to battle Iveco’s „Bullen“, Hahn and Steffi Halm, all the way for the prize of the team championship.
Sixteen trucks will take to the field in Hungary. Seven of them – the strongest contingent – are MANs. Four Ivecos, three Mercedes-Benz, and two Freightliners make up the rest.
Impressions:
