Saturday in Most Part 3 – Reinert takes his second win of the season

31. August 2019Most - To get this out of the way: despite a hard-fought win by René Reinert, the man of the race was undoubtedly Sascha Lenz, even if he didn’t finish on the podium.
The MAN pilot started 19th and last as a consequence of his unfortunate DNF in the first race, but ended the race powerfully in P5.
This was Gibbon’s first experience starting from pole, and everyone expected Kursim, alongside him on the grid, to take the lead at the lights. But the Iveco pilot couldn’t build up speed fast enough, making an opening for Reinert, who seized the opportunity and shot ahead of both him and Gibbon into the first corner. Albacete too capitalised on the disarray to overtake the Brit.
Reinert came across the line at the end of the first lap closely followed by
Albacete and Lacko. Gibbon had dropped back and was now in the toils of his heartless pursuers. Kursim was down in P10, while Lenz had already made up seven places to P12.
The battles in midfield had no effect on the leading trio, who pulled out a gap on the rest. Hahn, who initially appeared content to stay at the head of the second group, decided he wanted a piece of the action at the front, and with the fastest lap of the race sprang right up behind Lacko.
Lenz meanwhile found his inexorable advance impeded by a more formidable opposition than he’d faced making it to midfield, and it took him all of six laps to break out into P5. By then, the quartet ahead of him were too far to catch up with. It may have yielded no material compensation for his misfortune in Race 1, but it was an epic drive nonetheless and would have been balm for his spirit.
Everyone meanwhile awaited the great showdown up front – you wouldn’t expect Lacko to be content with a P3 finish in front of his home fans, would you? Hahn for his part held back, in keeping with his strategy this season of diligently scoring in the first race of the day and then taking it easier in the second, picking up as many points as possible without sticking his neck out. Lacko consequently had nothing to fear from behind him, allowing him to concentrate on attacking Albacete. But no matter how loud the partisan spectators’ screams for their local hero, the Spaniard just wasn’t going to give an inch. Getting up close to Reinert, who drove a flawless race, was out of question altogether. P3 it would have to be.
Lenz was followed across the line by Halm, José Rodrigues, Kursim, Janiec, and Gibbon, who managed to hold onto the final FIA point.
The Brit stood atop the Grammer Truck Cup podium, however, where he was joined by Janes and Recuenco. The Spaniard later had to give up his prize because of a time penalty.
Löwen Power (Albacete / Lenz) prevailed in the team classification, followed by „Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ (Hahn / Steffi Halm) and Buggyra Racing 1969 (Lacko / Janes).
At the end of the day Hahn has stretched his championship lead further. He now has 224 points to Albacete’s 149. Lacko is on 145, followed by Halm (126), Kiss (121), Lenz, and Reinert (both 111).

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