Sunday in Jarama Part 3 – Kiss wins to close out the season

06. October 2019Jarama - The concluding race in Jarama was hot from the get-go. Polesitter Reinert had to throw in the towel on the first lap itself because of a loss of power. The way appeared open for Citignola, but he has lots to learn yet about the tender mercies of the top pilots in a weekend’s final race. It wasn’t he, then, but tankpool24 racing teammate Kiss who seized the day. To begin with, the Hungarian had Steffi Halm hitched to his Mercedes, with Hahn playing escort at the rear. But over only a couple of laps Kiss was able to loose himself from the toils of the Iveco teammates, who till then were caught by Albacete. The matador from Madrid clung to „der Bulle“ for all he was worth, but getting past him was out of the question. The Spaniard didn’t really need to get past, as long as Lacko, his only rival for runner-up in the championship, stayed behind him. That certainly was the case now, and the MAN pilot was riding a cushion of six points besides.
Shortly before the finish, Hahn started to get impatient. He overtook Halm and set off in half-hearted pursuit of the Hungarian in the lead.
Albacete didn’t want to risk much either, allowing Halm to take P3 by half a second.
Not long after he’d been passed by Albacete, Citignola came under pressure from Lacko. The two collided and the German slid onto the grass. While teammate Kiss headed for his fourth win of the season, Citignola lost several places. Compounding his misfortune was a 10 second overspeed penalty, which landed him in P13.
Lacko and Lenz meanwhile engaged in some back-and-forth to entertain the crowds. The Czech had as good as lost second place in the championship to Albacete, and the German didn’t want to risk losing P5 to Kiss. He’d held a seven-points advantage going into this last race, and assuming that Kiss won, needed to finish seventh at least, because in the event of a tie the Mercedes pilot would be instated owing to his greatest number of victories. It was pointless to run a risk when he was in no danger in P6, which would translate into to a two-points advantage in the standings.
Lenz was followed home by Kursim, José Rodrigues, MAN pilot Anthony Janiec (FRA), and Dutchman Erwin Kleinnagelvoort (Scania).
The sole Scania pilot in the field took top honours in the Grammer Truck Cup, joined by Brit Oly Janes (Buggyra Freightliner) and MAN pilot José Eduardo Rodrigues (POR).
The final team win of the season went to „Die Bullen von Iveco Magirus“ (Hahn / Steffi Halm) ahead of Löwen Power (Albacete / Lenz) and tankpool24 Racing (Kiss / Citignola).
With 370 points, Jochen Hahn is FIA European champion for 2019. Albacete is runner-up with 268. Lacko is third with 261, followed by Steffi Halm (212), Lenz (192), and Kiss (190).

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