The second day of racing at Most delivered thrilling action as Norbert Kiss clinched his 15th win of the season. The day also marked a historic moment for José Eduardo Rodrigues, who secured his first-ever overall victory in the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship.
RACE 3
Norbert Kiss secured his 15th win of the season, but unlike the other 14, this did not come as easily to the Hungarian. Jochen Hahn learnt from yesterday and never allowed Kiss to get away from him as they led the field into the first corner. Kiss still came out with the advantage, but staying on his rear bumper Hahn made sure to stay within striking distance of the reigning champion.
It came to no avail, but the tight battle kept Kiss on his toes and forced him to push a little harder than he would have expected to as the lights went green.
“Hahn did a good job because he improved a lot compared to yesterday.” Kiss said in his post-race interview. “The pace was very fast because we were doing 2m02s, mid, I don’t think we even did a 2m03s in the whole race, which is a very fast pace, and he was following me really close in the whole race so I had to really put myself and the truck to the limit to try and stay in front with a little bit of a gap so he cannot try an overtaking manoeuvre.”
Hahn added: “It is close, but I don’t know if he had a technical problem or not or if he played with me. In this race, we were on the same level and we had a fight for the win. You sit in the truck and you think ‘oh, it’s possible’. And you push, and you push, and you push, and when I look at my lap times, it’s more than half a second faster than yesterday.
“It means we improved but also you improve your head in this moment, it’s like a motivation. It’s a thank you to the team for their hard work.”
Behind the leading pair, Sascha Lenz made quick work of Race Two winner Antonio Albacete, moving up to third, a position he would hold onto for the rest of the race.
RACE 4
A brilliant move on Mark Taylor into the first corner has given José Eduardo Rodrigues his first overall victory in the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship, making it two Chrome wins in the day and extending his championship lead on the chasing pack.
Starting from third on the grid after finishing Race Three sixth, eyes had been on Steffi Halm and Taylor on the front row as to who would come out on top. Halm was looking to recuperate from her slow and steady start to the day, another overall win in her sights.
But a bad start saw Taylor putting her under pressure as they raced towards the first corner, lining up the inside line to get the pounce on the Titan driver. So focused on defending the Brit, neither of them saw Rodrigues advancing on the outside, looking for the switchback into Turn 2. Albeit not managing to make the leap into the lead, with Halm going a little wide he was able to follow Taylor through into second, not allowing his closest Chrome rival to disappear down the track.
It didn’t take long for Rodrigues to line Taylor up, making it look too easy as he dispatched his rival.
Slightly further back, Norbert Kiss had been boxed by Jochen Hahn off the start, unable to make any positions up going into Turn 1. The German did everything he could to keep his championship rival behind as the pair moved through the field, Sascha Lenz hanging onto Kiss’ rear bumper to also make progress through the field. It was slow progress for the trio, but after a tight pass on André Kursim that dropped Lenz off their train of attack, they were lining up a pass on Albacete.
Albacete, however, was not ready to give up the position lightly, and defended hard against Hahn. The pair came together, light contact seeing Albacete pitched off the circuit and Hahn losing positions on track, allowing Kiss to get past the pair with little drama. Hahn managed to get back behind Kiss, but the incident saw Albacete dropped down the field behind Lenz and Kursim.
With just Chrome drivers in front of him, Kiss made driving to his 20th podium of the season look like child’s place, securing second due to Rodrigues’ five second lead on Taylor when Kiss inherited the position. Hahn was also able to pass the Brit, taking third on the overall podium and causing Taylor to just miss out on his first overall appearance.
Kiss and Albacete dominate Saturday races at Autodrom Most
The return to racing after the summer break brought thrilling action, with Norbert Kiss clinching his 14th victory of the season in Race 1. Antonio Albacete dominated Race 2, leading from start to finish to claim his second win of the season.
RACE 1
Norbert Kiss avoided early race contact to take his 14th victory of the season whilst Mark Taylor managed a perfect lights-to-flag Chrome class win.
All had been looking for another Kiss versus Jochen Hahn drag to the first corner as lights went green for the first race at Most this weekend, when it almost came to a quick conclusion for the championship leaders. Just behind, André Kursim found himself up on three wheels as contact with Sascha Lenz on the inside pitched the truck up. The incident saw Kursim dashing across the gravel trap at Turn 1, looking to be pitching straight back on track to where Kiss was making progress down towards Turn 3. Some expert control saw the German manage to bring the truck to a safe slowdown, avoiding making contact with anyone as he rejoined the pack.
After nearly having his race ended before it began, Kiss drove on to complete another textbook victory, adding to his points total and championship lead ahead of second-placed Hahn. Lenz recovered from the early incident with Kursim, deemed a racing incident by the stewards, to take another third-place finish.
RACE 2
Antonio Albacete made the race look easy as he dropped second-placed John Newell off the line. By the end of the first lap the rest of the grid were dots in his rearview, and although Jochen Hahn would do everything he could to move through the grid from seventh to chase down the Spainard, it wasn’t enough to deny Albacete his second win of the year.
In Norbert Kiss style, Hahn moved up the field from his reverse grid position with ease, at one point looking like he would reel Albacete in before the chequered flag. The pace of the Team Hahn Racing truck was superior to the T Sport Bernau, but Albacete had given himself enough of an advantage to negate the deficit.
Steffi Halm and Sascha Lenz did all they could to keep Kiss off the podium for the second time today, but his late braking into Turn 1 got both of them in successive laps. Lenz and Halm had tried to hold the outside line into Turn 1, having the switchback to the inside line for Turn 2, but Kiss’ braking did enough to stop that defensive play from acting out.
The successive overtakes saw him finish third ahead of Halm and Lenz.