ALBACETE TAKES FIRST WIN SINCE 2019
Antonio Albacete took the second victory of the weekend at Misano World Circuit after passing René Reinert for the lead of the race at the halfway point.
Reinert had driven a great race, and would go on to perform some brilliant defensive driving in the latter half of the 12 laps, but Albacete’s pace was too much to keep behind.
The start was clean for most of the grid, with Reinert looking like he was going to disappear off down the road. Steffi Halm and Téo Calvet gave him some extra breathing space when the pair came together. Calvet, starting third, went for an opportunist move down the inside of Turn 4, but outbroke himself, instead driving straight into the side of Halm.
Both trucks continued, having sustained damage, but Halm lost out most, dropping to seventh on the grid whilst Calvet held onto fourth. The Frenchman was handed a five-second penalty for causing a collision, making it a damage limitation race for the young driver rather than looking for his second overall podium.
Due to the contact, both Albacete and Sascha Lenz made up positions, finding themselves on the podium by the end of the first lap. Slowly but surely the pair reeled Reinert in, both of them making the pass around the midway point of the race. Albacete took the lead whilst Lenz claimed second, and even though he tried his hardest, Albacete had enough pace to keep him behind until the chequered flag.
Reinert did all he could to hang onto third on track, but with both Norbert Kiss and Jochen Hahn bearing down on him, the pressure was immense. He did a great job until lap ten of keeping the pair behind, making his IVECO truck as wide as possible.
Kiss broke late into the first corner to try and sneak up the inside of Reinert on lap ten, but Reinert made him go the long way around, pushing him out wide. The battle saw Kiss off the track collecting penalty markers through Turn 2, but the corner complex moved from a left hander to right, giving Kiss the advantage and inside line going into Turn 3. With Kiss unafraid to get his elbows out after the prior corner contact, Reinert went wide into Turn 3, allowing Hahn through as well to drop to fifth.
Halm recovered slightly to a comfortable sixth with Andre Kursim a distance eighth seconds behind her for seventh. It was a strong drive from Kursim who, after starting 1on the grid thanks to Race 1 penalties, made a great recovery into the points. Anthony Janiec, Calvet and Shane Brereton rounded off the top ten on the track.
However, due to contact with Halm at the start of the race, Calvet was demoted to P11 in the final standings, giving the Promoter’s Cup victory to Brereton and second in class to Steffen Faas. He managed to hold onto third thanks to Jamie Anderson being seven seconds behind him at the chequered flag.
Jose Rodrigues crossed the line 13th, with Thomas Robineau 14th after having to pit to fix a black smoke issue, losing him about 40 seconds on the rest of the field.
After being in a tight fight for the lead at the start, Adam Lacko was forced to retire after contact with Reinert caused something in his steering to break. Lacko made the bold move around Reinert, outbraking himself to make contact rather than the pass. Hecker was the only other driver not to finish Race 2 as he never took to the start, garage bound by a fuel leak.
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