KISS STILL THE QUALIFYING KING AFTER SUMMER BREAK
Norbert Kiss has resumed his championship campaign back on top, claiming the first pole position of the Czech Truck Prix weekend.
In a session where the rain threatened to fall at the start, Kiss was still the man to catch as the 15 trucks for this weekend filtered onto the track. The early pace was dictated by the Hungarian, putting in a 2:01.626 as the fastest time to beat.
Jochen Hahn stepped up as Kiss’ closest rival, getting within the reigning Champion’s time by six-tenths of a second in qualifying and four-tenths of a second in Super Pole. The old rivals will line up next to each other tomorrow morning for the first race of the weekend.
Antonio Albacete will start right behind his two championship rivals, third on the grid. He had a close battle with Steffi Halm and Jamie Anderson for third, managing to keep the edge on them in Super Pole come the chequered flag.
Anderson will line up fourth beside the Spaniard, but it was Promoter’s Cup and race-by-race entry Lukas Hahn, who managed to beat Halm to fifth, taking the position by just over a tenth of a second. Hahn took yet another Promoter’s Cup pole, denying current class leader José Eduardo Rodrigues the additional points.
Sascha Lenz had a difficult session, starting seventh tomorrow but off the pace of his fellow championship contenders. He will be looking to move through the field quickly and be into the podium fight in the first few laps of tomorrow’s Race 1.
Adam Lacko made it into Super Pole on his return to the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship as a race-by-race entry, and will line up eighth next to Lenz tomorrow morning.
The Promoter’s Cup duo of Rodrigues and Mark Taylor completed the Super Pole top ten, taking ninth and tenth respectively.
Steffen Faas just missed out on a Super Pole appearance, four-tenths off Lacko’s P10 pace at the chequered flag of qualifying. The German had had a lap time deleted due to a track limits infringement that lost him a fast lap time and, arguably, cost him a Super Pole appearance. Starting 11th, he’s not too far from his Promoter’s Cup rival Rodrigues in ninth, and will be looking to put the Portuguese driver behind him as soon as possible.
André Kursim also had a qualifying to forget, unable to make it into Super Pole and will start 12th on the grid alongside Faas. The sixth row of the grid will be one to watch in Race 1 as both drivers look to progress up the field. Both Faas and Kursim also made changes to their trucks, losing practice time earlier in the day – a new turbo for Faas and a new engine for Kursim.
Luis Recuenco, Clemens Hecker and John Newell complete the starting grid, with all 15 trucks having a clean qualifying session.
Race 1 gets underway at 11:35 tomorrow morning, with the reverse grid Race 2 taking place at 15:30.
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