Race 1 flash report: Kiss wins Goodyear FIA ETRC opener
Norbert Kiss has won the opening round of the 2026 Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship, beating Lukas Hahn to first place at Misano World Circuit.
The reigning European champion made the perfect start from pole position to lead throughout the 12-lap contest, as Hahn added the Chrome category victory to his overall runner-up spot ahead of Sascha Lenz after Halm was demoted to 14th when time penalties were applied for penalty marker infringements.
“It was a good start and I was already ahead in the first combination,” MAN-powered Révész Racing driver Kiss said. “I had a good pace and also they started to fight behind me, so they slowed each other down a bit, and the gap was soon pretty big. I’m very happy, it was a good start of the season. It was hot out there and you have to be a bit careful how you drive. Everything was okay, I think the heat was worse for me than for my tyres.”
Antonio Albacete overtook Hahn for second place at the start and was fending off Hahn’s father Jochen as Hahn Jr slipped to fourth. But contact between Albacete and Jochen Hahn at Quercia (Turn 8) on lap five let in Lukas Hahn for second and Halm for third, the IVECO-powered pair separated by 1.827s at the finish before Halm was penalised.
Chrome winner Lukas Hahn said: “I think it's the best position what I ever get and I’m so happy and really proud also of my team and my partners, I can’t imagine it before. Antonio passed me and Jochen also later. Then I see they are fighting each other and sometimes the third one is just waiting and it was like that. In the end we need to manage the truck because the track was really hot, but I handled it pretty good. There was not so much pressure from Steffi, so all was fine.”
Jochen Hahn crossed the line in fourth but a five-second penalty for the incident with Albacete put the six-time FIA ETRC champion back in sixth behind Albacete and Sascha Lenz, who finished fifth prior to the post-race results changes.
These left Lenz third, Jochen Hahn fourth after all and José Eduardo Rodrigues fifth. Stefan Kursch moved up to sixth, Steffen Faas to seventh but Albacete down to eighth. John Newell and Jonathan André rounded out the top 10.
René Reinert finished Race 1 eighth on the road for what he thought would be pole position for the partially-reverse-grid Race 2. But a time penalty dropped him to 11th.
Mark Taylor, the 2025 Goodyear ETRC Chrome champion, was classified 12th with Luke Garrett in 13th after his efforts to recover from a trip through the gravel at T10 were hampered by a shock absorber issue. The penalised Halm and Bradley Smith were 14th and 15th respectively as Clemens Hecker finished 16th only to be subsequently disqualified for a technical infringement.
Click HERE for live timing and provisional results. Race 2, which is set to get under way at 17:50 local time, will be streamed live on YouTube.
.jpg)
.jpg)
