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 and Steffi Halm 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 Halm.
“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 four let in Lukas Hahn for second and Halm for third, the IVECO-powered pair separated by 1.827s at the finish.
Chrome winner 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 demoted the six-time FIA ETRC champion to sixth behind Albacete and Sascha Lenz, who finished fifth.
José Eduardo Rodrigues placed seventh with René Reinert securing pole position for the partially-reverse-grid Race 2 in eighth.
Having started a Goodyear FIA ETRC career-best fifth, Bradley Smith had to settle for ninth overall after he suffered opening-lap contact aboard his ex-Albacete MAN. Second place in the Chrome category ahead of reigning champion Mark Taylor provided at least some consolation for the Briton.
John Newell, Jonathan André, Steffen Faas, Stefan Kursch, Clemens Hecker and Luke Garett completed the finishers with Garrett’s efforts to recover from a trip through the gravel at T10 hampered by a shock absorber issue.
Click HERE for live timing and results. Race 2, which is set to get under way at 17:50 local time, will be streamed live on YouTube.
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