Record sub-1m53s lap puts Kiss on Goodyear FIA ETRC pole
Hungarian hero Norbert Kiss made it six pole positions out of six in the 2026 Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship with a qualifying record lap of 1m52.926s.
Beating his new benchmark time of 1m53.353s, set during first qualifying on Friday, MAN-driving Kiss will start Race 3 of the Int. Shell ADAC Truck-Grand-Prix weekend at the front of field with IVECO-powered German racer Jochen Hahn set to line up alongside.
And with Kiss and Hahn having won 13 Goodyear FIA ETRC titles between them, a thrilling contest is in store when Race 3 takes place at 11:55 local time live on YouTube.
The three-phase second qualifying took place two hours earlier than Friday’s first pole chase, which Kiss acknowledged had been a factor in his flying performance for Révész Racing.
“The earlier the qualifying is in the morning, the cooler it is and the faster we can go,” he said. “For sure it’s temperature related and my time in Q5 was faster than in Q6. My Q6 lap was maybe not as good because the temperature was rising rapidly. For sure we will not see these times in the races, but it’s okay, a good job from Révész Racing and a good gap so I’m happy.
“We haven’t changed anything in the set-up, just normal maintenance and I don’t think that makes it faster, but maybe!”
Behind Jochen Hahn, local racer Sascha Lenz went third quickest ahead of Antonio Albacete. René Reinert, the winner of Race 2 on Saturday, also made it through to the Q6 shootout and set the fifth fastest time followed by José Eduardo Rodrigues.
Mark Taylor hit back from his Saturday over-speeding issues, which were caused by a technical fault, to set the pace among the Chrome drivers. Lukas Hahn was second fastest in the category for drivers with less experience and top results with John Newell next up.
“It was better than yesterday,” said defending Chrome champion Taylor. “After the issues with the tacho everyone has worked hard to get it working and now, we’ve pushed hard and qualified well. Hopefully we can keep it up for the rest of the day and keep out of trouble and get some points back from the race that we’ve lost. There could be more you can do but what we’ve done is the best time we’ve done here. There’s always room for improvement but everyone’s happy with it.”
How the battle for Goodyear FIA ETRC pole position unfolded
A lap of 1m53.353s ensured that Norbert Kiss set the Q4 pace ahead of Antonio Albacete and Race 2 winner René Reinert.
Sascha Lenz, Jochen Hahn and Steffi Halm were next with Mark Taylor, José Eduardo Rodrigues and Lukas Hahn following. John Newell completed the top 10 with Adam Lacko and Bradley Smith the final two drivers to make the cut for Q5, ending the 15-minute session in 11th and 12th respectively as 0.988s covered the top 12.
Jonathan André was the first driver to miss out on a place in Q5 with the Frenchman, who was 13th quickest, joined by Luis Recuenco, Clemens Hecker, Luke Garrett, Stefan Kursch and Emma Mäkinen, while Steffen Faas was unable to take part in second qualifying due to a technical issue but has been given permission by the FIA-appointed stewards to start Race 3 from the back of the grid.
Kiss was quickest again in Q5, albeit with a sub-1m53s lap of 1m52.795s, while Albacete, Lenz, Jochen Hahn, Reinert and Rodrigues also progressed to the Q6 pole position shootout at the expense of top Chrome category contender Taylor, Lukas Hahn, Halm, Newell, Lacko and Smith.
Having ended Qualifying 1-2-3 with a best run of 1m53.327s, Kiss secured pole position for Race 3 in a time of 1m52.926s. German drivers Jochen Hahn and Lenz were next up with Albacete fourth, just 0.685s down on Kiss. Reinert and Rodrigues were fifth and sixth fastest respectively.
The Goodyear FIA ETRC track action resumes with Race 3 from 11:55 and Race 4 following at 16:05. Both races are scheduled for 12 laps and will be live on YouTube. Click HERE for live timing and follow the Sportity app using the password: FIA_ETRC_26 for results.
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