Taylor hits back but Kiss still the King of the Ring in Goodyear FIA ETRC
Mark Taylor bounced back from his Saturday struggles to top the Chrome category order in Race 3 of the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship at the Nürburgring as Norbert Kiss took his second outright win of the weekend.
After a technical issue affecting his truck’s tachometer resulted in his exclusion from Race 2, the defending Chrome champion responded by taking the class victory in fifth overall, his second of the Goodyear FIA ETRC event. Bradley Smith and John Newell joined Taylor on the Chrome podium in second and third respectively following another action-packed 12-lap contest.
“I had a good start, there was no trouble in front, I just managed a good, clean race and that’s how I like them, let the battling happen behind us,” said MAN-powered British driver Taylor. “I got José [Eduardo Rodrigues] at the start and, after that, it was a nice, clean and easy run, a good Sunday morning drive. The team’s hard work has paid off, we had no trouble.”
As well as finishing second in the Chrome category, Smith is set to line up on the front row of the grid for Race 4 after he finished seventh overall behind Rodrigues. Adam Lacko, the 2017 champion who is making his Goodyear FIA ETRC comeback this weekend, finished eighth overall to secure pole position for the final race of the Int. Shell ADAC Truck-Grand-Prix weekend.
Smith, who banked his first Chrome win of the season in Race 2 yesterday, said: “Another podium starting P4 in Chrome and coming through to P2. I managed to stay out of trouble at Turn 2, got through and held it from there. It’s the front row for Race 4, we’re not too far off the pace so we’ll see what we can do.”
Newell was the third-fastest Chrome qualifier but dropped back on the opening lap taking avoiding action, before he was able to recover to third in class for an all-British podium.
“Lukas and Steffi come into each other and spun in front of me, so I had to go round the outside and lost four or five places and then got four back I think,” Newell explained. “It was a good race and I enjoyed it, you can’t expect much more than where we finished.”
In the battle for the overall victory, Hungarian Norbert Kiss converted his sixth pole position of the 2026 Goodyear FIA ETRC season into another comfortable win in Germany ahead of home hero Jochen Hahn and Spaniard Antonio Albacete, with local driver Sascha Lenz fourth.
After going unchallenged throughout the 12-lap contest, MAN-powered Kiss was able to celebrate victory number nine of the year.
“It was a good race, a good start but Jochen was very close, but not close enough to try something,” Kiss said. “In the middle sector I could start to pull away a little bit and start to build the gap. I could see they couldn’t really keep up, so it was a good race and a good performance. A very nice job from Révész Racing, the truck works very well, the balance is really nice, so a big thank you for the team, it was a good victory.”
Hahn said: “I’m still happy but we must do something [to stop Kiss], that’s the target. But we are here in Germany, we’re on the podium so it’s still good but we must do something.”
T Sport Bernau driver Albacete added: “I make another good start and managed to hold Sascha, so I was in third place. And then I try for this guy [Hahn] to make a mistake, I push, I push all the laps to see if I can get him. I think we have very much the same pace and I’m happy with the race.”
Steffi Halm’s hopes of back-to-back podiums ended when she retired with significant damage following contact with Lukas Hahn at Turn 2 on the opening lap. Hahn, who applied pressure on Adam Lacko during the closing stages, pitted on the final lap but was classified 10th overall and fourth in Chrome.
Jonathan André’s truck also sported sizeable cosmetic damage after a clash with Stefan Kursch on lap one. The Frenchman finished 11th with Race 2 winner René Reinert dropping to 12th after he served a drive-through penalty for over-speeding.
Luke Garrett placed 13th with Steffen Faas 14th from the back of the grid after a mechanical problem prevented him from taking part in second qualifying this morning.
Emma Mäkinen, Luis Recuenco and Kursch were the remaining finishers, but Clemens Hecker joined Halm on the list of drivers who retired.
Race 4 provides the final Goodyear FIA ETRC track action from 16:05. Scheduled for 12 laps, the race will be live on YouTube. Click HERE for live timing and follow the Sportity app using the password: FIA_ETRC_26 for results.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
