ANDERSON VICTORIOUS IN LAST CORNER DIVE
Jamie Anderson had spectators on the edge of their seats for the last corner of Race Two, stealing a hard fought victory from Lukas Hahn.
In a race where Lukas Hahn had looked like he was going to repeat his Nurburgring feat, it was Jamie Anderson, who robbed him of his second race win in a final corner move.
Having lined up an attack on the inside of Turn 16, it had looked like Anderson and Hahn were going to race to the line for a photo finish. However, as they both battled hard, contact was made between the pair, pushing Hahn out onto the gravel. He managed to keep control of the #22, but Adam Lacko took the opportunity to make the move doubly painful, demoting the had been leader to third.
The incident between Anderson and Hahn went under investigation, but it was deemed no further actions was to be taken, giving the British driver Promoter’s Cup and Overall victory in dramatic style.
The overall podium from Race One – Norbert Kiss, Jochen Hahn and Sascha Lenz – made steady progress throughout the 11 uninterrupted laps of racing, but never looked in with a chance for threatening the podium, finishing 3.3 seconds further down the track. Kiss once again extended his championship lead with fourth, but the fighting behind him caused a post race penalty, dropping Lenz out of the points (Hahn promoted up to fifth from sixth).
Shane Brereton completed the Promoter’s Cup podium in overall sixth, ahead of a recovering Antonio Albacete. Between the two races, the Goodyear FIA ETRC paddock showed great #OneTruckFamily spirit, as mechanics up and down the grid pitched in to help T Sport Bernau completely change the engine of the #23 after the fire that saw it retire from Race One. Starting from the back of the grid with only the grid laps and formation lap to run in the new engine, Albacete did a superb job to finish seventh overall.
Steffan Faas also had a great comeback in Race Two, finishing eighth overall ahead of José Rodrigues, who completed the top ten on track after spinning out of second going straight across the gravel at Turn 1.
Téo Calvet suffered a late race tyre blow out that saw him drop to the back of the grid. A close overtake by Lenz on Calvet caused the damage, but Calvet had tried to hold onto the seventh place and third in Promoter’s that he had been on par for. It wasn’t to be as the tyre blew out in dramatic fashion, putting more debris on the track. This contact with Calvet is what earned Lenz his drive through penalty, converted into a 30s penalty added post race. Calvet still remained outside of the points, even with the German dropping down the order, as it was Andre Kursim who benefitted to move up to tenth.
The Most weekend doesn’t seem to be the one for Steffi Halm, who had another torrid race. This one, however, ended after only a couple of laps as Jonathan André when wide in Turn 1, getting into the gravel trap, and made contact with Halm as he rejoined. Both of them retired after the incident, being the only two not to finish.