EIGHTH POLE FOR KISS, SECOND FOR RECUENCO
Norbert Kiss has secured his eighth pole position of 2025 as Luis Recuenco has taken his second Chrome pole of the season.
Kiss was once again on another level, topping the timing screen throughout Q1, Q2 and Q3. His three purple sectors in his final flying lap saw him set the benchmark with a 2:00.827. The other competitors tried, but no one could get close, Jochen Hahn in P2 exactly half a second off the time. It’ll be all about trying to get ahead into Turn 1 for Hahn who will line up beside Kiss for Race 3.
Sascha Lenz was the only driver to get two flying laps in Q3, Steffi Halm pushing for a second but just missing out on the chequered flag. Lenz didn’t find any improvements and couldn’t better his P3 starting position. He will share the second row with Antonio Albacete. Off the back of his Race 2 victory, José Eduardo Rodrigues looks to have found an extra bit of pace around the Autodrom Most, securing P5 ahead of Halm for the penultimate race of the weekend.
It was a tough session for René Reinert who missed out on Q3 by 0.099s. For a good period of Q2, he was outpaced by some of the Chrome competitors and looked like he might be starting in the mix towards the back of the grid. His final lap saw him jump Chrome pole sitter Recuenco, but there is still some work to do on the #77 Reinert Racing truck to find the pace that seemed to be lost during Race 2 yesterday.
It's only the second time this season Recuenco has claimed Chrome pole position. He looked on it from the start of the session, only missing out on a Q3 appearance by a tenth of a second. Unlike Reinert, Race 2 seems to have unlock the pace for Recuenco, who has been a favourite in the Chrome class this weekend. Still searching for his first class win of the season, Recuenco would love to convert his pole to P1 in class at the Race 3 chequered flag.
Mark Taylor, returning to the track action after missing out on action yesterday after a tension rod failure heavily damaged his truck, also had a bit of a difficult qualifying. He led the Chrome class in Q1, but come Q2 he couldn’t put the lap together to compete for the top spots. He takes P12, P5 in class behind Recuenco, Clemens Hecker, John Newell and Luke Garrett. Getting ahead of Newell will be important for Taylor’s Chrome championship contention after losing second to his fellow Brit yesterday.
Bradley Smith once again struggled in qualifying, missing out on Q2 by just under half a second. It’s not been the weekend Smith was hoping for so far, and although he still leads the Chrome standings for now, he’ll want a better day today to try and extend his advantage. Both his closest rivals are ahead of him, so overtaking will be the order of the day in Race 3.
Martin Macìk starts P14 after having a lap time deleted for hitting a penalty marker, alongside Smith. Christian Ruppert and Steffen Faas complete the final row behind them.
Faas did not take part in qualifying due to a return of the fuel injector issue that has been plaguing them all weekend. This comes as a blow, because the tankpool24-Racing team completed an engine change on that truck yesterday to try and resolve this, and it ran seemingly problem free in the warm up this morning. Everyone at the Goodyear FIA ETRC hopes the team can solve the issue and we can have all 16 trucks on track for the penultimate race in Most.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
