King Kiss tops second Goodyear FIA ETRC qualifying
Defending champion Norbert Kiss proved unstoppable once again as the Révész Racing driver charged to his second pole position of the Slovakia Ring weekend and his fourth of the 2026 Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship season.
MAN-powered Kiss managed a best lap of 2m42.334s to edge out long-standing rival Jochen Hahn (IVECO) as José Eduardo Rodrigues took a Goodyear FIA ETRC career-best third following the three-phase qualifying driving a MAN.
“A better lap than yesterday, for sure, but still I lost some time, I made two small mistakes in the middle sector,” Kiss said. “But, overall, they were just small mistakes so, overall, it was a good lap. Maybe you can never do a 100 per cent lap, there is always something to find, but, overall, I’m happy.”
Of his hopes of converting pole position into win number three at Slovakia Ring, Kiss said: “The aim is always the same, to take the pole position and take the 20 points, that’s the aim in the first race. Have a good start, try to stay out of trouble, try to stay in front and win the first race. For the reverse-grid race you never know. It’s always a bit crazy and very unpredictable. If it works out, it works out, but we never expect a win or a podium in the reverse-grid race.”
After bettering his previous-best Goodyear FIA ETRC qualifying performance of fourth, third-fastest qualifier Rodrigues (pictured below) faces the prospect of starting at the back of the grid for Race 3 after he was handed two five-place grid demotions for separate red-flag infringements during Warm-up.
“It’s my best qualifying and it’s very good," the Portuguese driver said. "We try a different set-up and we gained some time. But we have a penalisation so we try to push the maximum in the race.”
How the battle for Goodyear FIA ETRC pole position unfolded
For the second day running, defending Goodyear FIA ETRC champion Norbert Kiss topped the Q1 order in 2m42.542s, compared to the 2m42.425s he registered on Saturday.
Antonio Albacete was second quickest ahead of 2025 Chrome title winner Mark Taylor with Jochen Hahn fourth and Jose Éduardo Rodrigues fifth. Sascha Lenz completed the top six with Steffi Halm making it through to Q2 in seventh.
Bradley Smith was eighth quickest ahead of Steffen Faas, a double podium finisher in the Chrome category yesterday. Smith’s Warm-up issue was traced to a compressor failure rather than broken powersteering as the Briton first reported.
John Newell rounded out the top 10, while a late effort from Luis Recuenco, who overcame a turbocharger issue aboard his all-new Mercedes-Benz, eliminated Clemens Hecker, who ended up 13th quickest behind Luke Garrett, the final driver to progress to Q2.
Kiss, Hahn, Rodrigues, Albacete, Lenz and Smith were the six drivers who made it through to Q3. But there was frustration for Halm and Taylor, who had been expected to challenge for a place in Q3 but were both penalised for trick limit infringements. They ended up seventh and ninth respectively with Newell going eighth quickest as Garrett, Recuenco and Faas completed the top 12.
With the 5.922-kilometre lap effectively making Q3 a one-shot bid for top spot on the Race 3 grid, Kiss was quickest again for his second pole position of the weekend. Hahn was second with Rodrigues a Goodyear FIA ETRC career-best third followed by Lenz, Albacete and Smith.
Meanwhile, an enforced engine change meant René Reinert, a heroic second in Race 2 on Saturday, was unable to take part in Qualifying 4-5-6.
Race 3 is next from 13:30 local time live on YouTube. Click HERE for live timing and follow the Goodyear FIA ETRC Sportity app using the password: FIA_ETRC_26.
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