KISS AND TAYLOR EXTEND RESPECTIVE CHAMPIONSHIP LEADS
Another competitive overall victory from Norbert Kiss and Chrome win for Mark Taylor in Race 3 of the weekend.
Jochen Hahn stuck with Kiss at the beginning of the race, looking for a way past, but Kiss utilised the narrow nature of the Lausitzring to make sure the door remained closed. By lap 2, Kiss had built enough of a buffer from Hahn to not have to worry about an attack from behind and sailed to convert his pole position to race victory.
Steffi Halm was under pressure early from Antonio Albacete for the last step on the overall podium, but as Halm always does she drove superbly to hold off the attack.
Albacete was forced to turn his attention to the rear view as René Reinert had closed in on his rear bumper, giving Halm the breathing space to secure yet another overall podium.
It's been a great season for Halm so far, coming out best of Albacete and Sascha Lenz. Her closest rival for third in the overall standings is Reinert and it will be entertaining to watch the pair of them battle it out for the remainder of the season.
Lenz finished as he started in P6 with a ten second advantage over the Chrome field. Taylor converted his Chrome pole position to class victory ahead of Luis Recuenco and Bradley Smith.
Smith just missed out on reverse grid pole, with the honour going to Recuenco. The Spaniard has had a really strongweekend and will continue this, starting on the front row for Race 4 with Taylor.
Clemens Hecker secured fourth in class after a race long battle with José Eduardo Rodrigues. The Portuguese driver was trying to recover from the back of the grid, a place he started due to a gearbox failure preventing him from taking part in qualifying. He was doing well, managing to find a way through the Chrome drivers with little incident, but Hecker put up a fight.
After trying to pass Smith for P9, Rodrigues got a poor exit out of a corner, allowing Hecker back to put pressure on the Titan. He made space up the inside of Rodrigues to retake 10thin the overall standings.
Due to damage caused in gaining positions, Rodrigues was losing water from the truck, forcing him to back off and nurse the #38 home in the final two laps of the race.
John Newell and Christan Ruppert were the final classified drivers. Steffen Faas had a technical issue and had to stop his Freightliner in Turn 5 whilst Luke Garrett was unable to start the race due to a steering failure. It is hoped both will be back on track for the final race of the weekend.
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