Kiss charges to 11th Goodyear FIA ETRC pole with sub-record lap
Norbert Kiss proved to be the fastest driver in first Le Mans Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship qualifying in more ways than one.
As well as securing pole position for Race 1 – his 11th of the 2026 season – the Révész Racing driver dipped under his 2m04.322s qualifying best from 2025 with a spectacular effort of 2m04.213s.
It means he will start this afternoon’s opening race at the head of the pack and in the knowledge that he’ll be provisional Goodyear FIA ETRC champion for a record-extending eighth time if he finishes second or higher.
Behind Kiss, Jochen Hahn completed Q3 with a time of 2m04.783s as Sascha Lenz rounded out the top three in 2m04.985s, which he recorded in Q2. Steffi Halm was fourth fastest followed by Antonio Albacete and José Eduardo Rodrigues, the leading Young Driver contender.
In the Chrome category, Bradley Smith took pole position in eighth overall behind René Reinert. Luis Recuenco and Chrome title contenders John Newell and Mark Taylor were next up, followed by Steffen Faas, Clemens Hecker and Luke Garrett.
“Obviously early in the morning in the cooler weather it’s easier to improve on the lap time but I’m happy with the performance, the team, Révész Racing, they did a very good job again, and we arrived very prepared to Le Mans,” MAN-powered Hungarian Kiss said. “Free Practice 2 was a bit hectic with the red flag, but we managed to fill out the set-up and qualifying was nice. We could improve in every session and put together a very good lap with minimal mistakes so I’m happy with the result.”
Smith said: “It’s good, we’ll take that. I found a few problems with the truck yesterday, but the boys fixed it overnight and it’s been really good today. We’re on a good pace in the 2m05s and I’m really looking forward to Race 1, hopefully it can be another win.”
Briton Smith continued: “We found with the front tracking we kept blistering the front tyres and we couldn’t work out why. But after checking the tracking we found we were 15mm out, corrected it all last night, thanks to Tim [Frost from truck builder T Sport Bernau] and it’s been a completely different truck today. I’m glad we finally found it.”
How the battle for Goodyear FIA ETRC pole position unfolded
Norbert Kiss, Jochen Hahn, Sascha Lenz, José Eduardo Rodrigues, Bradley Smith, Antonio Albacete, Steffi Halm, René Reinert, John Newell, Luis Recuenco, Mark Taylor and Steffen Faas made it through to Q2 following the 15-minute Q1, which Kiss headed in a time of 2m04.926s.
Luke Garrett appeared to have done enough to secure his place in Q2 until Recuenco shot up from 14th to 10th place with a late charge. Recuenco’s Mercedes-Benz is running with a replacement engine following a failure in Friday’s Free Practice 1 and the Spaniard’s progression was the perfect payback for his mechanics.
Clemens Hecker also missed out on a Q2 spot, although the German went quicker than Garrett, who finished up 14th fastest.
Kiss, Hahn, Lenz, Albacete, Rodrigues and Halm advanced from the 10-minute Q2. However, Reinert, Smith, Recuenco, Newell, Taylor and Faas all missed out, although Smith completed Qualifying 1-2-3 as the quickest Chrome category driver.
Seven-time Goodyear FIA ETRC champion Kiss then made his pace count by setting the Q3 pace ahead of Hahn, Lenz, Halm, Albacete and Rodrigues.
Race 1 is due to begin at 14:10 live on YouTube and is scheduled for 11 laps.
Click HERE for live timing. Results are available via Sportity using the password: FIA_ETRC_26.
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