KISS CONTINUES DOMINANCE WITH NEW TRUCK
After Jochen Hahn’s Race 1 time penalty, Norbert Kiss completed another perfect weekend with four race victories.
The final race began with a red flag after Antonio Albacete and Luke Garrett came together. Running close to Mark Taylor and Steffi Halm, Albacete was spun around on track, coming to a stop at an angle to oncoming traffic. Blind to the incident ahead and focused on his own race, Garrett didn’t see the sideways Albacete and collided straight into the side of him.
Both trucks held up incredibly well — a testament to the safety of the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship — and both drivers were unharmed and able to return to the pit lane under their own power. However, the damage was too severe for either to rejoin the race restart.
The grid reset to the Race 3 reverse order, as only four corners had been completed before the red flag. It was unfortunate for drivers like Halm, who had made a great start and now had to do it all over again.
The second start wasn’t much cleaner, as everyone looked to make the most of the final race. Kiss found himself going three abreast into Turn 1 with Hahn and Lenz, skipping over the curbs instead of taking the corner. The move, which took him from eighth to fifth, was investigated but later ruled a racing incident with no advantage gained.
The chaos continued as Kiss, eager to reach the front, made a bold move on Taylor. Diving late into Turn 8, he went down the inside to take the position. Unfortunately for Taylor, who was battling Clemens Hecker for the Chrome lead, Hecker’s braking left Taylor with nowhere to go but over the back of his truck.
The fifth wheel on Kiss’s #1 MAN took a hit, while Taylor’s truck sustained piping damage and began leaking fluid on track. Unable to continue, Taylor limped back to the pits and retired. The FIA were still reviewing the incident after the race.
With fluid now on track, Turn 8 became tricky. René Reinert and José Eduardo Rodrigues, running first and second overall at the time, were the first to encounter the incident site and went off track. Both recovered without contact, giving the chasing pack a warning that a different line would be needed through turn 8. Kiss was perfectly placed to take advantage, sailing into the lead to claim his fourth win of the weekend.
Reinert held onto P2 to secure a one-two finish in the Teams’ Championship for Révész Reinert. Rodrigues looked set for his first podium of the season, but contact from a closing-in Hahn spun the Portuguese driver, dropping him to P6. Steffi Halm inherited third, taking her second podium of the weekend, while Hahn finished P5.
Clemens Hecker claimed his first Chrome class win, finishing seventh overall, followed by John Newell, who celebrated his first Chrome podium of the season. Jonathan André completed the class top three.
Bradley Smith, Luis Recuenco, and Stefan Kursch were the last of the 12 classified finishers. Steffen Faas started the race but retired to the pit lane after two laps, joined there by Christian Ruppert.
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