KISS CROWNED 2022 CHAMPION
With five races in hand, Norbert Kiss took the win in the penultimate Le Mans Bugatti race to be crowned the 2022 Drivers’ Champion.
It wasn’t as simple as usual, as Jochen Hahn was ready for a fight and made a great start off the line. He took the lead going into the Dunlop Curve and defended well from a pushing Kiss. Although second would have been enough for Kiss to take the title, it was clear the Hungarian wasn’t ready to settle for anything but first.
It took a couple of laps for him to make the move, but once it was done Kiss disappeared down the track, taking the victory with a comfortable 8.5 second lead.
The podium was completed by Jamie Anderson, who did an incredible job defending from a charging Adam Lacko and Sascha Lenz behind. Try as they might, the two Titan drivers couldn’t pass the Chrome, giving Anderson his second Promoter’s Cup victory and Overall podium of the weekend.
Antonio Albacete came sixth, with Téo Calvet seventh, second in Promoter’s Cup. Shane Brereton and him had a very tight battle that saw some aggressive moves attempted in the closing stages of the race, with Brereton trying to defend his second in class. But by time the chequered flag fell it was Calvet in front, Brereton settling for third in Promoter’s Cup, eight overall. This does give the British driver reverse pole for the final race of the weekend.
André Kursim and Steffi Halm rounded off the top ten, taking the final points on offer.
All fourteen trucks finished the race, with José Rodrigues 11th ahead of Steffen Faas. Clemens Hecker and John Newell were in what appeared to be a first lap incident, but on review it was revealed that Newell had locked up and Hecker took to the gravel off track to avoid having a collision. The pair ended 13th and 14th respectively.