KISS DEFYS HAHN VICTORY AS SMITH TAKES FIRST CHROME CLASS WIN
It was a battle of the six-time champions for Race 1 at the Lausitzring, whilst Bradley Smith took Chrome honours, now tied with Mark Taylor for the class championship lead.
Jochen Hahn held onto the lead of the race as the grid took its first racing lap around the Lausitzring. Norbert Kiss was right on his bumper, not willing to let the German gain any advantage and began planning when best to go for the overtake.
The opportunity would come in the second racing lap. Hahn had denied Kiss the few attempts he had already made, but utilising the slipstream, Kiss took the inside line around through Turn 8 to demote Hahn from the race lead.
Hahn stuck with Kiss for the next lap, knowing his best chance of returning the favour would be to stay on his rear bumper. However, the way Kiss and new truck Balu Junior seem to already be in tune with each other was too much for Hahn to keep hold of. By the time the chequered flag flew, Kiss had a five second advantage to take the win.
Steffi Halm drove incredibly well, holding off the pushing René Reinert, Sascha Lenz and José Eduardo Rodrigues. She was under pressure from the start of the race, but did everything she needed to to secure another podium in 2025.
The battle for seventh and reverse grid front pole was down to Antonio Albacete and Bradley Smith. Albacete was racing off a five-place grid drop which saw him starting P9, but it seemed Smith didn’t give much mind to who was behind him. He fought Albacete hard until the ninth lap where the Titan finally made his move into Turn 8, but it was a valiant effort from the Chrome winner.
Unfortunately, Albacete was handed a 10 second penalty for over-speeding. Getting past Smith was crucial to him only losing two positions, taking P9 overall. Disappointingly for Albacete, this means he just misses out on a reverse grid position.
The battle with Albacete extended the buffer between Smith and Chrome rival Taylor, leaving a bit too much to be done for Taylor to close the gap in the remaining laps. Smith’s first class victory and first win of the season puts him tied on points with Taylor in the Chrome standings, Taylor only taking the championship lead due to race win count-backs.
This does put the two Chrome rivals side by side on row one in Race 2. Smith has expressed his nerves to taking his first front row start, which could be an advantage for Taylor.
It was looking like Luis Recuenco was going to deliver on the rapid pace he had showed yesterday, looking set for his first podium of the season. However a mistake going into Turn 1 saw Clemens Hecker complete the Chrome top three as Recuenco fell down the field.
John Newell took another Chrome fourth to keep his consistent scoring continued in Lausitzring. Classifying in his first race of the season, Steffen Faas took P12 overall, P5 in class to score his first points in 2025. Recuenco was thirteenth after his spin, with Luke Garrett and Christian Ruppert completing the full classified grid.
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