Kiss Takes 67th pole with narrow lead over Hahn
Norbert Kiss has taken his 67th pole position ahead of the second day of racing at the Misano World Circuit, but Jochen Hahn didn’t make it a walk in the park for the Hungarian, setting a time just 0.031s shy of taking pole from the reigning champion.
The impressive 2:01.631 set by the #1 truck means Kiss matches Hahn’s pole position record, the two drivers now having 67 a piece.
Starting as they did yesterday, Antonio Albacete was just able to beat Sascha Lenz for third on the grid. The duo, along with Steffen Faas and Steffi Halm, opted to try and get two laps into Q3, with just five minutes to set a banker lap and try to go again. None of the quartet made an improvement on their second laps as the grid continues to learn optimum strategies for this new qualifying format.
Faas took Chrome class pole with his fifth place, Halm trailing by two tenths at the chequered flag. It was Faas who proved the worth of the two-lap strategy, however, as his first lap time was deleted due hitting a penalty marker.
Clemens Hecker was the one to miss out on a Q3 appearance, finishing Q2 seventh (second in Chrome class). He starts ahead of fellow Chrome drivers and current Chrome-class leader José Eduardo Rodrigues, who could do no better than eighth overall, third in class. He will be one to watch as the lights go out in a couple of hours’ time as one of the drivers who is good at carving through the field.
André Kursim took ninth, sixth in Titan class, ahead of Mark Taylor and Luis Recuenco, who returned to the field after an issue saw him retire from Race 2. Bradley Smith did well to continue out of Q1 in his first Goodyear FIA ETRC weekend, starting Race 3 in 12th.
John Newell was disappointed after failing to get out of Q1, stating the team had “tried something new but it didn’t work.” He was seen braking late going into Turn 1 on one fast lap but couldn’t get his changes to work to progress him further up the field.
He will start ahead of Luke Garrett who did not set a lap time in qualifying due to repairs on his truck. After the Warm Up this morning it was discovered there was a crack on the steering pump, that was heavily affecting Garrett’s steering, the very same issue that saw him retire from Race 2 yesterday. Garrett Trucksport have appealed to the stewards to ask if they can join Race 3 even though they did not set a lap time.
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