Race 2 flash report: Thrilling finish as Kiss beats Reinert to Goodyear FIA ETRC victory by 0.010s
Reigning champion Norbert Kiss made it two wins out of two at the Slovakia Ring, beating René Reinert to victory in a thrilling finish by 0.010s.
Having fought his way through from eighth place on the partially-reversed-grid, Kiss defeated fellow MAN-powered driver Reinert in a dramatic drag race to the chequered flag following an inspired move from the seven-time Goodyear FIA ETRC champion as the top eight were covered by six seconds.
“It was very exciting, René was doing a really good job defending so it was really hard to get into position, for a few laps it was just not working,” Kiss explained. “In the last lap I kind of already gave it up, then I catch up to him and was very close and could make him defend into the last turn in a very unusual manner, which caused him to miss the apex a bit. I put my nose in an tried to have a good exit as much as possible. Then on the outside of course he was coming back a little bit, it was very close, the closest finish in truck racing I think.”
Reinert missed qualifying after gearbox problems in Free Practice 2, started Race 1 from the back of the grid before lining up on pole for the partially-reversed-grid Race 2. He then resisted intense pressure, first from Steffi Halm, before Kiss latched onto his tail in the closing stages and very nearly took his first win of 2026.
He said: “For sure there’s some disappointment if you lose the win in the last corner. But, it’s okay, Norbi is really fast here and can play with his truck and do amazing things. He deserved the win. It was immense pressure, but you had to stay really focused and with the tyres getting hotter you had to decide where you brake and when you brake, there are a lot of things you have to manage in your head. After missing qualifying and starting the first race from 14th position and finishing eighth we get the first place for Race 2. It was a good start, everything was fine until the last corner.”
Steffi Halm took her first podium of the season in third as Antonio Albacete finished fourth with Mark Taylor, who made it back-to-back victories in the Chrome category, finishing fifth.
“It was a hard race, I was faster than René but I didn’t find a gap to pass him. I tried to wait for a mistake from him, he didn’t make it and Norbi was coming. I thought maybe it’s a good opportunity to let Norbi pass and maybe he can find a way through and maybe I have the chance to overtake him with Norbi. In the end it didn’t work but it’s a podium and it’s good.”
José Eduardo Rodrigues took sixth, Sascha Lenz crossed the line in seventh before a five-second penalty for an incident with Taylor dropped him back as Steffen Faas and John Newell finished second and third in the Chrome category respectively.
Luke Garrett, Luis Recuenco and Clemens Hecker completed the finishers, but Jochen Hahn dropped out with a mechanical issue and Bradley Smith was unable to start due to a broken gearbox in Race 1.
Revisit Race 2 on YouTube. Click HERE for live timing and go to the Sportity app using the password FIA_ETRC_26 for all the results.
The Goodyear FIA ETRC stars will be back on track at Slovakia Ring tomorrow (Sunday) with Warm-up from 09:00 local time.
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