RAINY END TO MOST BRINGS ANOTHER KISS VICTORY
Timing his overtake on Steffi Halm perfectly, Norbert Kiss has made it three out of four wins at the fifth round of the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship.
Race 4 race started under wet race procedure, with the opening lap under yellow flags so race control can survey the safety of the track. Like in Race 3, after one lap of racing the Race Director was happy for the track to go green and racing to begin.
Halm had the advantage having led the first lap, and sprinted into the distance after being released to full racing speed. She left Lukas Hahn in second to fight off the incoming grid to extend a strong lead in the opening few laps.
Adam Lacko instantly pulled into the pit with a technical issue, taking him out of the race. This meant Kiss had one less truck to overtake on his mission to get back to the front.
The fight was on between Sascha Lenz, Antonio Albacete and Jochen Hahn, who were all looking to optimise on Kiss starting behind them in the reverse grid, but battling between themselves became costly in that endeavour. Kiss bided his time, waiting for Albacete and Lenz to be in a tight battle before making an opportunistic move to take both places in one corner.
Now in third, it wasn’t long before Kiss was ahead of Lukas Hahn and chasing down Halm’s 4.5 second lead. It took him two laps to reel her in and make the pass, which ended up being timed perfectly as the rain then began falling much heavier. The race was put under Full Course Yellow for safety reasons, before turning to a red flag after nine laps and 75% of the race distance had been completed.
Had Kiss have waited one more lap, the Full Course Yellow would have kept him behind Halm and given the German her first win of the season.
The duo was joined on the podium by Sascha Lenz, who at the time of publishing is being investigated for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when overtaking Albacete.
Lukas Hahn managed to hold off his father Jochen Hahn to take fourth overall and another Promoter’s Cup victory, with André Kursim, Albacete and Jamie Anderson completing the point-scoring top eight.
Clemens Hecker took his second Promoter’s Cup podium of the weekend and day, securing another second place ahead of Steffen Faas. Faas completed the podium, managing to hold behind championship rival José Eduardo Rodrigues and claim some more points on the Portuguese driver in the Chrome Class standings.
John Newell and Luis Recuenco completed the finishing order, with Lacko the only DNF of the race.
Lukas Hahn took victory in the European Young Drivers’ Championship category, having outscored Rodrigues throughout the four races at Autodrom Most. Rodrigues leads the championship though, having scored more than Hahn over the course of the season.
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