Smith joins the list of Goodyear FIA ETRC winners with maiden victory
Bradley Smith is a winner in the Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship after he converted his reverse-grid pole into victory in Race 2 at Circuito de Madrid Jarama – RACE this evening.
Having claimed his maiden outright podium at Le Mans last weekend, Smith, who also topped the Chrome division in Spain, celebrated his first overall win by resisting intense pressure from José Eduardo Rodrigues during a fine drive from the British youngster.
“It’s really good, we had a good start and I managed to hold the lead,” Smith said. “Once we got out of there José wouldn’t let me breathe through the whole race. Lap after lap, it was the longest race of my life, but eventually we got it done and I’m really happy. Towards the later part my truck went off a bit because I was pushing so hard at the start and they were putting pressure on me. But it’s quite easy to defend round here so it was good and bad and we managed to hold it. My heartbeat was crazy but it’s the best moment of my career, definitely. To get an FIA win is everyone’s goal when you start truck racing so I’m really happy.”
Spanish legend Antonio Albacete gave the thousands of local fans more reason for enthusiastic celebration when he completed the podium as Lukas Hahn and Mark Taylor finished second and third in Chrome respectively.
T Sport Bernau driver Albacete said: “The race was quite good, both Bradley and Rodrigues were quite fast and I thought maybe they make a mistake between them but they drive well. I saw we were fast enough to keep the other ones behind and then I said, ‘third place is good’ and I didn’t want to make a mistake like at Le Mans. Happy with a podium and let’s hope tomorrow we can qualify a little better.”
Albacete can still beat Jochen Hahn to third place in the final title standings but must score nine points more than his German rival in Race 3 to keep his hopes alive.
By finishing fourth overall, Sascha Lenz now needs seven points from Race 3 to clinch runner-up in the title standings behind eight-time Goodyear FIA ETRC champion Norbert Kiss*, who finished sixth behind Jochen Hahn after winning Race 1 earlier today.
Lukas Hahn, who reported minor bodywork damage causing smoke appearing at the rear of his IVECO race truck for a handful of laps, took seventh as he achieved his goal of solid Chrome points.
Steffi Halm, René Reinert and Mark Taylor rounded out the top 10, Taylor getting the better of Chrome title rival John Newell, who finished one place behind following an opening-lap brush between the pair.
Despite beating Newell in Race 2, Tayor must outscore Newell by four points in Race 3 to keep up for the fight for back-to-back Chrome titles heading into Race 4.
Meanwhile, TotalEnergies-supported Jonathan André finished 12th ahead of Luis Recuenco, Luke Garrett and Mika Mäkinen as technical issues prevented Clemens Hecker and Steffen Faas from not finishing and not starting respectively.
The 39th Grand Prix de España FIA Europeo de Camiones weekend continues tomorrow (Sunday) with Warm-up from 10:00 local time followed by Qualifying 4-5-6 from 11:00. Race 3 is scheduled for 13:45 with Race 4 following at 15:55.
Qualifying 4-5-6 and both races will be streamed live on YouTube and shown by broadcasters across Europe and around the world.
Click HERE for live timing. Results are available via Sportity using the password: FIA_ETRC_26.
*Subject to confirmation of the results by the FIA
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