Jochen Hahn beat local favourite Adam Lacko to take his fifth pole position of the year in an intriguing Super Pole session at the Autodrom Most.
Jochen Hahn beat local favourite Adam Lacko to take his fifth pole position of the year in an intriguing Super Pole session at the Autodrom Most.
The three-time champion was fastest in both practice sessions and one of only two men to lap inside 2min3s in Qualifying Practice, but Lacko wasn’t about to let Hahn run away with it in the Super Pole. Buoyed by the support of his Czech fans, Lacko improved his Q1 time by over a second and a half and two tenths faster than Hahn had managed, but the German responded with a 2m02.136s to take the top spot.
Making his return to the championship after missing the Hungaroring, René Reinert’s MAN was their closest rival in third. Unfortunately the German driver incurred a five-place penalty at the Nürburgring to be taken at his next race. As a result, Reinert drops to 8th place on the grid.
Therefore Steffi Halm, fresh from her win in Race Two at the Hungaroring will share the second row with last year’s Race One winner Norbert Kiss in the Tankpool 24 Racing Mercedes-Benz.
Look out for fireworks from the third row of the grid as the hard charging Gerhard Koerber in his Team Schwabentruck Iveco lines up alongside Lion Truck Racing MAN of Anthony Janiec.
The second of the Buggyra Freightliners driven by young gun Jiri Forman will hope to impress the packed crowds at Autodrom Most from seventh on the grid, while Ellen Lohr and Ryan Smith share row five after the Briton’s best time was cancelled for hitting the penalty marker.
Hahn controls qualifying practice
Jochen Hahn also set the fastest time in the qualifying practice which set the top ten for Super Pole. The German set an early benchmark time of 2min02.508s which was never beaten, although René Reinert did manage to lap just one tenth shy.
Behind them, Frenchman Anthony Janiec was third ahead of Norbert Kiss and Steffi Halm’s Reinert Racing MAN.
A late effort from Gerhard Koerber displaced Adam Lacko for sixth, putting the Czech driver down to seventh ahead of his Buggyra International Racing System team-mate Jiri Forman, Ryan Smith and Ellen Lohr.
Struggling with a loss of oil in his steering, Sacha Lenz improved his time to within 0.027s of Lohr, just falling short of reaching the Super Pole session. Lenz will share the sixth row with Shane Brereton, had his best time cancelled for hitting penalty marker twice.
Erwin Klein Nagelvoort’s Scania and the Mercedes-Benz -Benz of Dominique Orsini line up in 13th and 14th places respectively, while Andre Kursim had all his times cancelled for over-speeding and as a result will start the second Tankpool 24 Racing Mercedes-Benz from the back of the grid.
15 trucks are due to take the start after another local driver Frankie Vojtisek was forced to withdraw, still feeling the effects of his accident one week ago at the Hungaroring.
The start of the first race of the weekend is scheduled for 14:20 local time this afternoon. To follow all the action via live timing and text updates, visit our Race Centre here.