Czech racer Adam Lacko secured an eighth pole position of the FIA ETRC Season with a stunning last lap at Le Mans.
Czech racer Adam Lacko secured an eighth pole position of the FIA ETRC Season with a stunning last lap at Le Mans.
The Superpole session was run on a damp track after heavy overnight rain, and times fell as the session progressed. It was vital to be the last driver to take the chequered flag and it was newly-crowned champion Jochen Hahn who went fastest only to be bettered by Norbert Kiss and then by Lacko as the three drivers stormed over the line.
Lacko’s Freightliner did a lap at 2m18.427s, seven-tenths of a second faster than Kiss who was just under a tenth faster than Hahn setting up a great battle between them in today’s opening race.
Sascha Lenz, whose SL Racing Team had worked wonders overnight to repair his damaged MAN, leapt up to fourth on his last lap, while René Reinert’s MAN was fifth fastest, 1.9 seconds down on Lacko.
Sixth fastest was Gerd Körber whose Iveco ground to a halt after taking the chequered flag with a mechanical problem, with Anthony Janiec’s Lion Truck Racing Team MAN eighth fastest, its damage repaired from his incident in race two yesterday. Steffi Halm was eighth fastest, just four-tenths back, in her Reinert Racing-run MAN.
Ninth fastest was the second Buggyra Racing Freightliner of Jiri Forman while Shane Brereton’s MAN rounded out the top 10, his team also having been hard at work overnight to repair his truck. Brereton lost a lap time after exceeding the track limits.
Qualifying 2
Three-times European Champion Gerd Körber topped the qualifying session to determine the top 10 for Superpole. On a partly wet track, that served to keep lap times far slower than yesterday, Körber’s Schwabentruck Racing Team MAN sneaked a lap in at 2m22.629s, just 26-thousandths of a second faster than René Reinert (Reinert Racing MAN).
With the top five drivers all within a second, it was Jochen Hahn third fastest although his MAN lost its best lap time for hitting a penalty marker. Norbert Kiss, who took a turn at the top of the times, bagged fourth in his Tankpool 24 Racing Mercedes-Benz, while Anthony Janiec’s Lion Racing Team MAN was fifth fastest.
A lengthy pit stop for Adam Lacko’s Freightliner meant that that he was too late for one final push to improve from sixth whilst Sascha Lenz was seventh ahead of Steffi Halm, Jiri Forman and Shane Brereton who deposed Ellen Lohr on his last lap to make it into Superpole.
To follow al the live action from races three and four click here