Just as he did last season, Jochen Hahn again took the first FIA European Truck Racing Championship pole position of the year at Red Bull Ring this morning.
Just as he did last season, Jochen Hahn took the first FIA European Truck Racing Championship pole position of the year at Red Bull Ring this morning.
The four-time FIA ETRC champion started off his new era of representing IVECO with the best time of 1m04.956s. It was a lap good enough to beat Steffi Halm’s 1m05.094s best, but only by 0.138s.
Halm will start on the outside of the front-row in her Reinert Racing MAN truck after a fine Super Pole display. The German, who missed the corresponding races here in Austria last season, was just under 0.2s clear of third placed Sascha Lenz.
Lenz posted a late time of 1m05.270s to grab third in his orange SL Trucksport MAN in what was his best ever Super Pole qualifying result.
Lenz’s late lap bettered Ryan Smith’s early effort by just 0.010s to claim the place and edge the British racer on to outside of the second row.
The returning Antonio Albacete will start fifth in his first race for Truck Sport Lutz Bernau. The Spaniard shares the third row with the first of the two Team Schwaben-Truck IVECO’s of Gerd Körber.
Norbert Kiss was a disappointed seventh in his Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz, while an equally frustrated Adam Lacko placed eighth after his team worked long in to the night to fix a technical problem on his Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner.
Local hero, Markus Altenstrasser, will start from ninth position at his home event in the second of the Team Schwaben-Truck entered IVECO’s.
Qualifying in tenth position and first in the newly announced Promoters Cup was Jose Rodrigues in his Reboconorte MAN entry.
Halm heads timed practice session
Steffi Halm set the fastest lap in the 10-minute timed practice session which set the Super Pole top ten this morning.
The Reinert Racing driver topped the times with a best of 1m05.200s. The multiple 2016 race winner just out-paced reigning champion Jochen Hahn who was 0.175s further back in second place.
Sascha Lenz was third after showing promising pace in both the Free Practice and timed qualifying sessions. The 30 year-old German was slightly ahead of the returning triple champion Antonio Albacete in the Truck Sport Lutz Bernau MAN entry.
Rounding out the top five was Norbert Kiss in the first of the Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz trucks. The Hungarian headed Ryan Smith (Team OXXO MAN), Adam Lacko (Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner), Gerd Körber (Team Schwaben-Truck), Jose Rodrigues (Reboconorte MAN) and Markus Altenstrasser (Team Schwaben-Truck).
Just 0.7s covered the top nine positions in this session indicating a close fight for points scoring places throughout the weekend.
Missing out on appearing the Super Pole session were Andre Kursim (Tankpool24 Racing), Alen Draganovic (Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner), Eduardo Rodrigues (Reboconorte MAN) and Erwin Kleinnagelvoort (EK Truck Race Scania).
Sadly Terry Gibbon was unable to take part in the timed practice session due to a mechanical problem. The T-Sport driver will though be allowed to start the first race from the rear of the grid and take part in his debut FIA ETRC event.
The first race of the 2017 FIA European Truck Racing Championship is scheduled to begin at 13.20 local time today.
Follow the action with live text and live timing by clicking HERE