Jochen Hahn took a commanding Race 1 win at Hungaroring this afternoon.....
Jochen Hahn claimed his third win of the 2018 FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Hungaroring this afternoon.
The four-time FIA ETRC champion led home favourite Norbert Kiss to take his first win in Hungary since 2016. The Hahn Racing IVECO driver’s margin over Kiss’ Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz was 2.451s at the chequered flag.
For Kiss it was a fine start to his home race weekend but he was unable to exert big pressure on Hahn throughout the 11-lap event. A mistake at Turn 12 on lap 8 dropped Kiss further behind and he spent the last few laps manging the gap to third placed Steffi Halm.
The early laps so race-defining drama as pole sitter Adam Lacko initially led the pack in his Buggyra International Racing System Freightliner.
The reigning champion though was overtaken by a chasing Hahn on lap 2 and then fell back to sixth position after being shuffled down the order due to losing momentum after Hahn’s decisive move.
It soon became evident that Lacko had significant damage including a damaged Goodyear tyre due to contact from Smith and he faded quickly and was eventually classified in 8th position.
The early race drama elevated Halm’s Team Schwabentruck IVECO up to the final podium position and too ensured that she and Hahn took the teams’ silverware for Die Bullen von IVECO Magirus.
Rene Reinert also capitalised through the chaos in the early running after Ryan Smith and Antonio Albacete collided at Turn 1 and the German placed fourth. But, Reinert was docked 10-seconds for overspeeding and slipped to sixth place.
Both Smith and Albacete recovered albeit with damage, the British driver taking a delayed seventh and Albacete fighting back to score at least a points with 9th place. However, Smith was later penalised for both of the contacts with Lacko and Albacete, receiving a pair of 30-second penalties [converted to 2 x 30second time sanctions] which ensured he dropped out of the points. This gave Lacko the reverse grid pole and meant Brereton was shuffled back to a second place start for race two.
The young German pair of Andre Kursim [Don’t Touch Racing IVECO] and Sascha Lenz [SL Trucksport MAN] came home fourth and fifth after they battled it out for the majority of the race in a spirited contest.
The fight to came to head on the penultimate lap when Lenz attempted a bold move but was firmly resisted by Kursim who held on to what became fourth place after Reinert’s sanction.
The GRAMMER TRUCK CUP witnessed a straight-forward win for Shane Brereton who converted the class pole to an elegant win, his second of the season to date.
The TOR Truck Racing driver initially also sealed the Race 2 reverse grid pole after he cleared the ailing Lacko for eighth place, which then became seventh after Smith's penalty was applied.
Completing the podium in the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP was Ray Coleman and Steffen Faas who also took 10th and 11th overall. Jamie Anderson should have taken second place but was penalised post race for overspeeding and dropped down to 13th overall and fifth in the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP
Luis Recuenco took fourth in the Cup and 12th overall for Trucksport Lutz Bernau, while Oly Janes got sixth placed Cup points in his Buggyra International Racing Systems Freightliner and 14th overall.
The final two finishers were Erwin Kleinnagelvoort [EK Scania] and Terry Gibson [T Sport MAN] in 15th and 17th respectively. Gibbon’s race was compromised on the first lap when he was forced to pit after one of his doors came open.
The second race of the Hungaroring weekend is scheduled to get underway at 16.40 local time.
Race One Result