Rene Reinert ended a two year win drought to take race four this afternoon....
Rene Reinert celebrated his first FIA European Truck Racing Championship win for two years as he took his Reinert Racing run MAN to the final victory of the weekend at Hungaroring on Sunday afternoon.
It was just over two years ago that Reinert last stood atop the podium at Nogaro in June 2016, and the German revelled in the winning feeling once more as he celebrated in front of a large Hungarian crowd.
Reinert took the lead midway around the first lap when he made a move on pole sitter Sascha Lenz at Turn 4 and opened up a small advantage.
Norbert Kiss delighted his home fans by sprinting up to third position on the opening tour when he managed to clear his former Tankpool24 Racing teammate Andre Kursim.
Buggyra’s Lacko also overtook Kursim and joined a top four snake at the front for the majority of the 11-lap race.
The Czech driver applied massive pressure to Kiss in the later stages of the race which allowed Reinert and Lenz to open up a brief gap at the front and they were never to be caught or threatened.
Still, Kiss’ podium was cheered to the rafters as the crowd lapped up the double-champions spectacular ‘doughnuts’ on the slowing down lap as he said a very sepcial thanks to his adoring fans.
Jochen Hahn caught the tail of the Kiss and Lacko battle in the closing stages but was unable to make a move on the pair.
However, any notion Hahn had of cruising to fifth place points evaporated when he suddenly stopped at Turn 3 on lap 9 with an apparent technical problem. The double Hungaroring race winner therefore posted a rare retirement.
This allowed Kursim to claim fifth ahead of Ryan Smith in sixth and Antonio Albacete in seventh. Smith though lost the position to Albacete after racking up a 10-second penalty for overspeeding.
The GRAMMER TRUCK CUP saw probably the best race of the weekend as the trio of Steffen Faas (Tankpool24 Racing), Shane Brereton (TOR Racing) and Jamie Anderson (Anderson Racing) ran close together in the early stages.
But when Faas fell back it was Brereton who took control and the British driver took the category win ahead of Anderson and also claim eighth overall.
Third in the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP was Terry Gibbon who claimed a second consecutive podium for the well-drilled T Sport squad.
Anderson and Gibbon also took 10th and 11th overall ahead of Ray Coleman, Luis Recueno, Erwin Kliennagelvoort and the delayed Faas.
Oly Janes was classified in 16th position after taking a drive-through penalty for track limits violations.
Steffi Halm’s weekend took a turn for the worse when she suffered contact with Ryan Smith on lap 5. The Team Schwabentruck IVECO racer then had to pit for repairs but also lost further time with another trip through the pits for track limit violations.
In the teams’ fight it was Team Reinert Adventures’ Reinert and Lenz who emerged victorious after the combined result of first and second.
The next races on the 2018 FIA European Truck Racing championship schedule are the Nurburgring for the legendary ADAC Truck Grand Prix meeting over the weekend of 30th June/1st July.