Rene Reinert took victory in a thrilling and entertaining second race of the 2016 FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Red Bull Ring this afternoon.
Rene Reinert took victory in a thrilling second race of the 2016 FIA European Truck Racing Championship at Red Bull Ring this afternoon.
The German emerged from an incident packed opening lap to overtake early leaders Thomas Robineau and Adam Lacko (Buggyra Fat Fox) to cross the chequered flag just 0.528s ahead of race one winner Jochen Hahn. It was one of the closest finishes in recent years.
Reinert and Hahn started the reverse grid from 7th and 8th respectively and came through the entertaining mayhem to reverse the positions of the first race.
Hahn caught Reinert in the second half of the race and put a huge amount of pressure on his friend and competitor, but Reinert remained steadfast and was able to cross the line first despite Hahn ducking out of the slipstream just before the finish line.
“The start of the race was chaotic at turn one and everything opened up for me and I came through it in second position just behind Adam (Lacko),” said Reinert after the race. “Then I caught Adam and overtook him at the quick right-hand corner at the back (of the circuit). From there I just saw Jochen coming and coming but it was ok to the flag.”
Hahn followed up his race one win with a fine display, overtaking Sascha Lenz, who finished the race fourth, in the opening exchanges with a well-judged move in to Turn One. Hahn even survived early contact with Ellen Lohr (Truck Sport Lutz Bernau MAN) to come through and take the runners-up position and as a result keep the championship points lead.
Action-packed battles throughout the field
The start of the race saw thrills and spills with the front four on the grid going in to turn one four abreast. It was plain that it would not work out and contact was made between Robineau, Kiss and Korber, while Lacko who had charged up the inside at the start drove through in to an early lead.
There was further contact on lap two when Norbert Kiss spun and Ryan Smith’s unfortunate day continued as he was forced to avoid the Tankpool24 Racing car and spun off in to the gravel trap.
Claiming third position was Markus Altenstrasser in his Team Schwabentruck IVECO. The Austrian, who had a shunt with Vojtisek, drove an excellent race to take a second podium in as many races on home soil.
“It is great to race in here in Spielberg,” said Altenstrasser as he addressed fans in the new Fan village in the paddock. “The race was a little bit crazy and a lot of incidents, but I saw it was possible to go down the inside and with the Jochen and Ellen incident.
“The team came on the radio to say you are 4thand there were 6 laps to go,” continued Altenstrasser. “I saw it was possible, so I overtook Sasha (Lenz) and took 3rd place for the podium.”
Adam Lacko was given a drive-through penalty for a start infringement but fought back spiritedly with several committed overtaking manoeuvres to eventually place fifth. Lacko’s rookie team mate Jiri Forman claimed eighth position in his first weekend of track action in the second Buggyra International Racing System ‘Fat Fox’.
As ever, there was fantastic racing lower down the order with Frankie Vojtisek again right in the action. The experienced Czech campaigner ran as high as fourth position and engaged in a fight with Anthony Janiec (Lion Truck Racing MAN) and Gerd Korber (Team Schwabentruck). Frankie eventually took sixth, while Janiec was a mere 0.109s behind. Korber was a delayed ninth after being penalised for a track limits violation.
There was more disappointment for Ryan Smith who lost third place in race one through a penalty. He was caught up in an incident with Norbert Kiss (Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz) on lap two and spun off in avoidance, ending his race in the gravel along with the Hungarian.
Ellen Lohr was also forced to retire after suffering a left rear puncture on lap seven.
The team points were claimed by Reinert Adventures which combines Rene Reinert and Jochen Hahn. after two rounds they lead the points table with 54pts. In second position is the Lion Racing/Lenz partnership with 29pts, while in third position is Buggyra Racing 1969 on 23pts.
Races three and four of the first event of the 2016 FIA ETRC will take place tomorrow 13.20 and 15.55 respectively.