Antonio Albacete won the final race of the weekend at the Slovakia Ring on Sunday afternoon...
Antonio Albacete took his first FIA ETRC win since Le Mans last September after claiming the top step of the podium in the fourth and final race of the Slovakiaring weekend
Taking the lead on the first lap, the Spaniard stayed firmly in control until the chequered flag as he enjoyed a comfortable gap over Norbert Kiss and Sascha Lenz who both rounded out the race four podium.
Albacete made a good initial getaway going around the outside pole sitter Sascha Lenz in Turn 1 after the German had a small clutch issue. The Spaniard took the long way around Lenz but made the move stick as the two were going through the second corner.
From then on Albacete was unchallenged and focused on maintaining his gap over the chasing pack to finish off a difficult weekend on a high and score his third career victory at the Slovakiring and maintain his record of a win every year the FIA ETRC has visited the Slovakian venue.
Starting from fourth on the grid, Norbert Kiss in his Team Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz truck was on the move from the very start as he cleared Andre Kursim in a committed around the outside move which had the crowd on their feet.
The Hungarian immediately applied pressure on second-placed Lenz and the battle lasted for several laps before the Tankpool24 Racing driver Kiss dived for the inside of the SL Trucksport 30 driver in the closing stages to clinch a spirited second palce.
Lenz was struggling for pace towards the end of the 8 lap encounter and was falling in to the clutches of Adam Lacko's Buggyra Racing Freightliner. Lenz eventually finished just 0.133s ahead of the 2017 title-winner.
Places fifth to seventh went to a trio of IVECO trucks with Steffi Halm [Team Schwabentruck], finishing ahead of Rene Reinert [Reinert Racing] and Jochen Hahn [Hahn Racing IVECO].
Anderson Completes GRAMMER Hat-Trick
Jamie Anderson converted his GRAMMER TRUCK CUP pole position in to his third victory of the weekend after an excellent drive. The Anderson Racing driver showed tremendous pace throughout the duration of the event and kept in touch with the top seven runners. The British ace completed the race eighth overall, only 0.86s behind Hahn and with a huge advantage over his GRAMMER rivals.
Second in the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP went to Luis Recuenco with the podium being rounded out by Oly Janes who retains the lead in the category points standings.
Eduardo Rodrigues was the final finisher in his Reboconort Truck Racing Team MAN. The Portuguese racer crossed the line in 11th and fourth among the chrome categorised drivers.
Andre Kursim was in contention for a podium finish early on until he suffered a rear puncture at Turn 6 and he eventually retired to round off a disastrous weekend for the Don't Touch Racing squad.
Fabio Citignola and Dominique Orsini did not start due to technical issues in their respective Tankpool24 Racing and Team Orsini trucks.
The results of Race 4 currently remain provisional.