Antonio Albacete took his second race win of the 2019 season at Zolder this afternoon...
Antonio Albacete took the final race of the weekend at Circuit Zolder this afternoon to claim the second win of his 2019 FIA European Truck Racing Championship season.
The Trucksport Lutz Bernau MAN driver was able to overtake pole sitter Jamie Anderson at the Villeneuve chicane on lap five with a decisive manoeuvre.
Albacete was then able to open a healthy gap over the chasing pack, who also hunted down Anderson, and the Spanish ace took the chequered flag 5.2 seconds ahead of second placed Andre Kursim.
Kursim scored his best result of the weekend in the Don’t Touch Racing IVECO with the runners-up spot after a weekend that saw him show impressive pace throughout.
Completing the podium was Rene Reinert who chased Kursim all the way to the flag and briefly overtook his fellow German on lap seven as the duo played out an entertaining duel. But Kursim fought back immediately and re-took the position instantly before holding on to the chequered flag.
The start of the race saw drama when Adam Lacko hit the back of Norbert Kiss and skated down the escape road. The Buggyra Racing driver appeared to have a braking issue and immediately pitted his Freightliner.
Kiss emerged unscathed and completed the race in fourth position just ahead of Steffi Halm’s Team Schwabentruck IVECO.
Behind this pair in sixth place came a charging Sascha Lenz who reprised his race two heroics on Saturday by selecting top gear from the rear and carving his way through the pack after starting 16th after his race three ending spin.
Points leader and winner of race two Jochen Hahn had a deflating left rear tyre from the early stages and dropped back down the field. The issue cost Hahn approximately three seconds a lap in pace but he kept on charging and took eighth place points.
Jose Rodrigues’ race was compromised by having to take a drive-through penalty for a jumped start. The Portuguese then pitted with an apparent issue on lap seven.
In the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP category Jamie Anderson celebrated his first win of the weekend. After his opening lap heroics Anderson settled in to seventh place overall but with a big buffer over the chasing GRAMMER pack.
It was Anderson’s ninth category win of the 2019 season in his Anderson Racing MAN.
Terry Gibbon looked set to get the runners-up position to make it three podium appearances in the four Zolder races to continue a rich vein of form for himself and the T Sport squad. However, a last lap move by David Jenkins saw the positions swap around.
For Jenkins it meant a second podium of the weekend in his first FIA ETRC appearance since 2017.
GRAMMER points leader Oly Janes extended his lead with fourth place in class after Luis Recuenco retired early in the race with a terminal problem.
Erwin Kleinnaglevoort came in fifth after an energetic battle with Jose-Eduardo Rodrigues’ Reboconort MAN for the majority of the 12-lap race.
Dominique Orsini suffered another retirement in his Mercedes-Benz as he pulled off the track at Turn Seven on lap six.
The next races on the 2019 FIA European Truck Racing Championship will take place at Le Man-Bugatti on September 28-29.
Race Result HERE