Jochen is on the cusp of a sixth title after another race one win at Le Mans Bugatti....
Jochen Hahn took victory in the first FIA European Truck Racing Championship race at Le Mans Bugatti this afternoon.
The Hahn Racing IVECO driver went a step closer to securing what will be an historic sixth title by taking the 12th win of the season to date.
Hahn grasped the lead from pole position but had to contend with both a light shower hitting the track at the start and a feisty Sascha Lenz going side-by-side with his countryman for the first three corners.
Hahn though could not be denied and soon built himself an all too familiar gap over Lenz to take a conclusive victory.
SL Trucksport30’s Lenz scored his best non-semi reverse grid race result of the season after showing excellent pace which will make him a potential race win challenger for the remainder of the weekend.
Antonio Albacete rounded out the podium in his Trucksport Lutz Bernau MAN to at least stay in contention in the title hunt but was never able to challenge second placed Lenz.
The result ensures that Hahn now leads Albacete by 93 points as he gets ready to celebrate a remarkable sixth FIA ETRC title.
Adam Lacko claimed fourth position ahead of the German pair of Steffi Halm (Team Schwabentruck IVECO) and Andre Kursim (Don’t Touch Racing IVECO). However, Halm slipped to ninth place in the final standings after incurring a 30-second penalty for multiple track limit abuse. This though was over-ruled after the race and Halm was re-instated in fifth place ahead of Kursim in sixth.
Norbert Kiss came through from 10th on the grid after qualifying issues to run in seventh place for the 11-lap event.
However, the Hungarian, who almost took former team mate Kursim in the final laps after exerting significant pressure was unable to make a move and had to settle for seventh.
There was disappointment after the race for the double champion when he was disqualified for a black smoke offence.
This promoted Jose Rodrigues to seventh position, while Shane Brereton in his purple TOR Trucks MAN took eighth and the semi-reverse grid pole for race two. Kiss will start from the rearof the field.
Jamie Anderson was resisting huge pressure from title rival Luis Recuenco in his hunt to claim another GRAMMER TRUCK CUP victory, but the British ace, who led the race from the start to the penultimate lap was unable to stop Luis Recuenco taking the maximum score.
It was the perfect result for Recuenco who added to his three previous successes for Trucksport Lutz Bernau at Misano and Slovakiaring.
Anderson’s misery was then compounded when he took a penalty and dropped down the order to fourth.
This meant that Erwin Kleinnagelvoort took his first podium of the season in his EK Race Scania ahead of a charging Jose-Eduardo Rodrigues who completed the top three.
The race started in dramatic fashion when Terry Gibbon spun at the first chicane and forced GRAMMER TRUCK CUP points leader Oly Janes in to a gravelly excursion. The Buggyra Racing driver fought back to fifth place but saw his points lead in the GRAMMER standings cut.
Terry Gibbon recovered to finish fifth ahead of Fabio Citignola who served a penalty earlier in the race in his Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz.
There was disaster for Rene Reinert who pitted on the formation lap after hitting a suspected turbo problem in his Reinert Racign IVECO.
The second race of the weekend is scheduled to take place at 17.10 local time.
Race Results HERE