Sascha Lenz dominated a dry race four at Le Mans Bugatti on Sunday afternoon...
Sascha Lenz stormed to his third victory of the 2019 FIA European Truck Racing Championship season in the final race of the weekend at Le Mans Bugatti.
The SL Trucksport30 driver made a decisive move on first Steffi Halm’s Team Schwabentruck IVECO and then pole sitter Jamie Anderson to assert his authority on the 11-lap race.
Lenz won the race by 10.1 seconds and underlined his fine form at Le Mans Bugatti, a circuit where he took his first pole position back in 2017.
Behind Lenz, a race long battle raged between Halm and Jochen Hahn. This was eventually settled when the newly crowned champion made a move at the first chicane stick on lap five.
It was however too late for Hahn to make a late challenge on Lenz despite his best efforts to get on terms with his countryman.
Halm claimed her second podium of the weekend in third but behind here came a fierce battle for fourth position. This was between race two winner Andre Kursim (Don’t Touch Racing IVECO), Antonio Albacete (Truck Sport Lutz Bernau) and race three victor Adam Lacko (Buggyra Racing).
The trio ran nose-to-tail for much of the second phase of the race but there were no changes to the order despite the close racing.
Seventh place overall and the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP laurels went to Anderson who after losing the lead fell back down the field.
Oly Janes, who shared the front row of the grid with rival Anderson, took second position ahead of Luis Recuenco who is now racing under a suspended penalty until the end of the season for his part in the race three incident with Anderson.
Jose-Eduardo Rodrigues capped off a fine weekend with a point for tenth place and fourth in GRAMMER, while his father, Jose, followed him home in 11th.
Terry Gibbon took 12th overall for T Sport ahead of the delayed and damaged Citignola.
Shane Brereton’s race was punctuated by a succession of penalties for multiple track limit abuses and then a further sanction for speeding in the pitlane while taking one of the original penalties.
Erwin Kleinnagelvoort was an early retirement after pulling off just after the first corner in his EK Race Scania.
Additionally there was drama in the opening exchanges for Rene Reinert as he was pitched in to the wall after being contacted by Fabio Citignola’s Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz.
Citignola was subsequently given a drive-through penalty for his part in the incident which saw Reinert retire and compound a frustrating weekend.
Norbert Kiss had been running in 11th position after starting from the rear of the field but the Tankpool24 Racing truck hit terminal issues on lap six and the Hungarian was forced to pull off on the pit straight.
The final destination on the 2019 FIA European Truck Racing Championship calendar is Circuito Jarama, Spain next weekend.
Race Result HERE