Antonio Albacete took his second win of the 2018 FIA ETRC season in Race One today....
Antonio Albacete took his second FIA European Truck Racing Championship victory of the season at Slovakia Ring today after a clinical win in his Trucksport Lutz Bernau MAN.
The Spaniard withstood pressure from Jochen Hahn’s IVECO in the first phase of the race to secure his second win at the Slovakia Ring venue in as many years.
Albacete took the chequered flag 1.087-seconds ahead of Hahn who dropped back slightly after failing to find a way through during the action-packed 8-lap race.
Polesitter Adam Lacko got a poor start and was swamped by the chasing pack heading in to the first corner allowing Albacete and Hahn in to first and second places respectively. The Czech also lost out to Sascha Lenz who also squeezed through to third position.
Lacko though hunted down Lenz and re-claimed the final podium position on the final lap and Norbert Kiss (Tankpool24 Mercedes-Benz) also cleared Lenz to take fourth position during a thrilling finale in which he lost a good proportion of his front bodywork!
Rene Reinert rounded out the top six ahead of André Kursim who’s potential fifth place was spoilt by an overspeeding penalty.
Steffi Halm was forced into a comeback drive once again after she ran wide in her Team Schwabentruck IVECO on the first lap. Halm though recovered and managed to clear several of her rivals one of which was Frankie Vojtisek who ran a sensational sixth in the early running.
This battle became fraught when contact was made between Faas and Halm the Team Schwabentruck racer was forced to retire with damage. Vojtisek also went off in the same incident and was also forced to park up. Both Halm and Vojtisek were placed under investigation after the race.
In the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP there was another superb battle for supremacy between Shane Brereton and Steffen Faas. The battled energetically for the majority of the race and Brereton eventually claimed the maximum points in his TOR MAN entry after Faas was penalized 10-seconds for overspeeding.
However, this didn’t stop an extraordinary fight between Brereton and Faas in the final laps and the pair crossed the line separated by just 0.02s apart!
Claiming second in the category after Faas penalty was Luis Recuenco who had his best race of the year in his green and white Trucksport Lutz Bernau machine. The Spanish rookie was just 0.3s adrift of Brereton at the line.
Ray Coleman placed third in the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP in his LRS entered MAN and the final overall championship point.
A frustrated Faas was classified 11th overall ahead of final runner Erwin Kleinnagelvoort in 12th. The pair also took fourth and fifth in the GRAMMER TRUCK CUP.
In the team's championship, it was Truck Sport Lutz Bernau (Albacete/Recuenco) from Die Bullen von IVECO Magirus (Hahn/Halm) and Team Reinert Adventure (Reinert/Lenz).
For full results click here. The second race of the Slovakia Ring weekend is scheduled to start at 16.40 local time.