Jose Rodrigues took only his second ever FIA ETRC win at Zolder this afternoon....
Jose Rodrigues took his first win of the 2018 FIA European Truck Racing Championship season by taking the final race at Circuit Zolder today.
The Portuguese driver claimed his second career win, after Red Bull Ring in 2017, to make it a joyous day for his tight-knit Reboconort MAN team.
Rodrigues started from the semi-reversed grid pole and led all the way despite massive pressure from Steffi Halm and Jochen Hahn for the majority of the race.
Rene Reinert, who started alongside Rodrigues from the front-row initially pressured Rodrigues but was unable to find a way through.
Lap four saw Reinert run wide and lose second place to former teammate Steffi Halm in her Team Schwabentruck IVECO.
Reinert’s race didn’t last much longer however as he pulled off the track at the start of lap six with a suspected mechanical problem.
This left Halm to take second as she too was unable to break Rodrigues who defended admirably from the German pincer movements behind him.
Halm tried everything she could to try and take a second Zolder win of the weekend but failed by just 0.397s on the finishing line.
Jochen Hahn completed a successful weekend with his fourth podium appearance in as many races. The German ace hustled his way through from eighth on the grid to pick off several drivers and finish just behind Halm at the chequered flag.
Hahn’s stellar weekend ensured that he extended his advantage in the points table to 66 over his closest pursuer Adam Lacko.
Behind the top three there was action aplenty as Sascha Lenz held off a train of trucks including Norbert Kiss (Tankpool24 Racing Mercedes-Benz) and Antonio Albacete (Trucksport Lutz Bernau) in a tense stand-off for fourth place.
In doing so Lenz further extended his remarkable run of being the only driver in 2018 to score points in every single race.
A subdued Adam Lacko finished in seventh position after running sixth in the early stages.
The Czech fell back behind Kiss and Albacete and from there was never able to challenge and improve his position.
There was trouble for Andre Kursim on the first lap when apparent contact saw him with a damaged truck at Turn 5.
The German at least managed to get going again but immediately pitted and retired his Don’t Touch Racing IVECO.
Faas Takes GRAMMER Glory
Another enthralling GRAMMER TRUCK CUP saw Steffen Faas become the fourth different winner in the category this weekend.
Faas benefitted from Jamie Anderson’s drive-through penalty to the win just 1.4s ahead of Buggyra’s Oly Janes.
Anderson had looked poised to take his second victory of the weekend as he headed off Shane Brereton (TOR Truck Racing MAN) in the first half of the race.
The British driver drove faultlessly but a drive-through penalty for hitting penalty markers saw him drop to third in the category.
Shane Brereton looked set to take a welcome 15 points but a problem on the final lap saw him forced to park his MAN and retire.
Ray Coleman took his best result of the weekend with fourth place in his LRS Racing MAN ahead of Luis Recuenco who fought back from a first lap excursion to take fifth for Trucksport Lutz Bernau.
Jose-Eduardo Rodrigues completed his most impressive FIA ETRC weekend to date with sixth in GRAMMER, while Erwin Kleinnagelvoort was placed seventh in his EK Race Scania.
In the team’s standings it was again the partnership of Hahn and Halm that won for the Die Bullen von IVECO Magirus team.
Second was the Reboconorte pairing of the father and son Rodrigues axis. Third was Tankpool24 Racing’s Kiss and Faas.
The next races in the 2018 schedule are at Le Mans-Bugatti over the weekend of 29/30 September.
For race result clisk here.