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FIA European Truck Racing Championship
Round 6 – Autodrom Most, Czech Republic
TWO WINS FOR BOSIGER
ONE EACH FOR HAHN AND LEVETT
The sixth event in the 2010 European Championship
proved to be a hugely successful one for the MKR Technology
team – with the Renault pairing of Markus Bosiger and Markus
Oestreich dominating both Qualifying and the races on
Saturday and Sunday.
Oestreich secured pole
position on Saturday with his team-mate Bosiger lining up
alongside on the front row. But from the rolling start it
was Bosiger who got his nose ahead and powered into a lead
he then held all the way to the finishing line. Joining the
two Renault drivers on the first podium of the day was Chris
Levett – who claimed a strong 3rd
place in the Bird’s MAN, ahead of championship leader
Antonio Albacete.
The official results Race 2
show Jochen Hahn taking his MAN to victory ahead of
hard-charging Oestreich with Albacete in close contention in
third. Czech drivers David Vrsecky (Freightliner) and Adam
Lacko (MAN) were classified 4th
and 5th
respectively with Alexander Lvov (MAN) completing the top
six. But the ‘on the road’ result had been slightly
different as (in wet conditions) Levett had made a late
charge to 4th and Bosiger was running 6th.
However, both dropped out of the points when some rather
dubious ‘overspeeding’ penalties were applied – adding 50
seconds to Levett’s race time and 40 seconds to Bosiger’s.
Practice on Sunday was again dominated by the MKR
duo – with Oestreich once more out-performing his team-mate
on a flying lap to snatch pole. Nearest challenger to the
Renault pair was Levett – just 0.191s. slower than Bosiger
with Hahn hot on his heels.
The start of Race 3 was almost a carbon copy of the
opening race on Saturday as Bosiger again eased ahead of
Oestreich into turn one. The two then circulated in close
company throughout the race – Bosiger taking the chequered
flag just 0.389s. ahead. A three-way scrap for third
involved the MANs of Hahn, Levett and Albacete – with the
Spanish driver making good progress to overhaul the other
two to pick up the final podium spot. Levett had been
slightly handicapped as he drove almost the entire race with
a broken throttle pedal!
The final race on Sunday saw
the MANs of Lacko and Lvov lining up on the front of the
grid – but Levett was in no mood to take prisoners and
squeezed past the Russian Lvov into the opening chicane. At
almost the same point on lap 2 he successfully pulled off a
similar manoeuvre to grab the lead from Lacko – and from
then onwards the Bird’s MAN driver pulled clear to take
victory by a healthy margin of over six seconds. Lacko came
under pressure from Albacete – but held on for the runner-up
spot by just 0.619s. at the flag. Oestreich had another
strong drive to secure 4th
(thereby becoming top points scorer of the weekend – and
moving up to 4th
in the championship) with Hahn and Bosiger completing the
top six.
Albacete’s lead at the top of the championship
standings is still a healthy 36-points over Hahn – but
Bosiger is looming large in third, just 6 points behind the
German.
The battle for the Teams’ Championship is getting
increasingly tight as MKR Technology have closed down the
gap to series leaders Truck Sport Bernau to just 12 points.
Next race: Circuit Zolder (Belgium) – September
11/12
News en Pictures of
PEMBREY August 15
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