After a great summer break, T Sport Bernau returned to racing at Autodrom Most, CZ last weekend.
The team were greeted with extremely hot weather when arriving at the circuit which made it difficult to perfect the setup of truck and to would provide some challenges of looking after the tyres.
The team set to work to set up our garage and hospitality area in the paddock as we prepared to greet our guests from PE, Teng Tools, Varta and MAN over the course of the weekend.
On Friday there were two free practice sessions followed by the first qualifying of the weekend. Despite the hot weather Antonio was able to set some great lap times and progressed into the final stage of qualifying without issues. The final qualifying session only has time for the drivers to make one flying, fast lap. Unfortunately for Antonio he was hampered by another competitor making a mistake infront meaning he had to abandon his lap, ultimately having to settle for sixth position on the grid for the first race.
Saturday came around and the team were feeling motivated and ready to get onto the track for the first race of the weekend.
After a warm up session in the morning the first race was scheduled at lunchtime meaning both the track and air temperature had risen by the time the race began. Antonio got away well however there was a big incident that happened just ahead of him. Antonio had to take avoiding action to avoid a collision and after running off the track he dropped places and found himself running in tenth position. Determined to make amends Antonio fought hard throughout the race and was able to gain places and crossed the finish line in eighth position. Not the result we had hoped for however with the reverse grid format an eighth place finish would see Antonio line up on pole position for the second race one the day.
From pole position Antonio got a fantastic start and was able to get away cleanly without being challenged from behind. During the first stage of the race Antonio was able to extend his lead and was able to manage his race throughout, bringing home a comfortable victory at the chequered flag.
Sunday came around and another qualifying session sets the grid for the first race. Antonio was setting fantastic lap times and was consistently finishing second in warm up and the first two qualifying sessions. The third and final qualifying session saw fellow competitor Jochen Hahn manage to sneak ahead with a fast lap meaning Antonio ultimately qualified in third position for the first race of the day.
Antonio lined up on the second row of the grid with championship rival Sascha Lenz alongside him. Off the start Lenz was able to make a move and squeeze ahead of Antonio through the first corner. Antonio fought hard throughout the race, eager to regain the place he had lost at the start. Unfortunately there wasn’t an opportunity for Antonio to make a clean overtake and he didn’t want to risk damaging the truck or losing further places by trying to make a bold overtake, ultimately crossing the finish line in fourth position.
The final race of the weekend and due to the reverse grid format Antonio lined up in 5th position on the grid. Antonio got another great start and was able to make up places and found himself running in third position and heading towards a podium finish. The race was extremely close and there were a number of trucks all fighting for a place in the podium. Someone behind managed to get down the inside of Antonio going into a corner and pushed him wide and off the track, this saw him lose places and he eventually brought the truck home in eighth position.
After a challenging weekend the team will now head to Garage Lunau in Wuppertal, Germany where we will service the race truck before we head to the IAA in Hannover where our truck will be on show for the visitors. From there we will head straight to Le Mans for the penultimate round of the 2024 FIA Goodyear European Truck Racing Championship.
#racereport #truckracing #results #antonioalbacete #vartaautomotive #pe #truckfit #masteroil #tengtools #nissens
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