Hahn claims victory at Misano World Circuit

A chaotic start to the season has seen #jochenhahn on the top step of the podium. He led Antonio Albacete and André Kursim across the line in a quiet race for the German after Pole Sitter Norbert Kiss retired due to a mechanical issue.

Leading the field away, Kiss looked to be breaking away from the field in a typical 2022 fashion. But it all came to a halt on the second lap when the Hungarian began to lose speed. A mechanical failure saw the four-time champion stopped at Turn 1, unable to continue.

Kiss was not the first retirement, however, as Mark Taylor also stopped on track during the first lap.

With Kiss no longer in the fight, Hahn began to build a comfortable lead that no one could close down. Steffi Halm had inherited second, but was under a lot of pressure from fourth-placed Antonio Albacete who was pushing hard for the second podium spot. He managed to make the pass on Halm, moving up the inside of the first corner to claim the position he would finish the race in.

Halm settled into a content third, holding off the advances from Kursim and looking set to take the last podium position, but with three laps to go disaster struck. A suspect puncture saw the Team Schwabentruck pouring out white smoke, which Halm tried to continue #racing with, but in the end the damage was too much to continue. Kursim took the final step of the podium ahead of Promoter’s Cup winner José Eduardo Rodrigues and a recovering Sacha Lenz to round off the top five.

With three trucks retiring, the entire field finished within the top ten. Steffen Faas led Jonathan André to complete the Promoter’s Cup podium, sixth and seventh respectively, after a close battle with Rodrigues for the lead. John Newell, Clemens Hecker and Luis Recuenco completed the finishing order.