Having secured pole twice at both Misano and Slovakia Ring earlier this season, Hungarian Kiss continued his impressive sequence of Goodyear FIA ETRC pole positions with the fastest time in Qualifying 1-2-3 aboard his Revesz Racing MAN.
The seven-time Goodyear FIA ETRC champion clocked a best time of 1m53.327s around Nurburgring’s 3.629-kilometre Sprint Circuit to edge out fellow MAN driver Antonio Albacete (below), from Spain, whose fastest effort was a 1m53.904s.
Sascha Lenz – the Goodyear Wingfoot Award winner at the Slovakia Ring last month – was the top German driver in third, one place ahead of compatriot, the IVECO-powered Jochen Hahn, a winner of the Goodyear FIA ETRC title on six occasions.
René Reinert and Steffi Halm also progressed to Q3 to make if four homegrown drivers in the top six as Hahn’s son Lukas topped the Chrome order in seventh overall.
“It was a good qualifying even though we were struggling a bit with the brake cooling in the free practices,” said Kiss. “But, eventually, just before qualifying we could fix it so I could build up the confidence in Q1 and Q2 to have consistent lap times. Even though the weather is quite warm, the lap time is still good so I think we can be happy. I’m very thankful to Révész Racing for doing a good job.”
Kiss will now bid to bank his eighth win of the Goodyear FIA ETRC season in Race 1 tomorrow (Saturday).
“For sure the aim is always to win the race,” said Kiss (below), who triumphed twice at the Nurburgring in 2025. “I think we can be a bit more confident as Jochen is a couple of places behind and not starting next to us because he’s a very strong and fierce competitor always. For sure we’ll need to do a good start and a good first turn and try to stay in front.”
While a place in Q3 eluded him, Lukas Hahn was the fastest Chrome driver on his second appearance of the Goodyear FIA ETRC season.
“I don’t make a mistake, but I was too soft with the truck because I want to have the tyre for the Q3, then it was too hot and I didn’t get it together,” said Hahn. “But I’m really happy to be P1 in the Chrome category and looking forward to the race tomorrow and getting the points. I had a short break since Misano, no holiday, but now we are back at the Nürburgring and I’m happy to be here. It’s like riding a bicycle in the end.”
How the battle for Goodyear FIA ETRC pole position unfolded
While Norbert Kiss charged to a time of 1m53.834s to top Q1 and progress to Q2, seven drivers missed out on making the next phase of qualifying in sunbaked Germany. They were John Newell, Luke Garrett, Clemens Hecker, Steffen Faas, Stefan Faas, Emma Makinen and Luis Recuenco.
Behind Kiss, Rene Reinert ended the 15-minute Q1 second quickest followed by Chrome category pacesetter Lukas Hahn (below). Antonio Albacete was next up with Steffi Halm, Jochen Hahn, Jose Eduardo Rodrigues, Sascha Lenz, Mark Talor and Jonathan Andre completing the top 10. Returning former FIA ETRC champion Adam Lacko was 11th quickest, while Bradley Smith emerged as the final driver to get through to Q2.
A mere 1.050s covered the fastest six drivers in Q2, which Kiss headed in a time of 1m53.340s to secure his place in the Q3 shootout for pole position. Albacete was second fastest with René Reinert third. Jochen Hahn, who was fourth quickest, progressed at the expense of son Lukas, who had been in the all-important top six until his father made his move later in the 10-miniute session. Lenz and Halm also secured their places in Q2, as Rodrigues joined Lukas Hahn, Lacko, Taylor, Smith and André in missing out.
The six-truck showdown for pole position ended with a fifth pole position of 2026 for defending Goodyear FIA ETRC champion Kiss as Albacete produced his best qualifying performance of the year in second place for T Sport Bernau. After his double DNF and single non-start in Slovakia, Jochen Hahn went fourth quickest ahead of Reinert and Halm.
Warm-up is next from 08:00 local time on Saturday with Race 1 following at 10:20 live on YouTube. Click HERE for live timing and follow the Sportity app using the password: FIA_ETRC_26 for results.
