After defending Goodyear FIA ETRC champion Kiss took the Race 1 honours by a comfortable margin, the focus switched to Race 2 with the top eight finishers from the opening contest starting the second counter in reverse order.
That left Kiss to line up in eighth and Reinert alongside polesitter Mark Taylor. And having been denied the Race 2 win at Slovakia Ring last month by 0.010s, Reinert wasted no time passing Taylor for a lead he wouldn’t lose as Jose Eduardo Rodrigues and Halm completed the podium after an action—packed 12 laps, watched by tens of thousands of fans in glorious sunshine.
Kiss, who was joined on the Race 1 podium by Antonio Albacete and Jochen Hahn earlier in the day, came within 0.125s of beating Halm to third in Race 2, but had to settle for second after Halm drove at her defensive best to secure the final podium spot.
Taylor took the Chrome honours in Race 1 ahead of John Newell and Bradley Smith but there was no repeat for Taylor in Race 2 due to a trio of over-speeding judgements. Smith triumphed as a result ahead of Newell and Lukas Hahn, who was leading the category in Race 1 before tyre damage forced him to retire.
Race 1 winner Norbert Kiss said: “It’s never easy but it was good, we could be confident. It was a good start and a good first couple of turns, then I started to build a bit of a gap. The truck was good, so a very good job from Revesz Racing. With the set-up the balance was really nice, it was very enjoyable to drive and very good points.”
Race 2 winner Rene Reinert said: “In the beginning it was stressful, I forget to switch on my brake water and it was not good at the beginning. But then it was working well with the temperatures and everything and I tried to find my rhythm. Mark blocked the rest of the field behind me, so it was perfect. We was next to each other in the first corner and second corner and in the third corner I brake in the corner, he was already on the outside, and I overtake him, it was fair, he left me the space so all good. It’s my first win at Nurburgring after 50 tries, second place, third place but never a win.”
Race 1 Chrome winner Mark Taylor said: “It was a good race, a good start, everyone was fair. The first corner was quite busy but every got round good, there were no dramas and I’m pleased everyone could do the race. The truck’s working good and not it’s pole for the reverse grid so we’ll see how it goes in the next one.”
Race 2 Chrome winner Bradley Smith said: “It’s nice to have a win. I had a good start and when I saw Mark [Taylor] had pulled into the pits that put us up to second. Then I was able to overtake John [Newell] out of the last corner, pulled a little gap and played it safe to bring it home and came away with the win. I was literally touching the [pit] wall when I did my move on John, it was that close – he wouldn’t let me breathe! I tried the move a lap before but a truck pulled out of the pitlane so I had to back out of it, but I managed to get it done on the next lap, so it was good. We’re getting there with the truck, first time here with it and still getting used to it but I’m happy, we’re making progress.”
All drivers are racing with Goodyear’s new-for-2026 tyre, which features 60 per cent sustainable materials, while tomorrow will provide the second opportunity of the season for fans to vote for the Goodyear Wingfoot Award on Instagram during Race 4.
Still to come…
Round three of the 2026 Goodyear FIA ETRC continues tomorrow (Sunday) with a 15-minute Warm-up from 08:00 local time followed by Qualifying 4-5-6 at 09:00. Race 3, which is scheduled for 12 laps, is due to begin at 11:55 with the 12-lap Race 4 set to get under way at 16:05.
