Team Honda ADAC Sachsen’s Moritz Oestreich took victory in the opening TCR Germany race of the weekend at Oschersleben, as Target Competition’s Kris Richard retired from second on the penultimate lap of the race.
The Honda racer got the jump on pole-sitter Niels Langeveld when the lights went out at the start, with Langeveld himself dropping to fifth by the end of the opening lap after a poor start.
Lap five saw Simon Larsson crash out of the race at Turn 9 after losing control of his Audi all by himself, prompting a brief safety car intervention.
Thereafter, Oestreich found himself leading from Richard for much of the race, before the Swiss racer suffered from a spectacular engine fire as he was about to start the final lap of the race.
Richard’s engine fire was eerily similar to that suffered by team-mate Jürgen Schmarl in practice on Friday. That fire sent Schmarl to the back of the grid for race one and ultimately into retirement after six laps.
Richard’s retirement allowed Steibel Motorsport’s Pascal Eberle to claim second, after he had earlier lost out to Richard at the start, ahead of Engstler Motorsport’s Luca Engstler in third, who secured a maiden podium in the championship.
Engstler’s team-mate Florian Thoma took fourth after battling through the top ten from ninth on the grid, ahead of the leading Target Competition Audi of Tim Zimmermann in fifth, the German having got past Langeveld on the penultimate lap of the race.
Langeveld held on to claim sixth, his best result of the season, despite contact from the Honda of Steve Kirsch on lap 11 losing him ground. Behind him were the Austrian trio of Max Hofer in seventh, Lukas Niedertscheider in eighth and Harald Proczyk in ninth.
Proczyk managed to get past defending champion Josh Files late in the race, with Files having to settle for tenth.
Files had earlier been as high as fifth, having ended the first lap in seventh after starting 14th, and after passing Langeveld on lap 14, but the Brit then unexpectedly went straight on at Turn 11 just moments later and lost five places.
Prosport Performance’s Sheldon van der Linde suffered a huge dent to his championship challenge, with the South African retiring from the race in the pits on the opening lap.
Files now leads the championship by a huge 68 points over Thoma, with a maximum of 40 points being awarded for a race victory.
Race two takes place at 10:15 CEST (09:15 BST) on Sunday and will feature the top ten qualifiers being reversed.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH |  |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 18 LAPS | 1:34.410 | 3 |
| 2 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE |  |
Steibel Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 0.634 | 1:34.045 | 2 |
| 3 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 1.505 | 1:34.022 | 4 |
| 4 | 39 | Florian THOMA | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 2.021 | 1:34.054 | 9 |
| 5 | 99 | Tim ZIMMERMANN | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 7.887 | 1:34.437 | 8 |
| 6 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 8.962 | 1:34.075 | 1 |
| 7 | 19 | Max HOFER |  |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 9.714 | 1:33.893 | 15 |
| 8 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider MSP | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 10.45 | 1:34.109 | 10 |
| 9 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK | |
HP Racing | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 12.503 | 1:34.569 | 16 |
| 10 | 1 | Josh FILES |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 13.167 | 1:34.074 | 14 |
| 11 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 14.155 | 1:34.257 | 11 |
| 12 | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 15.223 | 1:34.409 | 6 |
| 13 | 27 | José RODRIGUES |  |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 15.38 | 1:34.633 | 19 |
| 14 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 16.109 | 1:34.572 | 18 |
| 15 | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 18 | 16.822 | 1:34.827 | 13 |
| 16 | 38 | Jason WOLFE |  |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 17.265 | 1:34.817 | 17 |
| 17 | 98 | Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 18.422 | 1:34.695 | 12 |
| 18 | 2 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 20.265 | 1:34.512 | 22 |
| 19 | 24 | Robin BREZINA | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 21.864 | 1:35.333 | 20 |
| 20 | 82 | Thomas KRAMWINKEL | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 22.806 | 1:35.412 | 28 |
| 21 | 13 | Kai JORDAN | |
Racing One | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 24.925 | 1:34.941 | 24 |
| 22 | 35 | Rudolf RHYN | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 25.704 | 1:35.299 | 30 |
| 23 | 3 | Gosia RDEST |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 26.834 | 1:35.350 | 27 |
| 24 | 66 | Ronny JOST | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 29.446 | 1:35.036 | 23 |
| 25 | 54 | Simon REICHER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 30.14 | 1:35.397 | 34 |
| 26 | 9 | Stefan GOEDE | |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 31.659 | 1:34.917 | 29 |
| 27 | 64 | Sven MARKERT | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 32.471 | 1:35.683 | 35 |
| 28 | 40 | Dillon KOSTER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 35.071 | 1:35.813 | 33 |
| 29 | 23 | Sebastien STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 36.873 | 1:35.514 | 36 |
| 30 | 31 | Floris DULLAART | |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 55.78 | 1:35.426 | 32 |
| R | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 16 | DNF | 1:34.088 | 5 |
| R | 78 | Fabian DANZ | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | SEAT León Cup Racer | 15 | DNF | 1:34.986 | 25 |
| R | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 15 | DNF | 1:35.174 | 31 |
| R | 20 | Niko KANKKUNEN |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:35.278 | 21 |
| R | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL | |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | DNF | 1:35.681 | 37 |
| R | 12 | Simon LARSSON |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:36.172 | 26 |
| R | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 7 |