Harald Proczyk took a hard-fought pole position for the opening race of the ADAC TCR Germany Series finale at Hockenheim this afternoon, as the Austrian put his Lubner Motorsport Astra TCR ahead of the AC 1927 Mayen Audi RS3 LMS of Sheldon van der Linde by just 0.049 seconds.
The Austrian set the best time of a 1:48.366 around the 4.374-km circuit on his last attempt, whilst Team Honda ADAC Sachen’s Steve Kirsch completed the top three, who were just 0.175 seconds apart.
The remainder of the top six were also very close to the pace set by Proczyk, with points leader Josh Files’ closest rival, Wolf-Power Racing’s Mike Halder in fourth, 0.001 seconds ahead of rookie champion Luca Engstler, with five different brands comprising the sharp end of the grid.
Kris Richard was the best of the Target Competition contingent, pushing his Honda Civic TCR to sixth, ahead of the next best-placed Audis of Aust Motorsport’s Sandro Kaibach and Racing One’s Niels Langeveld.
Two further Hondas completed the top ten, with Kirsch’s team mate Marcus Oestreich 0.284 seconds faster than defending champion Files.
The two Audi RS3 LMS’ of Germany’s Max Hofer and the returning Jaap van Lagen, racing with the Dutch Certainty Racing Team, would round out the top 12 drivers that made it to the pole position shoot-out.
The penultimate race of the 2017 ADAC TCR Germany Series season gets underway at 12:00 local time tomorrow (1100 BST), with Files on course to take a second successive title.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing | Opel Astra TCR | 5 | 1:48.366 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:48.415 | 0.049 |
| 3 | 41 | Steve KIRSCH |  |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 4 | 1:48.541 | 0.175 |
| 4 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 6 | 1:48.551 | 0.185 |
| 5 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 4 | 1:48.552 | 0.186 |
| 6 | 94 | Kris RICHARD |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | 1:48.559 | 0.193 |
| 7 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:48.688 | 0.322 |
| 8 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 1:48.789 | 0.423 |
| 9 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 4 | 1:48.869 | 0.503 |
| 10 | 1 | Josh FILES |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 4 | 1:49.153 | 0.787 |
| 11 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:49.208 | 0.842 |
| 12 | 56 | Jaap VAN LAGEN | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:49.475 | 1.109 |
Qualifying Group A results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD | |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 1:48.536 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:48.627 | 0.091 |
| 3 | 56 | Jaap VAN LAGEN | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:48.671 | 0.135 |
| 4 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 1:48.687 | 0.151 |
| 5 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | 1:48.836 | 0.300 |
| 6 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 1:48.908 | 0.372 |
| 7 | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | Opel Astra TCR | 8 | 1:48.958 | 0.422 |
| 8 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE | |
Steibel Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 1:48.982 | 0.446 |
| 9 | 20 | Niko KANKKUNEN |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:49.007 | 0.471 |
| 10 | 98 | Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:49.008 | 0.472 |
| 11 | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 9 | 1:49.183 | 0.647 |
| 12 | 38 | Jason WOLFE |  |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 9 | 1:49.259 | 0.723 |
| 13 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider MSP | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 1:49.352 | 0.816 |
| 14 | 78 | Fabian DANZ | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | SEAT León Cup Racer | 9 | 1:49.517 | 0.981 |
| 15 | 2 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 1:49.527 | 0.991 |
| 16 | 12 | Simon LARSSON |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:49.825 | 1.289 |
| 17 | 9 | Stefan GOEDE | |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 7 | 1:50.659 | 2.123 |
| 18 | 84 | Maurits SANDBERG | |
Racing One 2 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:50.757 | 2.221 |
Qualifying Group B results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 9 | 1:48.377 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:48.462 | 0.085 |
| 3 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK | |
HP Racing | Opel Astra TCR | 7 | 1:48.542 | 0.165 |
| 4 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 5 | 1:48.572 | 0.195 |
| 5 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:48.626 | 0.249 |
| 6 | 1 | Josh FILES | |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 7 | 1:48.674 | 0.297 |
| 7 | 10 | Antti BURI | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:48.675 | 0.298 |
| 8 | 99 | Tim ZIMMERMANN | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:48.788 | 0.411 |
| 9 | 39 | Florian THOMA | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 6 | 1:49.066 | 0.689 |
| 10 | 35 | Rudolf RHYN | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 1:49.183 | 0.806 |
| 11 | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL | |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 10 | 1:49.191 | 0.814 |
| 12 | 73 | Fredy BARTH | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 1:49.211 | 0.834 |
| 13 | 66 | Ronny JOST | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 10 | 1:49.288 | 0.911 |
| 14 | 16 | Luigi FERRARA |  |
V-Action Racing Team | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 9 | 1:49.358 | 0.981 |
| 15 | 29 | Max HESSE | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:49.927 | 1.550 |
| 16 | 15 | Cosimo BARBERINI | |
V-Action Racing Team | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 6 | 1:50.495 | 2.118 |
| 17 | 54 | Simon REICHER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:50.883 | 2.506 |
| 18 | 34 | Orhan VOUILLOZ | |
Young Driver Challenge | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 1:50.909 | 2.532 |
| 19 | 23 | Sebastien STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 1 | No time |