Mike Halder emerged victorious in the second ADAC TCR Germany race at Oschersleben, passing Petr Fulín for the win on the last lap in a race which featured a large first-lap crash and race stoppage.
At the start LMS Racing’s Antti Buri got a good getaway and jumped from third on the grid into the lead, but the Finn would later be adjudged to have jumped the start and was given a drive-through penalty.
Further around the opening lap, Simon Reicher spun his Audi across the circuit at Turn 7, leaving him in the middle of the tarmac. Whilst the first few cars through were able to avoid the German, he was subsequently collected by Harald Proczyk and Luca Engstler, whilst in the mêlée the cars of Jasmin Preisig, Sebastian Steibel, Loris Prattes, Dominik Fugel and Marcel Fugel were also involved.
That required a lengthy 15-minute red-flag period, which also meant the restarted race would be run to 15 minutes plus one racing lap.
At the restart Buri controlled the race until serving his penalty on lap seven, which then handed Fulín the lead in his CUPRA TCR.
Halder, who had jumped from tenth to sixth at the first start, was up to fourth on lap six when Luca Engstler made a slight mistake at Turn 7, and then the Honda driver passed Racing One’s Niels Langeveld for third at the final corner with slight contact – which was investigated but dismissed by the stewards.
With Buri’s penalty, Halder then chased down Fulín for the lead and on the final lap he put huge pressure on the Czech racer, who out-braked himself into Turn 3 and allowed Halder the switchback to take the lead, and then the win.
Fulín held on for second, ahead of Langeveld in third. Engstler took the chequered flag in fourth ahead of Liqui Moly Team Engstler team-mate Florian Thoma, who made up for his race one retirement with points in fifth.
Proczyk took sixth, despite having been caught in the first lap incident, ahead of Benjamin Leuchter in seventh, with the Max Kruse Racing driver having once again carved his way through the pack from the back of the grid.
Engstler Motorsport’s Theo Coicaud was eighth, ahead of the second HP Racing Opel of Luke Wankmüller in ninth, despite the German trailing his rear bumper for the second half of the race. The Peugeot 308 of Lukas Niedertscheider completed the top ten.
The results give Proczyk the early championship lead after the first event, with half points having been awarded in the race, giving the Austrian 56 points, ahead of Langeveld on 54 and Engstler on 48.
The next TCR Germany event of 2018 takes place at Autodrom Most on 27 – 29 April.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 7 | Mike HALDER |  |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic TCR 2018 | 12 | 12 LAPS | 1:33.479 | 10 |
| 2 | 2 | Petr FULÍN |  |
Fullin Race Academy | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 0.476 | 1:33.477 | 1 |
| 3 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 0.839 | 1:33.354 | 4 |
| 4 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 1.143 | 1:33.254 | 2 |
| 5 | 39 | Florian THOMA |  |
Team Engstler Europe | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 2.362 | 1:33.455 | 9 |
| 6 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing International | Opel Astra TCR | 12 | 5.573 | 1:33.616 | 8 |
| 7 | 10 | Benjamin LEUCHTER | |
Max Kruse Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 6.309 | 1:32.894 | 28 |
| 8 | 27 | Theo COICAUD |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 13.662 | 1:34.029 | 18 |
| 9 | 11 | Luke WANKMÜLLER | |
HP Racing International | Opel Astra TCR | 12 | 14.778 | 1:33.397 | 6 |
| 10 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider Motorsport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 18.518 | 1:34.298 | 11 |
| 11 | 47 | Niko KANKKUNEN |  |
Team Engstler Europe | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 18.765 | 1:34.013 | 13 |
| 12 | 19 | Max HESSE | |
Prosport Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 19.106 | 1:33.837 | 27 |
| 13 | 29 | Jussi KUUSINIEMI | |
Positione Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 19.288 | 1:34.420 | 22 |
| 14 | 6 | Oliver HOLDENER | |
Wolf-Power Racing | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 19.815 | 1:34.532 | 17 |
| 15 | 53 | Michelle HALDER | |
Profi-Car Team Halder | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 20.811 | 1:34.117 | 19 |
| 16 | 30 | Antti BURI | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 32.229 | 1:33.208 | 3 |
| 17 | 33 | JC REYNOLDS | |
TOPCAR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 39.411 | 1:35.706 | 26 |
| 18 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Prosport Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 51.603 | 1:33.537 | 14 |
| 19 | 5 | Alex MORGAN |  |
Wolf-Power Racing | Renault Mégane TCR | 11 | + 1 LAP | 1:35.628 | 21 |
| R | 77 | Justin HÄUßERMANN | |
Team Engstler Germany | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:34.522 | 16 |
| R | 99 | Maurits SANDBERG | |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 25 |
| R | 54 | Simon REICHER | |
YACO Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 5 |
| R | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Steibel Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 12 |
| R | 3 | Kai JORDAN | |
Team Engstler Germany | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 15 |
| R | 23 | Sebastian STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 20 |
| R | 60 | Loris PRATTES | |
TOPCAR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 23 |
| R | 55 | Marcel FUGEL | |
Profi-Car Team Halder | Honda Civic TCR 2018 | 1 | DNF | N/A | 24 |
| R | 88 | Dominik FUGEL | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic TCR 2018 | 0 | DNF | N/A | 7 |
| NS | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Besagroup Racing Team | Renault Mégane TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 29 |