Reigning TCR Germany champion Harald Proczyk moved himself closer to the top of the table with an authoritative victory in race one at the Hockenheimring, with the podium completed by fellow Hyundai racers Max Hesse and Theo Coicaud.
Proczyk led the race from lights-to-flag, never really being challenged beyond the start of the race. When the lights went out he had to hold his line from Andreas Bäckman and Mike Halder, who slotted into second, but the Austrian was then able to open up a comfortable gap.
Although Halder was into second early on, the Team Honda ADAC Sachsen driver fell behind both the Team Engstler Hyundais of Theo Coicaud and Max Hesse on lap two, as he went wide at the final corner and dropped to fifth.
Coicaud and Hesse then followed race leader Proczyk, swapping positions on lap 11 as Hesse, in title contention, took second.
The race eventually finished behind the safety car after Proczyk’s team-mate Lukas Niedertscheider, engaged in a race-long battle with LMS Racing’s Antti Buri, crashed into the Finn at the Mercedes arena and left his stricken car in the gravel on the exit of the corner.
Halder took the chequered flag in fourth, after re-taking the position from Andreas Bäckman on lap nine, just after a first three-lap safety car period which was needed when Marcel Fugel crashed his FK2 Honda Civic into the barriers at the final corner when he suffered a failure on his front-left wheel.
Halder’s team-mate Dominik Fugel was fifth, ahead of the Steibel Motorsport CUPRA of Pascal Eberle in sixth.
Jessica Bäckman was seventh, ahead of her brother Andreas in eighth, who lost a handful of positions when he tried to go three-wide with Niedertscheider and Buri on lap 12 before outbraking himself at the hairpin.
Sebastian Steibel was the best Volkswagen driver in ninth, whilst Buri completed the top ten after limping to the end in his damaged Audi.
Mitchell Cheah was 11th in his Team Oettinger Volkswagen, ahead of René Kircher’s Racing One Audi.
Victory for Proczyk (327 points) moves him to just 13 points behinds series leader Buri (340) in third in the standings, whilst Hesse (337) is just three points behind the Finn ahead of Sunday’s second race.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 16 LAPS | 1:49.309 | 1 |
| 2 | 19 | Max HESSE |  |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 0.401 | 1:49.318 | 4 |
| 3 | 27 | Theo COICAUD |  |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 1.157 | 1:48.974 | 3 |
| 4 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 16 | 2.656 | 1:49.873 | 5 |
| 5 | 88 | Dominik FUGEL | |
Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 16 | 3.560 | 1:50.342 | 9 |
| 6 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE |  |
Steibel Motorsport 2 | CUPRA TCR | 16 | 4.325 | 1:50.362 | 8 |
| 7 | 101 | Jessica BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 4.713 | 1:50.625 | 6 |
| 8 | 9 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 4.993 | 1:49.431 | 2 |
| 9 | 23 | Sebastian STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 16 | 5.399 | 1:50.826 | 13 |
| 10 | 13 | Antti BURI |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 9.165 | 1:50.458 | 10 |
| 11 | 29 | Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie |  |
VW Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 16 | 9.458 | 1:51.334 | 11 |
| 12 | 8 | René KIRCHER | |
racing one | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 10.055 | 1:51.108 | 15 |
| 13 | 53 | Michelle HALDER | |
Profi-Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 16 | 10.644 | 1:51.307 | 20 |
| 14 | 50 | Kai JORDAN | |
VW Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 16 | 11.837 | 1:51.787 | 14 |
| 15 | 98 | Jan SEYFFERT | |
Lubner Motorsport | LADA Vesta TCR | 16 | 12.291 | 1:52.121 | 19 |
| 16 | 105 | Franz SIMON | |
Hyundai Team Engstler 2 | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 12.762 | 1:52.822 | 16 |
| 17 | 31 | Mario ANDEREGG | |
TOPCAR Sport 2 | CUPRA TCR | 16 | 13.433 | 1:52.472 | 18 |
| 18 | 22 | Julien APOTHÉLOZ | |
TOPCAR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:50.496 | 12 |
| R | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | DNF | 1:50.376 | 7 |
| R | 55 | Marcel FUGEL | |
Profi-Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type R FK2 TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:51.092 | 17 |
| NS | 6 | Bradley BURNS |  |
Team Pyro Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |