Nico Gruber storms to Hockenheimring pole

Nico Gruber flew to his first pole position of the season in the ADAC TCR Germany series at the Hockenheimring ahead of Jan Seyffert.

The Hyundai Team Engstler driver set a time of 1 minute 48.019 seconds early in Q2, with his nearest challenger being fellow Hyundai driver Seyffert 0.516 seconds behind.

Third place on the grid for round five went to Felix Wimmer who set a fine time on the Cupra León Competición TCR’s first appearance in the championship and was just 0.059 seconds adrift of Seyffert ahead.

Championship leader Dominik Fugel had a Q2 to forget, however. Both him and rival Antti Buri scraped into the second part of qualifying with the German driver then not taking part in the 10-minute session, leaving him to start tomorrow’s race down in 10^th, although will have the reverse grid pole for Sunday.

Buri on the other hand did recover from his scare in Q1 to take fourth ahead of series debutant Philipp Walsdorf in fifth in one of the returning Lubner Motorsport prepared Opel Astra TCR’s.

Sixth fastest was the leading Volkswagen driver René Kircher, who was just 0.150 seconds behind Walsdorf, with the top 10 being completed by Marcel Fugel, second in the championship standings Harald Proczyk, Harri Salminen and Fugel.

Dziugas Tovilavicius was the first driver to miss out on Q2 and was 11^th quickest with Albert Legutko setting the 12^th fastest time 0.232 seconds behind.

The grid for tomorrows race was completed by Steffen Redlich in the second of the Astra’s, Niki Schelle, Szymon Ladniak and Günter Benninger who had his fastest lap time deleted due to a track limits infringement.

Race one at the Hockenheimring is set to take place at 11:50 CEST on Saturday (10:50 BST).

Q2 results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	97	Nicolas GRUBER		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	3	1:48.019	0.000
2	98	Jan SEYFFERT		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	1:48.535	0.516
3	24	Felix WIMMER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	5	1:48.594	0.575
4	13	Antti BURI		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	5	1:48.618	0.599
5	84	Philipp WALSDORF		Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	3	1:48.828	0.809
6	8	René KIRCHER		Volkswagen Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	5	1:48.978	0.959
7	55	Marcel FUGEL		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	5	1:49.531	1.512
8	2	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	1:49.595	1.576
9	51	Harri SALMINEN		Positione Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	6	1:50.018	1.999
10	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi Car Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	0	No time	N/A

Q1 results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	8	René KIRCHER		Volkswagen Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	6	1:48.357	0.000
2	24	Felix WIMMER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	9	1:48.751	0.394
3	55	Marcel FUGEL		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	6	1:49.140	0.783
4	84	Philipp WALSDORF		Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	10	1:49.175	0.818
5	2	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	1:49.348	0.991
6	98	Jan SEYFFERT		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	1:49.366	1.009
7	97	Nicolas GRUBER		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	7	1:49.403	1.046
8	51	Harri SALMINEN		Positione Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	1:49.456	1.099
9	13	Antti BURI		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	6	1:49.553	1.196
10	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi Car Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	7	1:49.568	1.211
11	92	Dziugas TOVILAVICIUS		SKUBA RACING TEAM	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	10	1:49.944	1.587
12	17	Albert LEGUTKO		Albert Legutko Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	8	1:50.176	1.819
13	6	Steffen REDLICH		Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	11	1:50.223	1.866
14	101	Niki SCHELLE		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	1:50.656	2.299
15	21	Szymon LADNIAK		GT2 Motorsports	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	10	1:50.674	2.317
16	56	Günter BENNINGER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	9	1:51.694	3.337