Luca Engstler extended his TCR Germany championship lead with a comfortable lights-to-flag victory in race two at the Hockenheimring, as title rival Eric Scalvini took a distant second.
Having secured pole position earlier in the day by a comfortable 0.478 seconds, with Scalvini over half a second adrift, Engstler was in dominant form on Sunday.
The Hyundai driver made a strong start to make the most of his pole, leading from team-mate Martin Andersen through the first corners.
Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport’s Scalvini was up to third, from fourth on the grid, by the exit of Turn 2 with a clean pass on René Kircher’s Volkswagen, which then became second at the same corner a lap later with a decisive move on Andersen.
Andersen then held second for much of the race, until contact on the final lap with Marcel Fugel at the hairpin.
The incident broke Fugel’s front-right suspension, whilst Andersen also lost out on a podium as Nico Gruber made it through as the Dane limped around on the second half of the lap.
Gruber secured only his second podium finish of the season, ahead of the Hyundai of Nordpass’ Jonas Karklys, who went on a charge in the final four laps of the race, making up four places with passes on Philipp Regensperger and Kircher on lap 14 and then Andersen and fugel on the final lap.
Andersen limped across the finish line for fifth, ahead of Albert Legutko’s older Honda in sixth, the Pole having dispatched both Kircher and Regensperger on lap 15 amidst some fierce battling for the lower top ten placings.
Regensperger brought his Lubner Motorsport opel home in seventh, ahead of the Hyundai of Robin Jahr in eighth.
Kircher, who had gone backwards late in the race, took ninth, the Team Oettinger driver having possibly lost performance as a result of contact with Dominik Fugel on lap six.
The contact with Kircher appeared to spell the end of Dominik Fugel’s race. The Honda driver was running in seventh but after the incident he retired to the pitlane.
Team Engstler’s Roland Hertner completed the top ten, whilst Marcel Fugel finished behind Peter Gross’ Audi in 12th.
Race result
POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
1 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 33:22.163 | 1:50.132 | 1 | ||
2 | 6 | Eric SCALVINI | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 5.139 | 1:49.851 | 4 | ||
3 | 97 | Nicolas GRUBER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 15.067 | 1:50.581 | 6 | ||
4 | 27 | Jonas KARKLYS | NordPass | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 18.198 | 1:50.482 | 7 | ||
5 | 19 | Martin ANDERSEN | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 19.026 | 1:50.635 | 2 | ||
6 | 17 | Albert LEGUTKO | Albert Legutko Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 18 | 20.803 | 1:51.131 | 10 | ||
7 | 33 | Philipp REGENSPERGER | Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 18 | 21.961 | 1:50.685 | 5 | ||
8 | 22 | Robin JAHR | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 26.388 | 1:51.032 | 9 | ||
9 | 80 | René KIRCHER | Volkswagen Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 18 | 34.593 | 1:50.573 | 3 | ||
10 | 9 | Roland HERTNER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 34.730 | 1:51.689 | 12 | ||
11 | 5 | Peter GROSS | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 40.915 | 1:51.980 | 13 | ||
12 | 55 | Marcel FUGEL | Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 18 | 44.852 | 1:50.376 | 8 | ||
13 | 56 | Günter BENNINGER | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 53.898 | 1:52.178 | 14 | ||
14 | 99 | Christian VOITHOFER | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 1:00.183 | 1:52.072 | 15 | ||
R | 88 | Dominik FUGEL | Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 6 | DNF | 1:50.091 | 11 |