Luca Engstler took a step closer to a first ADAC TCR Germany title after claiming victory in race one at the Hockenheimring, the Hyundai driver claiming a lights-to-flag win.
Engstler had claimed pole position earlier in the day with a lap which was almost four tenths of a second faster than fellow Hyundai racer Jonas Karklys.
At the start of the race, the German moved into a comfortable lead ahead of Lithaunian Karklys, with Engstler’s Hyundai Team Engstler team-mate Martin Andersen assuming third.
Further back, guest entry Rubén Fernández Gil made a clear jump start, which would later earn him a five-second time penalty for the move.
Robin Jahr threatened to put his Hyundai ahead of Dominik Fugel’s Honda through the first turn, but Fugel quickly got back into fourth where he would stay for the rest of the race.
Fugel did threaten Andersen in the early stages for a podium finish, but ultimately slumped to finish 12 seconds adrift of the Dane.
At the end of the first lap Szymon Ładniak and Eric Scalivini made contact whilst battling for seventh, sending Ładniak wide in his Halder Motorsport Honda and also dropping the duo to ninth and tenth respectively.
Scalvini eventually got past Ładniak for eighth on the twelfth lap, but the Pole shortly afterwards had to stop with a technical issue, becoming the only non-finisher of the race.
The race quickly settled into a rhythm and Engstler cantered to his sixth win of the season to open up a championship lead of 86 points over Dominik Fugel.
Karklys claimed his second podium finish of the year, just under two seconds behind Engstler, whilst Andersen completed the podium.
Dominik Fugel was the leading Honda driver in fourth, ahead of Jahr in fifth and Fernández, who had crossed the finish line fifth, classified in sixth after his penalty for a jump start was applied.
Scalvini battled with the other RC2 guest entry of Sergio López late in the race, eventually prevailing to finish in seventh, despite having dropped back behind the Venezuelan three laps from the end.
Marcel Fugel claimed eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by Albert Legutko’s older-generation Honda Civic and López in tenth.
Legutko was involved in a late-race drama with René Kircher and Philipp Regensperger which saw Regensperger’s Opel end up in the barriers at Turn 4, whilst Kircher continued minus a front bumper. The two drivers finished off the leading lap and were classified in 16th and 17th respectively.
Race two is scheduled to ger underway at 13:20 CEST (12:20 BST) on Sunday.
Race one result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 8 |  |
Luca ENGSTLER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 33:06.747 | 1:48.887 | 1 | |
| 2 | 27 |  |
Jonas KARKLYS | NordPass | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 1.886 | 1:49.073 | 2 | |
| 3 | 19 |  |
Martin ANDERSEN | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 4.973 | 1:49.550 | 3 | |
| 4 | 88 | |
Dominik FUGEL | Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 18 | 16.022 | 1:49.846 | 5 | |
| 5 | 22 | |
Robin JAHR | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 22.207 | 1:50.095 | 4 | |
| 6 | 20 |  |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Junior Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 26.236 | 1:49.926 | 6 | |
| 7 | 6 |  |
Eric SCALVINI | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 33.265 | 1:50.030 | 8 | |
| 8 | 55 | |
Marcel FUGEL | Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 18 | 41.508 | 1:50.324 | 11 | |
| 9 | 17 |  |
Albert LEGUTKO | Albert Legutko Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 18 | 41.683 | 1:50.667 | 14 | |
| 10 | 37 |  |
Sergio LÓPEZ | RC2 Junior Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 42.074 | 1:50.398 | 12 | |
| 11 | 97 |  |
Nicolas GRUBER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 55.030 | 1:50.776 | 7 | |
| 12 | 34 | |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 18 | 56.820 | 1:50.757 | 18 | |
| 13 | 99 | |
Christian VOITHOFER | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 1:03.449 | 1:51.355 | 16 | |
| 14 | 5 | |
Peter GROSS | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 1:05.920 | 1:52.033 | 15 | |
| 15 | 56 | |
Günter BENNINGER | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 1:11.694 | 1:51.664 | 17 | |
| 16 | 80 | |
René KIRCHER | Volkswagen Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 17 | + 1 LAP | 1:50.101 | 10 | |
| 17 | 33 | |
Philipp REGENSPERGER | Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 16 | + 2 LAPS | 1:50.871 | 13 | |
| R | 21 | |
Szymon ŁADNIAK | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 12 | DNF | 1:50.166 | 9 | |
| NS | 9 | |
Roland HERTNER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |