Martin Andersen wins opening TCR Germany race at the Nürburgring

Team Engstler’s Martin Andersen claimed a maiden victory in TCR Germany in race one at the Nürburgring, finishing ahead of Marcel Fugel and Nico Gruber.

At the start, Andersen came under heavy early pressure from Marcel Fugel, but the Dane was able to stave off the attack and maintain his lead.

On the second lap, Erci Scalvini, who was running in third, was hit by Dominik Fugel at Turn 3 after the Italian appeared to turn in on the German. It dropped Scalvini to the back of the pack, whilst Fugel was handed a controversial drive-through penalty for the incident.

By the time the penalty was handed down, Marcel Fugel had let his brother through into second, and as Dominik was able to break free it gave him enough of a margin to serve his penalty and rejoin in ninth.

In the meantime, Andersen now held a comfortable lead over Marcel Fugel and was able to take his first victory in TCR Germany by a margin of over 13 seconds.

Marcel Fugel was second, marking his best result of the season, ahead of Nico Gruber in third, the fourth visit to the podium this year for the Austrian, who spent much of the final part of the race plying plenty of pressure to the Honda ahead for second, including contact a fewl aps from the finish.

Fourth went to Dominik Fugel, who gained four places late in the race when he caught the back of a battle at the time headed up by Robin Jahr, ahead of Patrick Sing, Jonas Karklys and Szmon Ladniak.

Ladniak looked like he was going to make up three places going into Turn 1 four laps from the end, but the Pole out-braked himself and Dominik Fugel also got through.

Dominik Fugel then passed Sing at the final chicane, before quickly latching onto the back of Karklys as the Lithuanian battled with Jahr for fourth.

On the penultimate lap of the race, Karklys passed Jahr for fourth at the final chicane, but Jahr came back at the final corner, allowing Dominik Fugel to draw alongside heading into Turn 1.

Fugel pulled off the move, claiming fourth, as Karklys went wide and dropped to seventh. At the chequered flag, Jahr claimed fifth, ahead of Sing and Karklys, who couldn’t recover his lost ground on the final lap.

Ladniak was eighth, whilst the top ten was completec by Roland Hertner, who had actually spun on the first warmup lap in the cold conditions, and Albert Legutko, who nearly didn’t take the start when some came out of his Honda.

Scalvini was last on the road in 11^th, the Wimmer Werk Motorsport driver having also picked up a post-race five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.

In the drivers’ championship, Andersen has assumed second in the standings with 275 points, ahead of Dominik Fugel (272) and Scalvini (263). The title was already secured by Luca Engstler, who is absent this weekend, last time out.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 10:45 CET (09:45 GMT) on Sunday.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	19			Martin ANDERSEN	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	32:11.919	1:34.844	1
2	55			Marcel FUGEL	Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	20	13.369	1:35.384	2
3	97			Nicolas GRUBER	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	14.145	1:35.579	5
4	88			Dominik FUGEL	Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	20	16.945	1:34.893	8
5	22			Robin JAHR	ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	19.245	1:35.988	6
6	34			Patrick SING	RaceSing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	19.360	1:35.564	7
7	27			Jonas KARKLYS	NordPass	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	19.923	1:36.044	10
8	21			Szymon ŁADNIAK	Halder Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	20	20.243	1:35.889	11
9	9			Roland HERTNER	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	43.437	1:35.915	3
10	17			Albert LEGUTKO	Albert Legutko Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	20	57.327	1:36.902	12
11	6			Eric SCALVINI	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	20	1:01.385	1:35.887	4
R	33			Philipp REGENSPERGER	Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	7	DNF	1:37.519	9