Jessica Bäckman won her first-ever TCR race in the opening round of the ADAC TCR Germany series at Oschersleben, the ROJA Motorsport driver having made the most of a strong start.
The Swede had lined up in second alongside pole-sitter Martin Andersen, but when the latter made a poor getaway from the line, Bäckman capitalised and seized the lead.
Andersen actually dropped to fourth from the start, as NordPass’ Jonas Karklys and his team-mate Szymon Ładniak also snuck past.
In the early laps, Bäckman opened up a margin of just over half a second over Karklys, and Ładniak allowed Liqui Moly Team Engstler team-mate Andersen through at the Shell Kurve Esses on lap five.
From there, it only took Dane Andersen three more laps to close in on and pass Karklys, completing the move on lap seven.
But despite then reeling in Bäckman at the front, and being all over the back bumper of the Veloster for much of the second half of the race, he was unable to find a way through.
Bäckman held on to claim victory, which after 73 race starts in all series is her first-ever win in a TCR series, with Andersen just over half a second behind.
Karklys completed the podium in third with his fourth overall podium in the German series, having dropped to seven and a half seconds behind the leading duo come the chequered flag.
ROJA Motorsport’s René Kircher was fourth, the young German having got by Ładniak three laps from the end and then only just missed out on a podium by 0.045 seconds when Karklys made a mistake exiting the final corner on the last lap.
Ładniak claimed fifth in his first race in a Team Engstler Honda, ahead of Polish compatriot Albert Legutko in sixth in the older-generation Honda Civic.
Legutko had earlier been pressuring Robin Jahr for the position from the second half of the race onwards, eventually benefitting when Jahr dropped out of the race at the end of lap 16, pitting with technical issues.
The top ten was completed by veteran racer Roland Hertner, Patrick Sing and series newcomers Max Gruhn and Kai Rosowski.
Qualifying for race two is scheduled to take place at 09:55 CEST (08:55 BST) on Sunday, followed by race two at 16:05 CEST (15:05 BST).
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 26 |  |
Jessica BÄCKMAN | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai Veloster N TCR | 21 | 32:55.935 | 1:32.474 | 2 | |
| 2 | 19 |  |
Martin ANDERSEN | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 21 | 0.587 | 1:32.409 | 1 | |
| 3 | 27 |  |
Jonas KARKLYS | NordPass | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 21 | 7.653 | 1:32.583 | 3 | |
| 4 | 8 |  |
René KIRCHER | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 21 | 7.698 | 1:32.658 | 4 | |
| 5 | 21 |  |
Szymon ŁADNIAK | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 21 | 12.792 | 1:32.617 | 5 | |
| 6 | 77 | |
Albert LEGUTKO | Albert Legutko Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 21 | 18.768 | 1:33.382 | 8 | |
| 7 | 9 | |
Roland HERTNER | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 21 | 29.305 | 1:33.554 | 10 | |
| 8 | 34 | |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 21 | 33.589 | 1:33.632 | 9 | |
| 9 | 13 | |
Max GRUHN | Gruhn Stahlbau Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 21 | 52.659 | 1:34.338 | 11 | |
| 10 | 38 | |
Kai ROSOWSKI | K-Ro Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 20 | + 1 LAP | 1:38.990 | 12 | |
| 11 | 17 |  |
Michael MAURER | maurer motorsport | Holden Astra TCR | 18 | + 3 LAPS | 1:46.688 | 13 | |
| R | 22 | |
Robin JAHR | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai Veloster N TCR | 16 | DNF | 1:33.478 | 6 | |
| R | 11 |  |
Vincent RADERMECKER | maurer motorsport | Holden Astra TCR | 2 | DNF | N/A | 7 |