ROJA Motorsport’s Jessica Bäckman scored an authoritative lights-to-flag win in the second ADAC TCR Germany race at the Salzburgring, finishing ahead of Liqui Moly Team Engstler title rival Martin Andersen.
Bäckman led away from the pole position, having set the fastest time in the day’s earlier qualifying session, and she was never challenged thereafter, comfortably easing to her fourth win of the season.
By the chequered flag, Bäckman had built a margin of over five seconds from the chasing Dane, who ended the weekend having been second in every single session.
For Honda driver Andersen, who was runner up to Szymon Ładniak on Saturday, a brace of seconds actually sees him extend his championship lead to eight points.
Jonas Karklys had finished in third on the road, but the NordPass driver was excluded from the result due to having insufficient fuel in the tank of his Hyundai after the race.
Karklys’ exclusion promoted Ładniak into third, although the Pole actually finished over 17 seconds from Bäckman after lacking the pace he had shown in the first race of the weekend.
Ładniak had actually missed the chicane on the opening lap and dropped to sixth behind René Kircher and Robin Jahr, and by lap four he was down to seventh behind Patrick Sing as well.
But the Team Engstler driver made amends later in the race, making up two places in the final eight laps to claim what would become the final podium place.
Max Gruhn finished fifth on the road which became fourth after the stewards decisions, his best result since joining the series.
Roland Hertner was the best Trophy driver once again in fifth, ahead of Maurer Motorsport’s Vincent Radermecker in sixth.
Robin Jahr had run in fourth form much of the race, fighting with Karklys ahead and Ładniak behind, but he dropped down the order late in the race suffering from tyre issues, to eventually finish in seventh.
Andersen leads the standings with 164 points, followed by Bäckman on 156. The next event takes place in six weeks’ time at the Nürburgring on 6 – 7 August.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 26 |  |
Jessica BÄCKMAN | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai Veloster N TCR | 22 | 32:23.936 | 1:27.265 | 1 | |
| 2 | 19 |  |
Martin ANDERSEN | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 22 | 5.347 | 1:27.445 | 2 | |
| 3 | 21 |  |
Szymon ŁADNIAK | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 22 | 17.052 | 1:27.423 | 3 | |
| 4 | 13 |  |
Max GRUHN | Gruhn Stahlbau Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 22 | 22.647 | 1:27.943 | 6 | |
| 5 | 9 | |
Roland HERTNER | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 22 | 39.854 | 1:28.742 | 10 | |
| 6 | 11 |  |
Vincent RADERMECKER | maurer motorsport | Holden Astra TCR | 22 | 42.520 | 1:29.142 | 7 | |
| 7 | 22 | |
Robin JAHR | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai Veloster N TCR | 22 | 1:06.311 | 1:27.401 | 9 | |
| 8 | 17 |  |
Michael MAURER | maurer motorsport | Holden Astra TCR | 21 | + 1 LAP | 1:33.337 | 12 | |
| 9 | 38 | |
Kai ROSOWSKI | K-Ro Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | + 4 LAPS | 1:30.527 | 11 | |
| 10 | 8 | |
René KIRCHER | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | + 5 LAPS | 1:28.250 | 4 | |
| EX | 27 |  |
Jonas KARKLYS | NordPass | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 22 | 6.534 | 1:27.631 | 5 | |
| R | 34 | |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 15 | DNF | 1:28.684 | 8 |