Josh Files takes double victory at the Red Bull Ring

2016 ADAC TCR Germany champion Josh Files (Target Competition, Honda) has once again claimed victory, winning the second of two races in Austria this Sunday.

The race started with a reversed grid, meaning that the tenth quickest car of Friday’s qualifying had the privilege of starting from the front row. This weekend, Robin Brezina (Aust Motorsport, Audi) was the lucky one to inherit pole position, right in front of his Aust Motorsport team-mate Sandro Kaibach. Josh Files lined up in third.

Once the lights went green for the race to start, Files had a lightning start, passing both Aust cars within the few first hundred metres. The Honda driver managed to build up a significant gap already after the first lap. Both Aust cars were quickly overtaken by Moritz Oestreich (Honda Team ADAC Sachsen) and Mike Halder (Wolf-Power Racing 2, SEAT).

Five minutes into the race, Halder’s Wolf-Power Racing team-mate Alex Morgan found himself in trouble and had to pull to the side of the track with technical problems. Standing near one of the quickest parts of the track, the safety car got sent out to neutralise the race.

When the Honda safety car pulled back into the pit lane seven minutes later, Files once again had a good restart, clinging onto his first place.

The order within the first three positions did not change in the remaining laps of the race, so it was Files again who crossed the line in first, making it three wins out of four races this season for the Englishman. Oestreich and Halder came in second and third to complete the podium.

Files’ team-mate Kris Richard (Taget Competition, Honda) came home in fourth, followed by Dino Calcum (Lubner Motorsport, Opel) who had high hopes to finish the second race on the podium again.

Antti Buri of the Audi LMS Racing team crossed the line in sixth, with Sandro Kaibach behind in seventh.

José Rodrigues (Target Competition, Honda) returned to the top ten this Sunday, after finishing the first round in a disappointing 28th place – way outside the points scoring positions. The Portuguese driver held off Sheldon van der Linde (AC 1927 Mayen, Audi) for 8th place. South African van der Linde had to settle for ninth.

Pole-sitter Robin Brezina rounded off the top ten. Although the rookie driver could not follow the pace of his contenders, the 18-year old bagged a significant amount of points over the course of the weekend, after having had a disappointing start to the season in Oschersleben.

The ADAC TCR Germany championship returns on July 7 to 9, racing once again at the Oschersleben circuit in Germany.

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	1	Josh FILES		Target Competition UK-SUI	Honda Civic Type R TCR	18	32:12.577	1:37.980	3
2	88	Moritz OESTREICH		Team Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type R TCR	18	4.322	1:38.506	7
3	7	Mike HALDER		Wolf-Power Racing 2	SEAT León TCR	18	5.588	1:38.513	6
4	94	Kris RICHARD		Target Competition	Honda Civic Type R TCR	18	6.230	1:38.391	9
5	36	Dino CALCUM		Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	18	6.772	1:37.760	10
6	10	Antti BURI		LMS Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	8.011	1:38.524	5
7	44	Sandro KAIBACH		Aust Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	19.728	1:39.651	2
8	27	José RODRIGUES		Target Competition 2	Honda Civic Type R TCR	18	19.970	1:38.879	11
9	18	Sheldon VAN DER LINDE		Prosport Performance	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	21.693	1:39.496	12
10	24	Robin BREZINA		Aust Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	22.914	1:39.538	1
11	77	Juuso-Matti PAJURANTA		Positione Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR	18	23.953	1:39.300	15
12	66	Ronny JOST		TOPCAR Sport	SEAT León TCR	18	24.925	1:39.436	18
13	98	Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER		Target Competition	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	26.455	1:39.166	22
14	38	Jason WOLFE		Team Engstler USA	Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR	18	26.655	1:39.160	16
15	99	Tim ZIMMERMANN		Target Competition	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	26.997	1:39.293	23
16	42	Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER		Niedertscheider MSP	SEAT León TCR	18	27.417	1:39.146	24
17	19	Max HOFER		Prosport Performance	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	27.950	1:39.149	28
18	39	Florian THOMA		Junior Team Engstler	Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR	18	29.076	1:39.595	20
19	17	Jasmin PREISIG		Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	18	29.635	1:38.718	14
20	78	Fabian DANZ		Schläppi Race-Tec	SEAT León Cup Racer	18	35.058	1:39.093	32
21	82	Thomas KRAMWINKEL		GermanFLAVOURS Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	38.717	1:39.788	35
22	54	Simon REICHER		Certainty Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	40.068	1:39.255	33
23	13	Kai JORDAN		Racing One	Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR	18	42.524	1:38.957	36
24	9	Stefan GOEDE		Team Engstler USA	Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR	18	42.604	1:39.836	27
25	28	Pascal EBERLE		Steibel Motorsport	SEAT León TCR	18	44.733	1:39.579	31
26	40	Dillon KOSTER		Certainty Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	45.144	1:39.452	29
27	23	Sebastien STEIBEL		Steibel Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR	18	49.588	1:40.489	37
28	84	Maurits SANDBERG		Racing One 2	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	50.661	1:40.022	38
29	41	Steve KIRSCH		Team Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type R TCR	18	55.798	1:38.906	8
30	3	Gosia RDEST		Target Competition SWE-POL	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	1:22.556	1:39.949	30
31	12	Simon LARSSON		Target Competition SWE-POL	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	1:29.271	1:39.299	26
32	20	Niko KANKKUNEN		LMS Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	1 Lap	1:39.275	13
33	35	Rudolf RHYN		TOPCAR Sport	SEAT León TCR	17	1 Lap	1:38.893	25
34	8	Luca ENGSTLER		Junior Team Engstler	Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR	15	3 Laps	1:38.333	4
35	64	Sven MARKERT		GermanFLAVOURS Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	15	3 Laps	1:40.048	34
36	22	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing	SEAT León TCR	14	4 Laps	1:38.936	19
R	11	Jürgen SCHMARL		Target Competition AUT-POR	Honda Civic Type R TCR	10	DNF	1:39.532	17
R	14	Niels LANGEVELD		Racing One	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	DNF	1:39.164	39
R	2	Alex MORGAN		Wolf-Power Racing 2	SEAT León TCR	3	DNF	1:40.547	21