Mike Halder canters to race one win at Most

Mike Halder took a comfortable victory in the first TCR Germany race of the weekend at Most in the Czech Republic, after the Honda driver got the jump on the Hyundai of pole-sitter Harald Proczyk at the start.

Halder got into the lead before the first corner, after Proczyk got a poor start which also allowed Engstler Motorsport’s Max Hesse and Team Honda ADAC Sachsen’s Dominik Fugel past.

The race had to be neutralised after the first lap with a three-lap safety car intervention when guest starter Jessica Bäckman ended up in the Turn 1 gravel with broken front-right suspension, whilst Mitchell Cheah also hit Lukas Niedertscheider into Marcel Fugel at the first chicane, causing the trio to cut the corner.

When racing resumed Halder made a strong restart and set the tone for the rest of the race, eventually winning by over a second to claim his second victory of the season and extend his points lead.

Hesse was second, claiming his third podium finish in a row, finishing ahead of fellow Hyundai driver Proczyk after Fugel made a mistake on the final lap of the race and gifted the reigning champion a podium finish.

Fugel held on to finish the race in fourth, just ahead of LMS Racing’s Antti Buri in the leading Audi in fifth.

The second Engstler Motorsport Hyundai of Theo Coicaud was sixth, the Frenchman losing out to Buri on the restart and falling away from the leading quintet in the final stages of the race.

Niedertscheider recovered from his first lap incident to take seventh, passing VW Team Oettinger’s Mitchell Cheah on with three laps to go.

Cheah held on to take eighth, ahead of Michelle Halder’s Honda in ninth and Steve Kirsch’s Opel in tenth.

Marcel Fugel retired from the race on lap 11 when the young Honda driver locked his brakes heading into the first chicane, collecting the innocent Julien Apothéloz and taking the Swiss driver out of what was then eighth place.

Lubner Motorsport’s Jan Seyffert failed to start the race, his Opel suffering from broken front-right suspension on the warm-up lap.

Race two is scheduled to take place at 11:40 CEST (10:40 BST) on Sunday.

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	7	Mike HALDER		Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	18	18 LAPS	1:41.168	2
2	19	Max HESSE		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	1.260	1:41.210	3
3	1	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	2.384	1:41.230	1
4	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	18	3.168	1:41.446	5
5	13	Antti BURI		LMS Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	4.029	1:41.476	9
6	27	Theo COICAUD		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	9.535	1:41.381	6
7	42	Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	15.494	1:41.792	8
8	29	Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie		VW Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	18	18.074	1:41.528	13
9	53	Michelle HALDER		Profi-Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	18	28.862	1:42.504	12
10	41	Steve KIRSCH		IMC Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	18	33.312	1:42.007	11
11	33	Joshua Corren REYNOLDS		TOPCAR Sport	CUPRA TCR	18	41.503	1:43.501	18
12	99	Maurits SANDBERG		VW Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	18	43.230	1:43.166	16
13	34	Patrick SING		RaceSing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	43.360	1:43.430	17
14	8	René KIRCHER		racing one	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	56.440	1:42.702	19
15	6	Bradley BURNS		Team Pyro Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	17	+ 1 LAP	1:42.421	10
R	55	Marcel FUGEL		Profi-Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	11	DNF	1:42.106	14
R	22	Julien APOTHÉLOZ		TOPCAR Sport	CUPRA TCR	9	DNF	1:42.169	4
R	101	Jessica BÄCKMAN		Hyundai Team Engstler 2	Hyundai i30 N TCR	0	DNF	N/A	7
NS	98	Jan SEYFFERT		Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	–	DNS	N/A	15