Michelle Halder claimed her first victory in TCR Germany in race two at Zandvoort, taking a lights-to-flag win in the reversed grid race ahead of LMS Racing’s Antti Buri and her team-mate and brother Mike Halder.
Halder got off to a good getaway when the lights went out in the delayed start to the race, which was ten minutes later than planned due to Theo Coicaud’s Hyundai stopping on the formation lap.
Behind Halder, René Kircher moved into second as front-row starter Lance David Arnold dropped to fourth at the first turn.
Further around the lap, Buri got his Audi ahead of Kircher for second, with Arnold following past at Turn 11.
By this stage, Halder had opened up a near two-second lead over Buri, and as the race progressed without major incident thereafter she was able to maintain that gap at constantly over a second for the rest of the race.
Without a challenge to Michelle Halder ahead, Buri found himself under pressure from her brother for second late in the race, but the LMS Racing driver just hung on to extend his points lead in the series, with Mike Halder completing the podium.
Arnold took fourth as the best Hyundai driver, ahead of HP Racing’s Harald Proczyk in fifth. The Austrian was under investigation after the race for contact with Engstler Motorsport’s Max Hesse late in the race as the duo were fighting for fifth.
The contact broke Hesse’s right-rear suspension and forced him to crab around the circuit for the final two laps.
As Hesse dropped back, Pyro Motorsport’s Bradley Burns was able to move up to sixth, ahead of the second HP Racing Hyundai of Lukas Niedertscheider in seventh.
TOPCAR Sport’s Julien Apothéloz brought his CUPRA home in eighth, ahead of the limping Hesse in ninth.
Volkswagen Team Oettinger’s Maurits Sandberg completed the top ten as the sole finishing car from the Engstler-run team, as Malaysian Mitchelle Cheah pulled into the pits with mechanical issues after nine laps.
The next round of TCR Germany takes place at the Nürburgring next weekend (16 – 18 August).
Race result
POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
1 | 53 | Michelle HALDER | Profi-Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 16 | 16 LAPS | 1:48.901 | 1 | |
2 | 13 | Antti BURI | LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 1.147 | 1:48.915 | 5 | |
3 | 7 | Mike HALDER | Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 16 | 1.677 | 1:48.539 | 6 | |
4 | 103 | Lance David ARNOLD | Hyundai Team Engstler 2 | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 4.014 | 1:48.962 | 2 | |
5 | 1 | Harald PROCZYK | HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 6.112 | 1:48.173 | 7 | |
6 | 6 | Bradley BURNS | Team Pyro Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 16 | 7.294 | 1:49.227 | 8 | |
7 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 7.516 | 1:49.164 | 12 | |
8 | 22 | Julien APOTHÉLOZ | TOPCAR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 16 | 10.799 | 1:49.466 | 15 | |
9 | 19 | Max HESSE | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 17.710 | 1:48.813 | 4 | |
10 | 99 | Maurits SANDBERG | VW Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 16 | 18.907 | 1:49.940 | 13 | |
11 | 8 | René KIRCHER | racing one | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | 26.796 | 1:50.415 | 3 | |
12 | 98 | Jan SEYFFERT | Lubner Motorsport | LADA Vesta TCR | 16 | 41.585 | 1:50.834 | 11 | |
13 | 88 | Dominik FUGEL | Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:48.924 | 9 | |
R | 23 | Sebastian STEIBEL | Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | DNF | 1:50.295 | 14 | |
R | 29 | Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie | VW Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:49.075 | 10 | |
NS | 27 | Theo COICAUD | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 16 |