Max Hesse wins rain-halted second race at the Nürburgring

Hyundai Team Engstler’s Max Hesse was declared the victor in a rain-halted second ADAC TCR Germany race at the Nürburgring, reducing the gap to points leader Antti Buri yet further.

The race began in the dry, but rain soon started falling by the end of the first lap of racing, intensifying as the first few laps were completed.

Dominik Fugel initially led into the first corner after a strong start in his Honda, from third on the grid, ahead of front-row starter Mitchell Cheah and Harald Proczyk’s Hyundai, from sixth on the grid.

Reverse-grid pole-sitter Pascal Eberle made a poor start and dropped to eighth by the end of the first lap, although the young Swiss racer quickly regained ground in the early tricky conditions.

Theo Coicaud was the race’s first and only casualty, retiring on lap two after the Frenchman collected an advertising hoarding at the front of his car, blocking the cooling and causing his Hyundai to overheat.

Proczyk passed Cheah for second on lap two at Turn 8, before then piling the pressure on Fugel and passing for the lead just a handful of corners later at turn 1 on lap three.

However as the torrential rain intensified, conditions became unbearable for the slick-shod cars and seven drivers, including leader Proczyk, pitted for a change of tyres at the end of lap four.

That proved pivotal in the race, as a number of driver stayed out for a few more laps, including Max Hesse, Eberle, Antti Buri and Mike Halder.

All six of the leading drivers went off at turn 8 on lap six, before the majority then pitted on lap seven for a tyre change.

At this stage the only driver not to pit was Jan Seyffert, and when he aquaplaned off at the hairpin in his LADA on lap eight, whilst under safety car conditions, the officials decided to red-flag the race.

The result was wound back two laps, giving Hesse a second win of the year ahead of Eberle, Buri and Halder, with those who stayed out the longest on slick tyres ultimately benefitting in the classification.

As the result was declared after six laps, only half points were awarded.

The next TCR Germany event takes place at the Hockenheimring on 13 – 15 September.

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	19	Max HESSE		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	6	10:16.283	1:37.587	9
2	28	Pascal EBERLE		Steibel Motorsport 2	CUPRA TCR	6	1.000	1:36.645	1
3	13	Antti BURI		LMS Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	4.498	1:36.842	4
4	7	Mike HALDER		Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	6	4.828	1:37.409	8
5	22	Julien APOTHÉLOZ		TOPCAR Sport	CUPRA TCR	6	7.487	1:37.426	11
6	104	Thierry NEUVILLE		Hyundai Team Engstler 2	Hyundai i30 N TCR	6	9.539	1:37.758	10
7	23	Sebastian STEIBEL		Steibel Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	6	17.672	1:38.640	14
8	98	Jan SEYFFERT		Lubner Motorsport	LADA Vesta TCR	6	19.148	1:39.138	16
9	30	Karen GAILLARD		TOPCAR Sport 2	CUPRA TCR	6	34.208	1:39.729	17
10	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	6	1:23.999	1:38.346	3
11	6	Bradley BURNS		Team Pyro Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	6	1:25.030	1:37.368	19
12	29	Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie		VW Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	6	1:36.330	1:38.394	2
13	8	René KIRCHER		racing one	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	1:42.740	1:38.504	15
14	1	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	6	1:50.648	1:37.081	6
15	53	Michelle HALDER		Profi-Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	6	2:24.013	1:39.241	13
16	42	Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	6	2:39.489	1:38.936	5
17	50	Kai JORDAN		VW Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	6	2:53.973	1:37.952	12
18	61	Jörg SCHORI		Lubner Motorsport 2	Opel Astra TCR	5	+ 1 LAP	1:50.707	18
R	27	Theo COICAUD		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	1	DNF	N/A	7