Pepe Oriola took his third win of the season in race two of the TCR International Series at Oschersleben, the Craft-Bamboo Racing driver dominating the race from the front row of the grid.
Oriola started from second on the grid but took the lead at the final corner of lap one, when the pole man, Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Davit Kajaia, made a slight mistake.
Thereafter Oriola was unchallenged in the race to take a comfortable third victory of the season, with the Spaniard enjoying a lead of almost five seconds over the chasing pack at one stage.
B3 Racing’s Dušan Borković made it two podiums out of two this weekend in second, with the Serbian racer making a particularly strong start to move from ninth on the grid to fifth by the end of the opening lap.
The SEAT racer benefitted when his team-mate Mat’o Homola ran wide into Turn 1 on the second lap to gift him fourth, and Borković then battled past Craft-Bamboo Racing’s James Nash a couple of corners later for third, when the Brit ran wide exiting Turn 3.
Nash himself held on to take third, his second podium finish of the weekend, ahead of team-mate Sergey Afanasyev in fourth, with the Russian more or less following his team-mate for the remainder of the race.
Race one winner Homola was fifth, having failed to recover from his turn two mistake, ahead of Leopard Racing’s Stefano Comini in sixth, who enjoyed a late race battle with the third B3 Racing car of Attila Tassi, although the Swiss racer had to be warned about his driving after several times tapping the back of the Hungarian in making the pass.
Tassi was left to settle for seventh, ahead of Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Niklas Mackshin in eighth, who scored points on his début in the TCR International Series.
Michela Cerruti scored her and Mulsanne Racing’s best finish of the season in ninth, putting her Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR ahead of WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli in tenth.
The Italian had earlier been turned around on the opening lap of the race when Homola tapped the second Alfa Romeo of Petr Fulín into Morbidelli at Turn 1, which also spelt the end of Fulín’s race.
Gary Sheehan just missed out on the points in his Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen in 11th position.
As for pole-sitter Kajaia, the Georgian racer had been running in third until lap eleven, when he missed his braking point at Turn 1 and went through the gravel. Such was his mistake that he lost around ten positions in one go, and the Volkswagen racer called it a day shortly afterwards.
LMS Racing’s Antti Buri failed to finish the race following contact with WestCoast Racing’s Mikhail Grachev on lap two exiting Turn 2, which also effectively ended the Russian’s race, although he later rejoined and was classified in 12th position.
As a result of his win Oriola has moved into the joint lead of the championship together with team-mate Nash, whilst Homola is just four points behind in third.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 27:33.222 | 1:35.793 | 2 |
| 2 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 2.164 | 1:35.577 | 9 |
| 3 | 54 | James NASH |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 5.928 | 1:35.743 | 7 |
| 4 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 7.881 | 1:35.822 | 5 |
| 5 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 12.375 | 1:36.118 | 8 |
| 6 | 1 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 15.413 | 1:35.621 | 15 |
| 7 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 17.703 | 1:36.166 | 11 |
| 8 | 46 | Niklas MACKSHIN |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 17.954 | 1:36.464 | 13 |
| 9 | 88 | Michela CERRUTI |  |
Mulsanne Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 17 | 21.470 | 1:36.583 | 14 |
| 10 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 17 | 23.274 | 1:35.834 | 4 |
| 11 | 47 | Gary SHEEHAN |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 40.115 | 1:37.187 | 16 |
| 12 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 15 | 2 Laps | 1:36.266 | 12 |
| R | 7 | Davit KAJAIA |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 10 | 7 Laps | 1:36.178 | 1 |
| R | 48 | Antti BURI |  |
LMS Racing | SEAT León Cup Racer | 1 | 16 Laps | 1:45.682 | 6 |
| R | 22 | Petr FULÍN |  |
Mulsanne Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 0 | DNF | 2:19.335 | 10 |
| R | 2 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 0 | DNF | 2:41.758 | 3 |