After yesterday’s frantic season opener at Oschersleben, fans and drivers alike were eagerly looking forward to the second race of the weekend.
With the top 10 quickest drivers of Saturday’s qualifying lining up in reversed positions, Florian Thoma (Junior Team Engstler, Volkswagen) had the honours of starting round 2 from pole position. He was joined on the front row by Pascal Eberle (Steibel Motorsport, SEAT), with yesterday’s race winner Josh Files (Target Competition, Honda) sitting in seventh.
Once the lights went out, the field again had no issues handling the narrow 90 degree esses at the end of the start/finish straight. It was pole sitter Thoma who had a blistering getaway, putting almost four car lengths between him and second place, which was swiftly taken over by Tim Zimmermann in his Audi, fielded by Target Competition.
Meanwhile it took defending champion Josh Files just two laps to advance to third place, before all efforts of cutting further through the pack were halted by Niels Langeveld (RacingOne, Audi). The Dutchman locked up his tyres going into turn one, immediately trying to rejoin the track, but ultimately beaching his car in the gravel, shortly before making it back onto the tarmac again. Subsequently the safety car was called into action to allow the marshals to lift out the stranded Audi.
At the same time just one corner further back, another incident saw Kristian Poulsen (Team Engstler, Volkswagen) and Rudolf Rhyn (TOPCAR Sport, SEAT) giving each other a push. Rhyn’s car promptly succumbed to the damage, forcing the Swiss to pull his SEAT Leon to the side of the track.
The restart that followed just a few minutes later saw Thoma defending his first place seemingly with ease. Though closer than before, Zimmermann and Files were not able to make a move on the rookie driver.
A ten-minute sprint under green flag conditions then suddenly came to an abrupt end again, as Moritz Oestreich’s ADAC Sachsen Honda spontaneously combusted. Oestreich extracted himself from his smouldering Honda Civic, putting on a 50 meter sprint to fetch the nearest fire extinguisher – all while the safety car once again neutralised the race.
With two laps to go the Honda safety car peeled off into the pits, leaving the field to race again. Leader Florian Thoma had no issues defending his position and kept clinging onto his position with confidence, as the two Target Competition cars of Zimmermann and Files were putting on the kettle.
The final bit of drama eventually took place at the final corner on the last lap, when Maurits Sandberg (RacingOne, Audi) made contact with Stefan Goede (Team Engstler USA, Volkswagen), putting an end to both their races just a few hundred metres short of finish line.
Yet all the events on track could not hinder Florian Thoma from taking a commanding first ever victory in the TCR Germany championship. He got chased over the line by Target Competition team mates Tim Zimmermann and Josh Files, followed by a third Target car of José Rodrigues – whose heart must have sunk to his boots after catching a big wiggle coming out of the final turn. PROsport driver Sheldon van der Linde completed the top 5.
The next round of the ADAC TCR Germany will take place at the picturesque Red Bull Ring from July 9 to 11.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 39 | Florian THOMA |  |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 31:52.932 | 1:35.415 | 1 |
| 2 | 99 | Tim ZIMMERMANN |  |
Target Competition | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 0.920 | 1:35.515 | 3 |
| 3 | 1 | Josh FILES |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 1.425 | 1:35.537 | 7 |
| 4 | 27 | José RODRIGUES |  |
Target Competition 2 | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 2.483 | 1:35.849 | 5 |
| 5 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
Prosport Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 2.516 | 1:35.873 | 8 |
| 6 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE | |
Steibel Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 2.838 | 1:35.948 | 2 |
| 7 | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 3.606 | 1:36.029 | 10 |
| 8 | 10 | Antti BURI |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 4.630 | 1:36.112 | 14 |
| 9 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 5.047 | 1:36.234 | 4 |
| 10 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 5.426 | 1:35.973 | 15 |
| 11 | 98 | Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER | |
Target Competition | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 5.828 | 1:35.898 | 12 |
| 12 | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 7.621 | 1:36.207 | 9 |
| 13 | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 18 | 7.960 | 1:36.499 | 19 |
| 14 | 2 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 8.340 | 1:36.588 | 21 |
| 15 | 13 | Kai JORDAN | |
Racing One | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 10.355 | 1:36.372 | 29 |
| 16 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 11.420 | 1:36.895 | 27 |
| 17 | 77 | Juuso-Matti PAJURANTA | |
Positione Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 11.586 | 1:36.243 | 16 |
| 18 | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL | |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 11.838 | 1:37.244 | 11 |
| 19 | 54 | Simon REICHER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 12.284 | 1:36.984 | 24 |
| 20 | 38 | Jason WOLFE |  |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 12.802 | 1:37.391 | 22 |
| 21 | 82 | Thomas KRAMWINKEL | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 13.354 | 1:37.165 | 23 |
| 22 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
Prosport Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 13.546 | 1:35.836 | 6 |
| 23 | 66 | Ronny JOST | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 14.018 | 1:37.465 | 31 |
| 24 | 23 | Sebastien STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 14.714 | 1:37.503 | 26 |
| 25 | 12 | Simon LARSSON |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 15.281 | 1:37.686 | 20 |
| 26 | 20 | Niko KANKKUNEN | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 15.468 | 1:37.530 | 41 |
| 27 | 3 | Gosia RDEST |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 16.283 | 1:38.112 | 38 |
| 28 | 5 | Kristian POULSEN |  |
Team Engstler Dänemark | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 17.130 | 1:37.818 | 36 |
| 29 | 64 | Sven MARKERT | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 18.522 | 1:36.917 | 17 |
| 30 | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 18 | 23.917 | 1:37.510 | 34 |
| 31 | 83 | Martin NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider MSP | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 26.121 | 1:39.150 | 39 |
| 32 | 78 | Fabian DANZ | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | SEAT León Cup Racer | 18 | 33.861 | 1:38.248 | 33 |
| 33 | 24 | Robin BREZINA | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 46.936 | 1:37.250 | 30 |
| 34 | 9 | Stefan GOEDE | |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 1 LAP | 1:38.061 | 40 |
| 35 | 84 | Maurits SANDBERG |  |
Racing One 2 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 1 LAP | 1:38.076 | 32 |
| 36 | 4 | Roland POULSEN | |
Team Engstler Dänemark | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 15 | 3 LAPS | 1:39.175 | 37 |
| 37 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 13 | 5 LAPS | 1:36.644 | 18 |
| R | 40 | Dillon KOSTER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:38.311 | 28 |
| R | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD | |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:36.303 | 13 |
| R | 35 | Rudolf RHYN | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:38.358 | 35 |
| R | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 25 |