TCR Germany championship leader Josh Files emerged victorious again at this weekend’s Nürburgring event, after a close battle on the track.
Pole position for the first of two races at the famous Eiffel-based circuit belonged to the Wolf-Power Racing SEAT of Mike Halder, who chose to concentrate his defence right after the start on Racing One’s Niels Langeveld.
This gave way for Target Competition’s Files – who started from third – to overtake both front row starters before hitting the brakes in the approach to turn one.
For Team Engstler’s Jason Wolfe, GermanFLAVOURS Racing’s Sven Markert and LMS Racing’s Niko Kankkunen, the race had already ended in the first corner, as the trio made contact on the ever-tightening apex, resulting in the safety car being deployed.
With Halder and Langeveld in tow, Files led the field back onto the start-finish straight, after the stricken race cars had been removed from the track. Pole-setter Halder fancied his chances and challenged the championship leader for the lead, as soon as the racing got back underway.
This allowed Langeveld to close in on the duo again, kicking off a three-way battle for the lead.
A second and final safety car period got called out when Lukas Niedertscheider had to stop his car in the run-off area at turn one, after damaging his front left suspension in a skirmish with Luca Engstler.
As the Honda safety car returned to the pit lane, Halder and Files fought a tough but fair battle all the way to the finish line.
But it was defending champion Josh Files who got the upper hand, which saw him take his fourth race win of the season. Halder was runner up by just 0.292 seconds, with the Dutchman completing the podium.
Fourth place went to Schläppi Race-Tec’s Dino Calcum, who neither lost nor gained any positions during the 30-minute race.
The Opel driver finished three and a half seconds ahead of LMS Racing’s Antti Buri, with Austria’s Harald Proczyk bringing home his HP Racing SEAT Leon TCR in sixth.
Team ADAC Sachsen Honda’s Steve Kirsch had to settle for seventh, ahead of the Audi RS3 LMS of Sheldon van der Linde.
Kirsch’s teammate Moritz Oestreich made it three Hondas in the top ten, finishing ninth in tow, ahead of Max Hofer who completed the top ten.
The second race of the weekend is set to take place on Sunday at 12:00 local time, lasting for 30 minutes.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 | Josh FILES |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 18 LAPS | 1:36.251 | 3 |
| 2 | 7 | Mike HALDER |  |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 0.292 | 1:36.064 | 1 |
| 3 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 1.346 | 1:36.232 | 2 |
| 4 | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | Opel Astra TCR | 18 | 2.342 | 1:36.358 | 4 |
| 5 | 10 | Antti BURI |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 5.875 | 1:36.576 | 9 |
| 6 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 6.822 | 1:36.252 | 6 |
| 7 | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 7.242 | 1:36.343 | 7 |
| 8 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 7.648 | 1:36.515 | 8 |
| 9 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 8.425 | 1:37.042 | 12 |
| 10 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 8.858 | 1:37.323 | 10 |
| 11 | 99 | Tim ZIMMERMANN | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 9.593 | 1:37.439 | 19 |
| 12 | 94 | Kris RICHARD |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 10.087 | 1:37.512 | 21 |
| 13 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE | |
Steibel Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 10.592 | 1:37.517 | 18 |
| 14 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 11.512 | 1:37.237 | 5 |
| 15 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 12.137 | 1:37.389 | 14 |
| 16 | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 18 | 12.262 | 1:36.972 | 13 |
| 17 | 78 | Fabian DANZ | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | SEAT León Cup Racer | 18 | 12.621 | 1:37.091 | 16 |
| 18 | 98 | Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 12.818 | 1:36.995 | 17 |
| 19 | 26 | Toni WOLF | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 13.502 | 1:37.474 | 30 |
| 20 | 27 | José RODRIGUES |  |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | 13.766 | 1:37.352 | 28 |
| 21 | 39 | Florian THOMA | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 15.051 | 1:37.671 | 25 |
| 22 | 35 | Rudolf RHYN | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 17.719 | 1:37.951 | 22 |
| 23 | 82 | Thomas KRAMWINKEL | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 19.007 | 1:37.725 | 35 |
| 24 | 23 | Sebastien STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 20.248 | 1:37.782 | 39 |
| 25 | 2 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 20.467 | 1:36.856 | 27 |
| 26 | 54 | Simon REICHER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 20.573 | 1:38.161 | 31 |
| 27 | 9 | Stefan GOEDE | |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 21.876 | 1:38.494 | 36 |
| 28 | 84 | Maurits SANDBERG | |
Racing One 2 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 22.116 | 1:38.005 | 37 |
| 29 | 40 | Dillon KOSTER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 18 | 22.780 | 1:38.023 | 34 |
| 30 | 32 | Gustavo XAVIER | |
Young Driver Challenge | SEAT León TCR | 18 | 24.610 | 1:39.967 | 38 |
| R | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL | |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 18 | DNF | 1:37.415 | 11 |
| R | 66 | Ronny JOST | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 13 | DNF | 1:37.336 | 26 |
| R | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider MSP | SEAT León TCR | 12 | DNF | 1:37.230 | 15 |
| R | 12 | Simon LARSSON |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:37.897 | 29 |
| R | 13 | Kai JORDAN | |
Racing One | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 23 |
| R | 38 | Jason WOLFE |  |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 20 |
| R | 20 | Niko KANKKUNEN | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 24 |
| R | 64 | Sven MARKERT | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 33 |
| R | 3 | Gosia RDEST |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 32 |