A record 41 cars lined up on the grid to take the green flag on the first of seven weekends of the ADAC TCR Germany season this Saturday. What followed was a surprisingly sane, yet incident-riddled 30-minute sprint.
Kris Richard (Target Competition, Honda) started the race from pole position after a shortened qualifying session, forced by a multiple car pile-up. The series debutant posted the quickest lap in the only timed quali leg this weekend and started race one from the top spot.
Lined up alongside Richard was fellow Honda pilot Steve Kirsch (ADAC Sachsen, Honda). Sheldon van der Linde (AC Mayen, Audi) qualified in third, just in front of defending champion Josh Files (Target Competition, Honda). Max Hofer (PROsport Performance, Audi) rounded up the top 5.
The race
One would presume that threading more than 40 cars through the narrow corner that is turn one at Oschersleben would be a Herculean task. Yet, we were presented with a very well behaved field. Defending champion Josh Files swiftly carved his way through to P2 even before the first corner and – almost unnoticedly – took over the lead shortly thereafter.
A fair bit of jostling and elbowing on track later, the first of three safety car periods was called upon, when Simon Reicher (Certainty Racing Team, Audi) caused two separate accidents in the matter of just two corners. First the Austrian punted out a skidding Jason Wolfe (Team Engstler, Volkswagen), before sending Ronny Jost (TOPCAR Sport, SEAT) into the gravel. Both cars had to be pulled out of their pebbly entrapments by the marshals.
The field was released with 15 minutes to go and Josh Files made a huge leap to lead the field by almost a full second into turn one. The green flag phase should not last for long though, as Robin Brezina (Aust Motorsport, Audi) overshot the narrow first corner and made heavy contact with the ADAC Sachsen Honda of Moritz Oestreich. Both drivers having to call it a day with stricken race cars.
After a good few laps of running under green flag conditions again, a final safety car was sent out for a heap of smaller incidents on track, that for the matter of safety had to be taken care of under the limited pace of the Honda pace car.
With all cars and debris cleared, a final last lap sprint ensued. Little change on track on the final minute and a half meant that Josh Files went on to score his first win of the ADAC TCR Germany season. Steve Kirsch closely followed the Brit over the line, with Sheldon van der Linde completing the podium. Pole setter Kris Richard narrowly missed out on a place on the rostrum in P4.
Race two will see Florian Thoma (Team Engstler, Volkswagen) start from pole position as the top 10 qualifiers will start in reverse order. The Swiss will be joined on the front row by Pascal Eberle (Steibel Motorsport, SEAT). Race winner Files will start from seventh position.
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 | 17 | 32:12.662 | 1:34.982 | 4 |
| 2 | 41 | Steve KIRSCH |  |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 17 | 0.750 | 1:35.052 | 2 |
| 3 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
Prosport Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 1.869 | 1:35.370 | 3 |
| 4 | 94 | Kris RICHARD |  |
Target Competition | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 17 | 2.157 | 1:35.752 | 1 |
| 5 | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL |  |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 17 | 2.642 | 1:36.071 | 11 |
| 6 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE | |
Steibel Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 3.211 | 1:36.075 | 9 |
| 7 | 99 | Tim ZIMMERMANN | |
Target Competition | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 3.614 | 1:35.757 | 8 |
| 8 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
Prosport Performance | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 4.229 | 1:35.898 | 5 |
| 9 | 98 | Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER | |
Target Competition | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 4.986 | 1:36.026 | 12 |
| 10 | 39 | Florian THOMA | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 5.380 | 1:36.120 | 10 |
| 11 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 6.014 | 1:36.144 | 7 |
| 12 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 6.815 | 1:36.446 | 13 |
| 13 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK | |
HP Racing | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 6.869 | 1:36.397 | 16 |
| 14 | 77 | Juuso-Matti PAJURANTA |  |
Positione Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 6.887 | 1:35.734 | 17 |
| 15 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 7.908 | 1:35.861 | 26 |
| 16 | 2 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 8.382 | 1:36.414 | 22 |
| 17 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 8.811 | 1:36.660 | 28 |
| 18 | 13 | Kai JORDAN | |
Racing One | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 9.450 | 1:36.617 | 30 |
| 19 | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 17 | 10.408 | 1:36.703 | 20 |
| 20 | 27 | José RODRIGUES |  |
Target Competition 2 | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 17 | 10.588 | 1:37.871 | 6 |
| 21 | 23 | Sebastien STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 12.357 | 1:37.833 | 27 |
| 22 | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 17 | 12.594 | 1:38.019 | 34 |
| 23 | 20 | Niko KANKKUNEN | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 13.215 | 1:38.509 | 41 |
| 24 | 82 | Thomas KRAMWINKEL | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 13.312 | 1:37.838 | 24 |
| 25 | 78 | Fabian DANZ | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | SEAT León Cup Racer | 17 | 13.685 | 1:38.343 | 33 |
| 26 | 9 | Stefan GOEDE | |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 14.260 | 1:38.318 | 40 |
| 27 | 12 | Simon LARSSON |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 16.780 | 1:36.920 | 21 |
| 28 | 84 | Maurits SANDBERG | |
Racing One 2 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 17.418 | 1:38.595 | 32 |
| 29 | 35 | Rudolf RHYN | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 17.662 | 1:38.694 | 35 |
| 30 | 5 | Kristian POULSEN |  |
Team Engstler Dänemark | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 17.840 | 1:37.927 | 36 |
| 31 | 3 | Gosia RDEST |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 18.222 | 1:38.248 | 38 |
| 32 | 40 | Dillon KOSTER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 18.515 | 1:38.685 | 29 |
| 33 | 83 | Martin NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider MSP | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 20.632 | 1:41.627 | 39 |
| 34 | 10 | Antti BURI | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 13 | 4 LAPS | 1:35.987 | 14 |
| 35 | 64 | Sven MARKERT | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 5 LAPS | 1:36.814 | 18 |
| R | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:36.291 | 19 |
| R | 24 | Robin BREZINA | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:36.557 | 15 |
| R | 4 | Roland POULSEN | |
Team Engstler Dänemark | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:39.338 | 37 |
| R | 54 | Simon REICHER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:36.727 | 25 |
| R | 38 | Jason WOLFE |  |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:36.551 | 23 |
| R | 66 | Ronny JOST | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:38.032 | 31 |