Prosport Performance’s Sheldon van der Linde took victory in the first ADAC TCR Germany race of the weekend at the Sachsenring, with the Audi driver making the most of a strong start to lead by the end of the first lap.
At the start, pole-sitter Luca Engstler got off to a poor start to drop to third, whilst fellow front row man Harald Proczyk took the lead.
However further around the first lap, van der Linde got alongside the SEAT at the final corners and edged his Audi in front, with the duo going side-by-side for a few turns thereafter before the South African emerged in the lead.
The rest of the race was then straightforward for van der Linde, who opened up a comfortable five-second advantage and was unchallenged, despite a brief safety car period, to claim his first win of the season.
Austrian Proczyk held on to second, with Wolf-Power Racing’s Mike Halder completing the podium in third, despite strong late-race pressure from the Volkswagen of Engstler in fourth.
Engstler had earlier been involved in a controversial incident with Team Honda ADAC Sachsen’s Steve Kirsch on the second lap when, whilst trying to pass at Turn 1, Engstler made slight contact with the Honda and forced Kirsch off the circuit into the barriers. No penalty was handed out during the race, with the stewards set to look at the incident afterwards.
Target Competition’s Josh Files finished in fifth, having started tenth, thanks in part due to a strong start that saw him gain three places on the first lap.
The defending champion then passed Moritz Oestreich for fifth on lap eight with a move that looked inevitable, after he had tried several times in the previous laps.
Oestreich himself took sixth, ahead of the Target Competition Audi of Tim Zimmermann in seventh, who had got past LMS Racing’s Antti Buri for the position on lap seven.
Buri took eighth, ahead of Target Competition’s Kris Richard and Racing One’s Niels Langeveld.
Kirsch was the only retirement of the race, with the German also causing a brief one-lap safety car intervention on lap three in order to recover his stricken Honda from the Turn 1 barriers.
With Halder finishing two places ahead of Files, the title battle remains open, although the Brit now has a 71 point advantage with 125 left on offer. Files can secure the title if he wins race two on Sunday, as there would only be 85 available in the season finale at Hockenheim.
Race two is scheduled for 10:50 CEST (09:50 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 21 LAPS | 1:27.311 | 3 |
| 2 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing | SEAT León TCR | 21 | 5.371 | 1:27.682 | 2 |
| 3 | 7 | Mike HALDER |  |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 21 | 7.438 | 1:27.638 | 6 |
| 4 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 21 | 7.921 | 1:27.493 | 1 |
| 5 | 1 | Josh FILES |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 21 | 8.350 | 1:27.814 | 10 |
| 6 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 21 | 16.457 | 1:28.189 | 4 |
| 7 | 99 | Tim ZIMMERMANN | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 17.167 | 1:28.260 | 8 |
| 8 | 10 | Antti BURI |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 18.346 | 1:28.671 | 7 |
| 9 | 94 | Kris RICHARD |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 21 | 21.012 | 1:28.577 | 9 |
| 10 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 21.627 | 1:28.599 | 17 |
| 11 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 23.213 | 1:28.866 | 15 |
| 12 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE | |
Steibel Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 21 | 25.317 | 1:28.565 | 11 |
| 13 | 2 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 21 | 25.549 | 1:28.500 | 33 |
| 14 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 26.548 | 1:28.490 | 12 |
| 15 | 38 | Jason WOLFE |  |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 21 | 27.521 | 1:28.601 | 23 |
| 16 | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | Opel Astra TCR | 21 | 27.963 | 1:28.536 | 20 |
| 17 | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL | |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 21 | 28.758 | 1:28.651 | 19 |
| 18 | 66 | Ronny JOST | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 21 | 31.842 | 1:28.617 | 25 |
| 19 | 98 | Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 33.028 | 1:28.734 | 13 |
| 20 | 39 | Florian THOMA | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 21 | 38.471 | 1:28.929 | 14 |
| 21 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider MSP | SEAT León TCR | 21 | 38.482 | 1:28.960 | 18 |
| 22 | 78 | Fabian DANZ | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | SEAT León Cup Racer | 21 | 38.964 | 1:28.584 | 16 |
| 23 | 12 | Simon LARSSON |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 39.248 | 1:28.781 | 30 |
| 24 | 29 | Max HESSE | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 39.498 | 1:28.853 | 28 |
| 25 | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 21 | 40.564 | 1:28.911 | 32 |
| 26 | 50 | Georg BRAUN | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 21 | 43.457 | 1:29.202 | 29 |
| 27 | 20 | Niko KANKKUNEN | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 46.463 | 1:29.283 | 24 |
| 28 | 23 | Sebastien STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 21 | 52.704 | 1:29.279 | 27 |
| 29 | 9 | Stefan GOEDE | |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 21 | 52.869 | 1:29.667 | 26 |
| 30 | 33 | Oliver HOLDENER | |
Young Driver Challenge | SEAT León TCR | 21 | 53.53 | 1:28.736 | 21 |
| 31 | 37 | Manuel BRINKMANN | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 21 | 53.541 | 1:29.220 | 22 |
| 32 | 84 | Maurits SANDBERG | |
Racing One 2 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 1:03.217 | 1:30.244 | 31 |
| R | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 5 |