Dominik Fugel takes first win of year as title race intensifies

Dominik Fugel recorded his first TCR Germany win of the season at the Sachsenring, holding off Antti Buri and Mike Halder, as the title race went to the wire, with just three points separating the top three drivers.

Fugel scored a lights-to-flag win to take his first victory of the year, holding off a race-long challenge from LMS Racing’s title contender Antti Buri in second.

Buri had made a strong start from the second row of the grid to jump into second at the first corner on the opening lap, whilst Mike Halder slipped back to third.

The top three would remain unchanged thereafter, with Halder eventually slipping to over six seconds behind the lead battle, despite a safety car intervention after the first third of the race closing the field up.

Reigning champion Harald Proczyk was the leading Hyundai driver in fourth, keeping his title defence alive, ahead of the third Profi-Car Honda of Michelle Halder in fifth.

Michelle had earlier followed Theo Coicaud past his Team Engstler team-mate Max Hesse near the end of the race, initially into sixth, which became fifth when Coicaud dropped back on the final lap.

Pascal Eberle also got past Hesse and took sixth, with fellow CUPRA driver Julien Apothéloz in seventh after making late progress past Hesse.

Hesse was just eighth at the flag, meaning that whilst he still leads the standings he holds just three points over Proczyk and four over Buri heading into Sunday’s finale.

Coicaud and Moroccan rookie Sami Taoufik completed the top ten, the latter staging an impressive comeback drive after going off at the first corner on the opening lap and dropping to the back of the field.

Sebastian Steibel was 11^th after a spirited drive, ending the race as the leading Volkswagen driver after fighting with Marcel Fugel in the latter laps.

The one-lap safety car intervention came on lap eight when Malaysian racer Mitchell Cheah went wide at Turn 7, got dirt on his tyres, and then went off at Turn 8, spinning into the barriers and ending up beached in the gravel.

Jan Seyffert had already retired his LADA after two laps, whilst René Münnich, returning to the series for the first time since 2016, retired in the pits after 17 laps.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 11:00 CEST (10:00 BST) on Sunday,

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	21	21 LAPS	1:27.667	1
2	13	Antti BURI		LMS Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	21	0.591	1:27.741	4
3	7	Mike HALDER		Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	21	6.341	1:27.685	2
4	1	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	14.323	1:28.078	3
5	53	Michelle HALDER		Profi-Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	21	17.682	1:28.479	9
6	28	Pascal EBERLE		Steibel Motorsport 2	CUPRA TCR	21	19.163	1:28.168	12
7	22	Julien APOTHÉLOZ		TOPCAR Sport	CUPRA TCR	21	21.439	1:28.579	11
8	19	Max HESSE		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	27.580	1:28.171	5
9	27	Theo COICAUD		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	27.828	1:28.704	6
10	25	Sami TAOUFIK		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	21	32.311	1:29.108	10
11	23	Sebastian STEIBEL		Steibel Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	21	32.785	1:29.168	18
12	99	Maurits SANDBERG		VW Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	21	36.848	1:29.802	16
13	55	Marcel FUGEL		Profi-Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type R FK2 TCR	21	37.546	1:29.320	8
14	8	René KIRCHER		racing one	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	21	39.076	1:28.898	15
15	32	James BISCHOF		Young Driver Challenge	CUPRA TCR	21	51.822	1:30.533	17
16	20	Philipp REGENSPERGER		Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	21	1:59.567	1:29.692	13
17	48	Sophie HOFMANN		TOPCAR Sport	CUPRA TCR	20	+ 1 LAP	1:34.265	19
R	77	René MÜNNICH		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	17	DNF	1:28.742	7
R	29	Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie		VW Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	7	DNF	1:28.294	14
R	98	Jan SEYFFERT		Lubner Motorsport	LADA Vesta TCR	2	DNF	N/A	20