Antti Buri reignites title challenge with race two win

Antti Buri reignited his ADAC TCR Germany title challenge with victory in the second race at the Red Bull Ring, after the Hyundai driver fought his way past the early leader of Dominic Fugel.

Buri had started from sixth on the grid, but the Finn was up to third by the first corner after a strong start in his Engstler Motorsport Hyundai.

Having had his win on Saturday taken away from him for speeding in a yellow flag zone, Buri was in a determined mood on Sunday, moving up to second at the Turn 2 hairpin when René Kircher went wide in his Volkswagen.

Buri then pressured the Honda of Dominik Fugel in the early laps, before a safety car intervention on lap seven bunched the field up and left Buri hot on the tail of Fugel at the restart.

It took the Finn just two laps to get past Fugel for the lead, slipstreaming along the start straight and passing around the outside at the first corner.

Buri was then in control for the rest of the race, easily winning by almost four seconds over title rival Harald Proczyk.

Proczyk had taken several laps to get past the slower Honda of Fugel, by which time Buri had scampered off up the road ahead.

Fugel clung on to the final podium position, meaning that the top three drivers in the championship occupied the podium. Proczyk heads the standings with 175 points, with Fugel 12 adrift and Buri now just 17 points adrift.

Guest driver Sandro Soubek was an impressive fourth, the Austrian getting stuck into several battles in the race after a poor start forced him to fight back, having lost his third place grid position before the first turn.

Hyundai Team Engstler’s VIP car of Patrick Simon was again in the thick of the action, the German claiming fifth, ahead of the Honda Civic of Albert Legutko in sixth.

Marcel Fugel was seventh, ahead of the second HP Racing Hyundai of Jan Seyffert in eighth, who had fought past the Volkswagen of Dziugas Tovilavicius five laps from the chequered flag.

The top ten was completed by Pole Szymon Ladniak in his Volkswagen and Tovilavicius in tenth, after the Lithuanian lost another place near the end of the race.

Just two drivers retired, Kircher coming into the pits after four laps with an issue on his Golf GTi, whilst Mitchell Cheah stopped by the side of the circuit on lap six with a technical issue on his Hyundai, prompting the safety car intervention.

The next TCR Germany event takes place at Zandvoort on 30 October to 1 November.

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	13	Antti BURI		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	19 LAPS	1:38.206	6
2	2	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	3.771	1:38.226	5
3	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi Car Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	19	5.123	1:38.427	1
4	23	Sandro SOUBEK		MAIR Racing Osttirol	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	19	6.210	1:37.927	3
5	102	Patrick SIMON		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	6.924	1:38.591	4
6	17	Albert LEGUTKO		Albert Legutko Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	19	18.161	1:39.244	10
7	55	Marcel FUGEL		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	19	25.704	1:39.528	9
8	98	Jan SEYFFERT		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	25.931	1:39.403	12
9	21	Szymon LADNIAK		GT2 Motorsports	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	19	26.436	1:39.535	13
10	92	Dziugas TOVILAVICIUS		SKUBA RACING TEAM	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	19	26.815	1:39.467	8
11	24	Felix WIMMER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	19	27.656	1:38.919	11
12	56	Günter BENNINGER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	19	28.373	1:39.915	14
13	99	Christian VOITHOFER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	19	1:02.722	1:42.196	15
R	29	Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	5	DNF	1:38.929	7
R	8	René KIRCHER		Volkswagen Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	4	DNF	1:39.138	2