Harald Proczyk inherited victory in the opening ADAC TCR Germany race of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring, after race-long leader Antti Buri was given a post-race 30-second penalty.
At the start of the race Buri jumped ahead of pole-sitter Mitchell Cheah Min Jie to lead into the first corner, with Proczyk also making it passed the Malaysian racer at the first corner.
Buri then had to fend off a race-long challenge from fellow Hyundai racer Proczyk, who kept close to the Finn’s rear bumper throughout.
Cheah ran in third for the first couple of laps, before the Team Engstler driver made a move on Proczyk on lap three with contact at Turn 7.
Cheah gave the position back a lap later, and he didn’t go on to challenge Proczyk any further in the race as he started to come under pressure from the chasing Hyundais of Jan Seyffert and Patrick Simon.
The best Honda of Dominik Fugel, meanwhile, had been closing on the scrapping i30 N drivers, and on lap ten the Honda driver, who got past Simon on lap four, tried to pass Seyffert for fourth at Turn 3.
However the pair made contact, with Fugel turning in on Seyffert from the outside line, inflicting front-right damage to his Civic.
Fugel had to pit for repairs, whilst Seyffert continued in fourth under heavy pressure from Simon.
The guest driver eventually got past on lap 13 when Seyffert made a slight mistake at Turn 6, and Seyffert would be unable to fight back thereafter.
Whilst Buri won the race – just – on the road, the Finn was later handed a post-race 30-second penalty because he posted his fastest sector two time under yellow flags, after Günter Benninger beached his CUPRA in the gravel two laps from the end of the race.
The subsequent penalty dropped Buri to fifth and crucially denied him the points which would have put him just five points from the championship lead. Instead, Buri is 22 points from the top of the table, albeit still in third overall.
Buri’s penalty means Cheah claims second, equalling his best result in the series, with Simon completing the podium result on his début.
Seyffert was classified in fourth, ahead of the penalised Buri in fifth and Marcel Fugel as the leading Honda driver in sixth.
Albert Legutko brought his Honda Civic FK2 home in seventh, ahead of the Volkswagen of René Kircher in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Dziugas Tovilavicius’ Volkswagen and on-off guest racer Szymon Ladniak’s Golf GTi.
Austrian racer Sandro Soubek was the only non-classified driver of the race, stopping his Audi RS3 at the exit of Turn 7 on lap two whilst running in sixth.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 11:35 CEST (10:35 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 2 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 33:02.845 | 1:38.304 | 3 |
| 2 | 29 | Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie |  |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 9.086 | 1:38.609 | 1 |
| 3 | 102 | Patrick SIMON |  |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 12.185 | 1:38.594 | 4 |
| 4 | 98 | Jan SEYFFERT | |
HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 16.773 | 1:38.706 | 6 |
| 5 | 13 | Antti BURI |  |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 29.105 | 1:38.632 | 2 |
| 6 | 55 | Marcel FUGEL | |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 20 | 31.712 | 1:39.650 | 14 |
| 7 | 17 | Albert LEGUTKO |  |
Albert Legutko Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 20 | 32.597 | 1:39.643 | 8 |
| 8 | 8 | René KIRCHER | |
Volkswagen Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 20 | 34.159 | 1:39.684 | 11 |
| 9 | 92 | Dziugas TOVILAVICIUS |  |
SKUBA RACING TEAM | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 20 | 34.774 | 1:39.460 | 7 |
| 10 | 21 | Szymon LADNIAK | |
GT2 Motorsports | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 20 | 36.365 | 1:39.778 | 10 |
| 11 | 24 | Felix WIMMER | |
Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 20 | 41.791 | 1:39.675 | 9 |
| 12 | 99 | Christian VOITHOFER | |
Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 20 | 1:36.243 | 1:40.566 | 13 |
| 13 | 56 | Günter BENNINGER | |
Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición | 17 | + 3 LAPS | 1:40.343 | 12 |
| 14 | 88 | Dominik FUGEL | |
Profi Car Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 17 | + 3 LAPS | 1:38.522 | 15 |
| R | 23 | Sandro SOUBEK | |
MAIR Racing Osttirol | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 5 |
