Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport’s Eric Scalvini secured a lights-to-flag win in the opening ADAC TCR Germany race at the Red Bull Ring, easing away from Luca Engstler to claim a maiden win in the series.
Scalvini had started the race from pole position and was never threatened during the race, the Italian easing out a near three-second lead in his CUPRA over the chasing field.
Engstler brought his Hyundai home in second, the double winner in the season opener experiencing a relatively quiet race.
Dominik Fugel completed the podium in his Honda, having passed his brother for the place three laps into the first lap.
Marcel Fugel was fourth, following his brother closely throughout the race but never threatening to pass him for a challenge on the final podium place.
Team Engstler’s Martin Andersen claimed fifth, the Dane having gained place three laps from the end when Robin Jahr made a mistake at Turn 3 in his Hyundai and opened the door to Andersen.
Jahr managed to hold on to claim sixth, although René Kircher had been following the Hyundai duo closely for much of the race and had tried in vain to take advantage of Jahr’s mistake, Kircher having to settle for seventh.
Lithuanian racer Jonas Karklys brought his Hyundai home in eighth, having caught the back of the trio in front towards the end.
The top ten was completed by the Hyundai of Patrick Sing in ninth and the Opel of Philipp Regensperger in tenth, the latter coming under heavy late-race pressure from the recovering Nico Gruber, who had started from the back of the grid.
In the end although Gruber made progress early in the race, the Austrian spent the second half of the race following Regensperger, unable to find the pace or a way to pass.
Early in the race one-off entrant Sandro Soubek had run in seventh after a strong start from tenth on the grid, but the Austrian picked up a left-rear puncture on lap two after battling with Andersen and had to pit for a new tyre.
Also impressive in the early laps was Andreas Höfler, although the Opel driver went off into the gravel on lap four and dropped down the field, only managing 13th at the chequered flag.
Scalvini’s win means he moves up to third in the drivers’ championship standings on 64 points, although Engstler extended his series lead to 96, with Dominik Fugel second on 66 points.
Qualifying for race two gets underway at 09:30 CEST (08:30 BST) on Sunday.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 6 |  |
Eric SCALVINI | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 20 | 20 LAPS | 1:37.616 | 1 | |
| 2 | 8 |  |
Luca ENGSTLER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 2.583 | 1:37.913 | 2 | |
| 3 | 88 | |
Dominik FUGEL | Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 20 | 7.665 | 1:38.057 | 5 | |
| 4 | 55 | |
Marcel FUGEL | Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 20 | 8.665 | 1:38.117 | 3 | |
| 5 | 19 |  |
Martin ANDERSEN | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 23.850 | 1:38.744 | 4 | |
| 6 | 22 | |
Robin JAHR | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 24.397 | 1:38.887 | 9 | |
| 7 | 80 | |
René KIRCHER | Volkswagen Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 20 | 24.938 | 1:38.736 | 7 | |
| 8 | 27 |  |
Jonas KARKLYS | NordPass | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 25.849 | 1:38.728 | 11 | |
| 9 | 34 | |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 33.476 | 1:38.882 | 12 | |
| 10 | 33 | |
Philipp REGENSPERGER | Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 20 | 34.142 | 1:39.278 | 8 | |
| 11 | 97 |  |
Nicolas GRUBER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 37.821 | 1:39.241 | 19 | |
| 12 | 56 | |
Günter BENNINGER | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 20 | 46.609 | 1:39.633 | 14 | |
| 13 | 44 | |
Andreas HÖFLER | Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 20 | 50.592 | 1:39.937 | 6 | |
| 14 | 21 |  |
Szymon ŁADNIAK | JP Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 20 | 55.590 | 1:40.350 | 18 | |
| 15 | 17 | |
Albert LEGUTKO | Albert Legutko Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 20 | 1:00.313 | 1:39.845 | 13 | |
| 16 | 9 | |
Roland HERTNER | Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 19 | + 1 LAP | 1:39.929 | 17 | |
| 17 | 99 | |
Christian VOITHOFER | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | + 2 LAPS | 1:39.970 | 16 | |
| R | 66 | |
Mario KLAMMER | Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 15 | DNF | 1:40.100 | 15 | |
| R | 23 | |
Sandro SOUBEK | Mair Racing Osttirol | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | DNF | 1:38.202 | 10 | |
| R | 5 | |
Peter GROSS | Wimmer Werk Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 20 |