Luca Engstler doubles up in Lausitzring race two

Luca Engstler took another victory in a shortened second ADAC TCR Germany race at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, getting the jump on pole-sitter and team-mate Martin Andersen at the start of the race.

Engstler made a superior start in his Hyundai i30 N TCR to jump past Dane Andersen into the first corner, having earlier lost out on pole position to his team-mate in qualifying by three tenths of a second.

Behind them, Günter Benninger missed his braking point for the first corner by some distance, with the Austrian ploughing into the back of Szymon Ładniak’s Volkswagen who in turn also collected Patrick Sing’s Hyundai.

The incident forced all three drivers out of the race on the spot, whilst also necessitating a safety car period for the next four laps.

Racing resumed on lap six, with Engstler initially easing away from team-mate Andersen, as further back Eric Scalvini, who had challenged for second at the first corner but later dropped back, was pressuring Marcel Fugel for fifth.

Scalvini kept pressuring Fugel’s Honda for the position for much of the rest of the race, before making a mistake at Turn 1 on the tenth lap which allowed Robin Jahr to close in and ultimately pass for sixth at the end of the lap.

Whilst Andersen kept Engstler honest at the front for much of the race, in the end he had no answer and had to settle for his second successive second-place finish, just under a second behind Engstler.

Dominik Fugel had a relatively quiet race to third, ahead of the Hyundai of Nicolas Gruber in fourth, who had made up both of his places on the opening lap.

Marcel Fugel claimed fifth ahead of Jahr in sixth, whilst Scalvini only just clung on to seventh at the end of the race.

Jonas Karklys had started from fifth but dropped to 11^th on the first lap, although the Lithuanian Hyundai driver made strong progress in the second half of the race, including taking eighth from Philipp Regensperger at Turn 8 on lap 11 with a confident pass.

Regensperger’s Opel and Christopher Röhner’s Honda completed the top ten.

Engstler’s fourth win of the year means he has extended his championship lead to 186 points, ahead of Dominik Fugel (127), Scalvini (126), Andersen (111) and Gruber (96).

The next round of TCR Germany takes place at the Hockenheimring next weekend.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	8			Luca ENGSTLER	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	22:08.472	1:30.897	2
2	19			Martin ANDERSEN	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	0.927	1:30.915	1
3	88			Dominik FUGEL	Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	13	3.819	1:31.104	3
4	97			Nicolas GRUBER	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	6.954	1:31.275	6
5	55			Marcel FUGEL	Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	13	9.078	1:31.531	9
6	22			Robin JAHR	ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	12.008	1:31.654	8
7	6			Eric SCALVINI	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	13	14.422	1:31.779	4
8	27			Jonas KARKLYS	NordPass	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	14.698	1:31.117	5
9	33			Philipp REGENSPERGER	Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	13	16.665	1:31.732	7
10	47			Christopher RÖHNER	Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	13	17.071	1:31.828	11
11	9			Roland HERTNER	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	18.771	1:32.118	13
12	5			Peter GROSS	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	21.117	1:32.048	14
13	99			Christian VOITHOFER	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	13	33.423	1:33.074	15
14	17			Albert LEGUTKO	Albert Legutko Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	13	1:19.496	1:37.726	17
R	21			Szymon ŁADNIAK	JP Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	0	DNF	N/A	10
R	34			Patrick SING	RaceSing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	0	DNF	N/A	12
R	56			Günter BENNINGER	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	0	DNF	N/A	16
NS	80			René KIRCHER	Volkswagen Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–