Luca Engstler eases to race one win at the Lausitzring

Luca Engstler took a lights-to-flag victory in the first TCR Germany race since May at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, beating Hyundai Team Engstler team-mate Martin Andersen to the win.

At the start, Engstler made a good launch to lead into the first corner, as Lithuanian racer Jonas Karklys held second.

Andersen jumped ahead of team-mate Nico Gruber through the second corner to claim third, as further back Peter Gross got into Wimmer Werk team-mate Christian Voithofer, spinning the latter’s CUPRA at Turn 6.

Going onto the third lap championship contender Eric Scalvini made a move on René Kircher’s Volkswagen for seventh heading into the first turn, with Robin Jahr hoping to slot his Hyundai up the inside for eighth.

However, Kircher held his line through the Turns 2, 3 and 4 sequences, and Jahr went off line, dropping him to 12^th behind the Hyundai of Roland Hertner.

Jahr endured firther dramas on lap ten when he hit Hertner’s Hyundai and sent the 61-year-old into a spin.

At the start of lap 12 Andersen finally found a way past Karklys for second at the first corner, although the Dane had no answer to Engstler’s leading advantage, which then stood at just over a second.

The race was relatively uneventful until lap 14 when Kircher had to pull his Volkswagen Golf to the side of the circuit with a fire, prompting a lengthy safety car intervention.

Racing resumed with just two laps to go, but Engstler held on to win for a third time this year and lead a Hyundai quartet consisting of Andersen, Karklys and Gruber, with Karklys claiming his first podium in the series.

Marcel Fugel was the best Honda driver in fifth, ahead of Eric Scalvini in sixth, the Italian passing Dominik Fugel for the place at Turn 1 on the final lap.

Indeed, Fugel appeared to have problems for the last two laps, as he also lost out to new team-mate Christopher Röhner, who had passed Albert Leugtko on the last lap and then gained another two places past Philipp Regensperer and Fugel as they battled.

Dominik Fugel held on to take the chequered flag in eighth, ahead of Regensperger’s Opel and Hertner, who completed the top ten.

In the drivers’ championship, Engstler has moved up to 153 points ahead of Scalvini (112), Dominik Fugel (105), Andersen (81) and Gruber (80).

Race two is scheduled to take place at 14:40 CEST on Sunday (13:40 BST).

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	8			Luca ENGSTLER	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	32:31.517	1:30.344	1
2	19			Martin ANDERSEN	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	3.091	1:30.500	4
3	27			Jonas KARKLYS	NordPass	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	3.973	1:30.491	2
4	97			Nicolas GRUBER	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	4.978	1:30.881	3
5	55			Marcel FUGEL	Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	20	5.787	1:31.422	5
6	6			Eric SCALVINI	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	20	10.451	1:31.475	6
7	47			Christopher RÖHNER	Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	20	11.610	1:31.680	9
8	88			Dominik FUGEL	Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	20	12.401	1:31.157	7
9	33			Philipp REGENSPERGER	Lubner Motorsport	Opel Astra TCR	20	12.563	1:31.694	17
10	9			Roland HERTNER	Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	13.570	1:31.866	11
11	22			Robin JAHR	ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	13.954	1:31.740	12
12	5			Peter GROSS	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	20	14.878	1:31.931	18
13	99			Christian VOITHOFER	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	20	22.549	1:32.824	14
14	56			Günter BENNINGER	Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	20	24.310	1:32.574	16
15	34			Patrick SING	RaceSing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	20	25.627	1:32.062	15
16	17			Albert LEGUTKO	Albert Legutko Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	20	29.553	1:31.947	13
17	21			Szymon ŁADNIAK	JP Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	19	+ 1 LAP	1:31.939	19
R	80			René KIRCHER	Volkswagen Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	14	DNF	1:31.712	10