Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Martin Andersen held off race-long pressure from Jonas Karklys to claim victory in the opening TCR Germany race at the Nürburgring, thereby extending his championship lead.
Andersen started the race from pole position and despite constant pressure from the Hyundai of Karlys he was able to hold on and claim his second win of the season and maintain his perfect run of podium finishes so far this year.
Karklys had leapt into second at the start, from third on the grid, quickly getting by the other Team Engstler Honda of Szymon Ładniak. Despite keeping pace with Andersen he couldn’t find a way past and the Lithuanian had to settle for a third podium place of 2022.
ROJA Motorsport’s Jessica Bäckman completed the podium, the Swede having initially dropped back from Ładniak and into the clutches of Marco Butti, before gaining pace as the race went on.
She spent several laps at the halfway stage applying heavy pressure to Ładniak, even making contact with the Pole on lap 11, before finally completing the move on the next lap with a clean pass at the hairpin which bypasses half of the full Grand Prix circuit.
Ładniak thus had to settle for fourth, in the end dropping a further 15 seconds back from Bäckman by the finish.
Patrick Sing brought his Hyundai home in fifth, ahead of the Maurer Motorsport Opel of Vincent Radermecker in sixth, after the Belgian got by Butti on lap 17 when the Italian presumably made a mistake.
Butti was seventh on his TCR Germany début, ahead of Robin Jahr in eighth. Jahr had earlier been given a drive-through penalty for hitting team-mate René Kircher at Turn 1, with the contact resulting in a right-rear puncture for Kicher, who finished a lap down in 12th.
Andersen has extended his points lead, with the Dane having 199 points ahead of Bäckman (177), Ładniak (158), Karklys (121) and Kircher (90).
Race two takes place on Sunday at 11:35 CEST (10:35 BST).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 19 |  |
Martin ANDERSEN | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 20 | 32:09.197 | 1:35.223 | 1 | |
| 2 | 27 |  |
Jonas KARKLYS | NordPass | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 0.274 | 1:35.281 | 3 | |
| 3 | 26 |  |
Jessica BÄCKMAN | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai Veloster N TCR | 20 | 2.023 | 1:35.000 | 4 | |
| 4 | 21 |  |
Szymon ŁADNIAK | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 20 | 17.087 | 1:35.588 | 2 | |
| 5 | 34 |  |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 17.413 | 1:35.743 | 6 | |
| 6 | 11 |  |
Vincent RADERMECKER | maurer motorsport | Holden Astra TCR | 20 | 25.111 | 1:36.210 | 5 | |
| 7 | 46 |  |
Marco BUTTI | Elite Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 20 | 36.626 | 1:35.584 | 7 | |
| 8 | 22 | |
Robin JAHR | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai Veloster N TCR | 20 | 37.524 | 1:35.994 | 8 | |
| 9 | 38 | |
Kai ROSOWSKI | K-Ro Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 20 | 38.425 | 1:36.810 | 11 | |
| 10 | 9 | |
Roland HERTNER | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 20 | 55.858 | 1:36.212 | 10 | |
| 11 | 13 | |
Max GRUHN | Gruhn Stahlbau Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 19 | + 1 LAP | 1:35.982 | 9 | |
| 12 | 8 | |
René KIRCHER | ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 19 | + 1 LAP | 1:35.715 | 13 | |
| 13 | 17 |  |
Michael MAURER | maurer motorsport | Holden Astra TCR | 19 | + 1 LAP | 1:41.919 | 12 |