Engstler wins again, Proczyk is back on top
Luca Engstler continued on his winning streak, as he scored a second consecutive race victory in TCR Germany. In the Sachsenring’s Race 1, the young German drove his Hyundai i30 N car from pole position to a lights-to-flag win, in spite of three safety car interventions. Engstler beat Mike Halder and Harald Proczyk with the latter jumping again on top of the standings, but just three points ahead of Engstler and Niels Langeveld.
At the start, Engstler took the lead from Halder and Proczyk; before the field got to T1, Niko Kankkunen spun and crashed, involving Justin Häussermann – who had made a poor start from fifth on the grid – and Sebastian Steibel. A few hundredths metres down the track, Kai Jordan and Jussi Kuusiniemi clashed and the latter stopped onto the gravel trap, which prompted the safety car into action.
At the restart, Engstler pulled away from Halder and Proczyk; behind them, Théo Coicaud and Pascal Eberle were fighting for fourth, while Antti Buri was recovering after starting from 13th.
The safety car was deployed again on lap 9, when Francesco Ruga went off at T1. When racing resumed, Buri overtook Eberle for fifth and began fighting with Coicaud. On lap 13, Coicaud, Buri and Eberle made contact while running abreast, Buri escaped, while Coicaud and Eberle went off together, which was the reason for another safety car intervention.
The race resumed for the two final laps, Engstler and Halder were safe in first and second, Proczyk successfully defended third from Buri, while Michelle Halder and Langeveld were classified fifth and sixth.
Race 2 will take place tomorrow at 14:45 CET, with Langeveld’s Audi and Michelle Halder’s Cupra starting at the front of the top-ten reverse grid (live streaming at www.tcr-series.tv).
