Dominik Fugel takes another win at the Sachsenring despite a penalty

Dominik Fugel rounded off a perfect weekend at his home event at the Sachsenring with another lights-to-flag victory in the second race of the ADAC TCR Germany. His second victory of the weekend wasn’t entirely straightforward, however, as he was given a 5-second penalty for a jump-start although his winning margin was so large that he still finished well clear of second-placed Luca Engstler.
At the start, Dominik Fugel got away well from pole position, with Luca Engstler passing his Hyundai Team Engstler teammate Nico Gruber around the outside of Turn 1 to lie in second place. The opening lap saw contact between Patrick Sing and René Kircher, while the safety car was deployed to allow the recovery of Günter Benninger’s car, which was stranded in the gravel.
Racing resumed on Lap 5, with Dominik Fugel charging off to try to increase the gap over Engstler to more than the five seconds of the penalty he had received; behind the pair were Gruber, Marcel Fugel, Martin Andersen and Robin Jahr. Engstler’s closest championship rival Eric Scalvini had made it up to seventh place after starting from P13. 
By Lap 10, Dominik Fugel’s lead had grown to 6.5 seconds, although that didn’t stop the Honda driver from pushing for the remainder of the race. On Lap 11, Dominik’s brother Marcel Fugel was attacking Gruber for third place, but never got quite close enough to make a move on the Hyundai and on Lap 15, the Honda slowed and Marcel headed for the pits.
There were no further changes among the leaders and so Dominik Fugel took his second win of the weekend by over twenty-two seconds from Luca Engstler, so his penalty for the jump-start was more than cancelled out. With Gruber finishing third and Andersen fourth, the Hyundai Team Engstler recorded a 2-3-4 result, with fifth-placed Robin Jahr’s Hyundai giving the Korean brand four of the top five places.  
These results meant that Dominik Fugel has moved up into second place behind Engstler in the standings. The pair are separated by 68 points with Scalvini having dropped to third place, a further 13 points behind Fugel and 6 ahead of fourth-placed Martin Andersen.
The next event of the ADAC TCR Germany will take place at Hockenheim on October 22/24.

Sachsenring – Race 2
1. Dominik Fugel (Team ADAC Sachsen, Honda Civic Type R Fk7), 19 laps
2. Luca Engstler (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 17.286
3. Nico Gruber (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 19.353
4. Martin Andersen (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 19.571
5. Robin Jahr (Roja Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 22.266

Championship points
1. L. Engstler 281; 2. D. Fugel 213; 3. E. Scalvini 200

Picture: ADAC Motorsport/Gruppe C Photography