Engstler gets his TCR Germany season off to a winning start

Luca Engstler got his TCR Germany season off to the best possible start by taking a dominant victory in the series’ opening race at Oschersleben. Behind the Hyundai Team Engstler driver, the two Honda Team Sachsen Civic Type-R cars of Dominik and Marcel Fugel finished second and third.
For Engstler, the race was all about the start. His Hyundai i30 N got away cleanly from second position on the grid to lead the field into Turn 1. From then on, he was never threatened and crossed the finish line with a lead of nearly three seconds over second place. For his teammate and pole-sitter Martin Andersen, however, the story couldn’t have been more different. A poor get-away from the start line saw him passed by both the Fugel brothers on the run down to Turn 1, with P1 becoming P4 in a matter of seconds. 
For the leaders, the first half of the race was then largely processional, with battles further down the order taking centre stage, including that for P9 between Philipp Regensperger and Szymon Ładniak. On Lap 3, René Kircher passed Eric Scalvini for seventh place, but Kircher’s joy would be short-lived as he was given a drive-through penalty for a jump start that dropped him to P16. That left Scalvini battling with Jonas Karklys for sixth place, with the pair making contact as Scalvini’s CUPRA passed the Hyundai of Karklys on Lap 8. After an investigation by the Stewards, Scalvini was ordered to give back the position, but no sooner had he done so than he overtook the Hyundai again, this time cleanly.
After several laps of pressure, Gruber finally passed Andersen for fourth place on Lap 10, with Gruber then starting to close in on Marcel Fugel who was in P3. Patrick Sing, meanwhile, had passed Ładniak for P9 while a recovering Kircher was picking his way through the field and would eventually finish in eleventh place. Scalvini then passed Andersen for fifth place on Lap 14 while Albert Legutko passed Ładniak to break into the top ten on the following lap. 
Over the final five laps or so, two battles emerged, as Marcel Fugel began to close in on his brother Dominik for second place and Gruber forced to switch from attacking Marcel Fugel for P3 to defending fourth position from a determined Scalvini. On the final lap, Scalvini finally found a way past the Hyundai to snatch fourth place while Dominik Fugel kept Marcel at bay to finish second.
But it was Engstler who took a lights-to-flag victory thanks to his great start. In the end, his winning margin over Dominik Fugel’s Honda was 2.927 seconds - in fact, Engstler’s total domination of the weekend so far had only been spoiled by Andersen denying him pole position in Qualifying after Engstler had been fastest in both Free Practice sessions on Friday.
Action will resume at Oschersleben with the Qualifying session for Race 2, tomorrow at 09:40 CEST.

Oschersleben – Race 1
1. Luca Engstler (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 21 laps
2. Dominik Fugel (Honda ADAC Sachsen, Honda Civic Type-R), 2.927
3. Marcel Fugel (Honda ADAC Sachsen, Honda Civic Type-R), 3.084
4. Eric Scalvini (Wimmer Werk Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición), 7.433
5. Nico Gruber (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 7.714

Championship points
1. L. Engstler 33 pts; 2. D. Fugel 26; 3. M. Fugel 21 

Picture: ADAC Motorsport/Gruppe C Photography