Gruber takes an emphatic pole for Race 1 at Hockenheim

Nico Gruber will start from pole in TCR Germany’s Race 1 at Hockenheim after setting a best lap time that was over half a second quicker than Jan Seyffert. Denying Hyundai a clean sweep of all of the top three places on the grid is the new CUPRA León Competición of guest driver Felix Wimmer. Series leader Dominik Fugel failed to set a lap time in Q2 but will start the reversed-grid Race 2 from the pole.
The early pace in the first stage of Qualifying was set by Dominik and Marcel Fugel in the their Honda Civic cars, with Dominik setting a time of 1:49.628 and Marcel just eight-hundredths of a second slower on their first competitive laps. A little over ten minutes into the session, the Volkswagen Golf GTI of Rene Kircher went fastest with a time of 1:48.357, with Gruber (1:49.403) then going second quickest. Harald Proczyk (1:49.978), Seyffert (1:49.366), Antti Buri (1:49.553) and Džiugas Tovilavičius (1:49.944) all beat the 1:50 barrier, but with around eight minutes of the session remaining, Wimmer put the new CUPRA into P2 with a lap of 1:48.751 with the Volkswagen of Harri Salminen (1:49.456) then going fourth fastest. The Fugel brothers spent much of the session playing a waiting game but emerged from the pits to improve their lap times; Marcel taking P3 with a time of 1:49.140 and Dominik (1:49.568) claiming the last of the top ten places to go through to Q2. In all, going through were Kircher, Wimmer, Marcel Fugel, Philipp Walsdorf in the Lubner Motorsport Opel Astra, Proczyk, Seyffert, Gruber, Salminen, Buri and Dominik Fugel.
The ten-minute second stage of Qualifying then saw Gruber set his best time of 1:48.019 on his first flying lap to take his first pole position of the season, with the other two Hyundai cars of Seyffert (1:48.535) and Buri (1:48.618) making it an all-Hyundai top three. One lap later, Wimmer spoiled the celebrations when the CUPRA edged out Buri with a time of 1:48.594. Buri pitted for tyres, but despite looking as though he was on course to take pole away from Gruber, he was beaten by the chequered flag and so settled for P4. Behind Buri was the Opel of Walsdorf (1:48.828), the Volkswagen of Kircher (1:48.978), Marcel Fugel’s Honda (1:49.531), Proczyk’s Hyundai (1:49.595) and Salminen’s Golf (1:50.018). Dominik Fugel failed to set a lap time as he spent the entire Q2 in the pits after stopping on the track due to a technical issue at the end of Q1.
Race 1 will be streamed live tomorrow at www.tcr-series.com, at 11:50, local time (CEST). 

Qualifying
1:48.019 Niko Gruber (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N)
1:48.535 Jan Seyffert (HP Racing International, Hyundai i30 N)
1:48.594 Felix Wimmer (Wimmer Werk Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)
1:48.618 Antti Buri (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N)
1:48.828 Philipp Walsdorf (Lubner Motorsport, Opel Astra)

Championship points
1. Dominik Fugel 75 pts; 2. Harald Proczyk 71; 3. Jan Seyffert 57

Picture: ADAC Motorsport