After being stripped of yesterday’s victory in Zandvoort’s Race 1, Neils Langeveld won the second race, the eight round of TCR Germany. The Dutch driver was sitting on pole position and took command at the start in his Racing One Audi RS3 LMS, while championship leader Josh Files overtook Sheldon van der Linde for second. On lap 2, van der Linde retook the position from Files who was chased by yesterday’s winner Jason Wolfe.
On lap 5, Florian Thoma’s Volkswagen got stranded in the gravel at T1 and the safety car was deployed. When the race resumed, Files began to lose positions and dropped down from third to 14th.
On lap 9, Stefan Goede punted Rudolf Rhyn off onto the gravel, which promoted the safety car once again while a light rain began to fall.
The race restarted for good with eight minutes left on the clock; Mike Halder overtook Steve Kirsch and Sandro Kaibach, moving up to fourth, while Luca Engstler was struggling to defend his seventh place from the assaults of Harald Proczyk and Pascal Eberle; eventually they both managed to pass the young German.
On the last lap, Halder and Wolfe made contact while fighting for third, but the American kept the position, crossing the line behind Langeveld and van der Linde.
Despite finishing 14th, Files maintained a solid margin in the standings, as his closest competitor, Halder, is lying 104 points behind him.
The series will resume in two weeks at the Nürburgring for rounds 9 and 10.
