Florian Thoma, driving a Junior Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTi, took victory in the second round of TCR Germany after driving a flawless race. Thanks to the reversed top-ten from Qualifying, the 21-year old Thoma started from pole position and controlled the race from the front, holding off the challenge from the Target Competition Audi RS3 LMS of Tim Zimmermann. The winner of Race 1, reigning TCR Germany champion Josh Files, started from seventh on the grid but another good start meant the English driver was fourth going into Turn 1. He then passed José Rodrigues on lap 2 for third place and held onto the position to claim the final podium place.
In all, 41 cars lined up on the grid, but the Volkswagen of Roland Poulsen pulled into the pits after the formation lap and so started from the pit lane. After three appearances by the Safety Car in Race 1, it was almost inevitable that it would reappear in Race 2 and it was duly deployed on lap 6 while the Audi of Niels Langeveld was recovered from the gravel trap on the outside of Turn 1. Following the restart, Sven Markert was lucky to avoid a similar fate; he outbraked himself going into Turn 1 but managed to make it through the gravel.
The second half of the thirty-minute race saw several incidents. There was contact between the SEAT of Harald Proczyk and Steve Kirsch’s Honda on lap 9 that saw Proczyk move into the top ten. By lap 12, Kirsch had dropped to 13th, which allowed Antti Buri up to 11th and Tom Lautenschlager to 12th. When Max Hofer ran wide on lap 14, Buri’s Audi moved into the points-scoring places.
The Safety Car then made a second appearance following an oil fire involving the Honda Civic of Moritz Oestreich, and there were just two racing laps remaining when the race restarted. Behind the top three, Rodrigues finished 4th ahead of Sheldon van der Linde, Pascal Eberle and Kris Richard. The remainder of the top-ten places were only decided in the dying moments of the race; Antti Buri passed Proczyk for 9th place on the penultimate lap and the Finn then grabbed 8th place by passing Sandro Kaibach on the final lap.
The result means that Josh Files leads the series after the two races at Oschersleben on 72 points with van der Linde second, 14 points adrift. Zimmermann (56 points) is third, Thoma (54) fourth and Richard (49) fifth.
The next races are at the Red Bull Ring in Austria in early June.
