Teammates Seyffert and Proczyk in a 1-2 finish at Hockenheim

Jan Seyffert and Harald Proczyk claimed a 1-2 finish for the HP Racing International team in the first TCR Germany race at Hockenheim, with Albert Legutko completing the podium places after a great series of battles in the closing stages of the race. 
Pole-sitter Nico Gruber made a good start and led into Turn 1, with the new CUPRA León Competición of Felix Wimmer briefly passing Seyffert for P2 but when the Austrian driver ran wide on the exit to Turn 1 and Seyffert retook the position. Wimmer was then passed by Antti Buri on lap 1 and the CUPRA then started to drop back through the field. The next lap then saw Marcel Fugel grab third place from Buri, followed by contact between Fugel and Seyffert at the hairpin that allowed Proczyk to move into fourth position. A disappointing weekend for Dominik Fugel continued; after he’d been forced to pull up at the end of Q1, the series leader headed for the pits on lap 4 and retired.
There then followed a furious few laps, with Buri attacking Seyffert on lap 6 and Proczyk attacking Buri on the following lap. On lap 8, Seyffert passed Gruber for the lead at the hairpin with Proczyk passing Buri for P3 at the same spot moments later. Marcel Fugel made contact with Kircher and both cars ran wide, with Fugel diving for the pits to change a puncture. Proczyk then moved up into second place when he passed Gruber on lap 10 and Džiugas Tovilavičius passed Buri for third on the same lap. On the following lap, Buri was squeezed onto the grass and was passed by both the Volkswagen Golf of René Kircher and Legutko’s Honda. Kircher then passed Tovilavičius and Gruber for P3 on lap 12.
The challenge from three of the early pace-setters faded over the final third of the race, with Wimmer, Buri and Gruber steadily dropping down the order; the trio would eventually finish in 9^th, 13^th and 14^th places respectively. The battle for the podium places wasn’t over, however, with Legutko passing Kircher for P3 and Tovilavičius passing Kircher for P4 on lap 16. The Opel Astra of Philipp Walsdorf then passed Kircher for P5 on the penultimate lap, with Kircher making contact with Harri Salminen and dropping to ninth.
The victory belonged to Seyffert, who’d led for over half the race. Proczyk made it a 1-2 for the team and Legutko finished in the final podium position ahead of Tovilavičius; however, after the race Legutko was disqualified because there was not enough fuel left in his tank and so Tovilavičius was promoted to third.
The result means Proczyk has moved into the lead of the Drivers’ standings and is now 9 points ahead of Seyffert with Dominik Fugel’s DNF dropping him to third in the table. 
Race 2 will start at 11:50 on Sunday (CEST), live streaming at www.tcr-series.com. 

Race 1
1. Jan Seyffert (HP Racing International, Hyundai i30 N), 18 laps
2. Harald Proczyk (HP Racing International, Hyundai i30 N), 8.222
3. Džiugas Tovilavičius (SKUBA Racing Team, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 13.338
4. Philipp Walsdorf (Lubner Motorsport, Opel Astra), 20.215
5. Szymon Ładniak (GT2 Motorsport, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 25.039

Championship points
1. Harald Proczyk 91 pts; 2. Jan Seyffert 82; 3. Dominik Fugel 75

Picture: ADAC Motorsport