Two wins from two races for Luca Engstler at Oschersleben

Luca Engstler encored his victory the previous day to win TCR Germany’s Race 2 at Oschersleben and so moved into a commanding lead in the standings after the opening race weekend. The Hyundai Team Engstler driver had a near-perfect weekend, going fastest in both Free Practice sessions on Friday but narrowly losing out to his teammate Martin Andersen in Qualifying.
Engstler started Race 2 from pole position, while the overturning of a timing error in Qualifying 2 meant that it was Nico Gruber who started alongside Engstler on the front row of the grid instead of Andersen. The pair both made good starts and were first and second going into Turn 1, although the two Honda cars of Dominik and Marcel Fugel both passed Andersen and Eric Scalvini on the run down to the first corner to lie in third and fourth places respectively. The CUPRA Leon Competición of Günter Benninger spun into the gravel at Turn 3 on the opening lap and, although he was soon on the move again, the safety car had already been deployed as a precaution and so it was withdrawn after just half a lap.
With the two Hyundai cars and Dominik Fugel starting to pull away, a terrific four-way scrap for P4 was developing between Marcel Fugel, Andersen, Scalvini and René Kircher. There was contact between Marcel Fugel and Andersen on Lap 4, although Fugel emerged still in fourth place. There was then a heavier contact between the pair on the following lap, which saw Fugel half-spinning and dropping to seventh and Andersen being given a drive-through penalty that dropped him to P14. 
The battle for fourth place was then a two-way affair between Scalvini’s CUPRA and the Volkswagen Golf of Kircher. It continued for much of the race and was only settled on Lap 18 when Scalvini locked up his brakes going into Turn 1 and Kircher was able to dive past and take the position. Dominik Fugel, meanwhile, had been steadily catching second-placed Gruber and the Honda driver was trying everything to get past. He ran slightly wide on the race’s penultimate lap but only lost a few tenths, but then on the final lap the pair made slight contact while Gruber was trying to hold his line. Fugel managed to muscle his way past and so looked to have repeated the second place finish that he’d scored in Race 1. Gruber crossed the finish line in third place ahead of Kircher and Scalvini. After the race, however, the Stewards gave Dominik Fugel a 1.5-second time penalty for the incident on the final lap that meant he dropped to third place behind Gruber.
The ADAC TCR Germany will next visit Austria for rounds 3 and 4 that will be raced at the Red Bull Ring on June 12/13.

Oschersleben – Race 2
1. Luca Engstler (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 20 laps
2. Nico Gruber (Hyundai Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 4.277
3. Dominik Fugel (Honda ADAC Sachsen, Honda Civic Type-R), 4.284
4. René Kircher (Volkswagen Team Oettinger, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 6.967
5. Eric Scalvini (Wimmer Werk Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición), 11.221

Championship points
1. L. Engstler 68 pts; 2. D. Fugel 46; 3. N. Gruber 43 

Picture: ADAC Motorsport/Gruppe C Photography