Antti Buri wins shortened second race at the Sachsenring
Antti Buri won an eventful race at the Sachsenring in the second round of the TCR Germnany series, with the race red flagged due to an accident on the sixth lap before it was resumed. The Finn came home ahead of Benjamin Leuchter’s Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, with Tim Zimmermann completing the podium in the sister car run by Liqui Moly Team Engstler.
At the start pole sitter René Münnich retained the lead with a lightning start in his Honda Civic TCR, ahead of the SEATs of Antti Buri and Mario Dablander. A multicar contact soon followed after the start which relegated Dablander to outside the top ten, handing third place to Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Tim Zimmermann, who was closely followed by Honda’s Steve Kirsch.
Despite Münnich building a margin at the start he was soon challenged by Buri, and on the third lap the Finn made his move, with Münnich slipping down to third as Benjamin Leuchter and Tim Zimmermann also went past. Münnich was now under pressure from Kirsch and was passed on the fifth lap, meanwhile Target SEAT driver Josh Files had also made up ground to sixth and was now challenging Münnich.
A first corner contact on the following lap triggered a safety car and a red flag, as multiple contacts in the midfield resulted in the SEAT of Bas Schouten having nowhere to go and ending up touching Pascal Eberle’s SEAT. Eberle recovered perfectly from the subsequent slide but was helpless to avoid contact with Kai Jordan’s Volkswagen, resulting in the two going off in the gravel at Turn 2, with the SEAT beached and forcing the suspension of the race.
After the track was cleaned up there were still eight minutes to go, with Buri still leading at the restart in the SEAT ahead of Volkswagen’s Benjamin Leuchter, with the Finn resisting the attacks until the flag. Josh Files tried to attack René Münnich , but the Target Competition driver made contact with the German, who slipped down the order, with Files also overtaken by championship leader Harald Proczyk and Mario Dablander in the process.
An entertaining fight between Zimmermann and Kirsch resulted in the Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver keeping third despite some clean moves by the Honda driver, with Josh files sprinting to sixth on the last lap by passing Dablander right on the finish line, behind Race 1 winner Proczyk.
Bas Schouten’s troubled race finished in eight, the SEAT driver finishing ahead of stable-mates Jürgen Schmarl and Ronny Jost, who completed the top ten.
Next up for TCR Germany is Oschersleben on June 19th.
