Niels Langeveld takes his second win in farcical first race at Zandvoort
Niels Langeveld has taken his second win of the 2017 TCR Germany season in the first race at Zandvoort, in a race which took over an hour from start to completion, double the time scheduled with a red flag, three safety cars and multiple incidents.
The grid was altered after qualifying, with Bas Koeten Racing’s Jaap van Lagen excluded in the Audi RS 3 due to a technical infringement by the team, with the Dutchman effectively sent to the back of the 40-car field but choosing not to even make the start of the race.
Finland’s Antti Buri also lost his best time due to improving behind yellow flags and was dropped to sixth in his LMS Racing Audi RS 3, promoting the Fugel Motorsport Honda Civic TCR of Steve Kirsch to third on the grid.
At the start, Mike Halder drove into the lead in the Wolf-Power Racing SEAT, while Kirsch overtook pole-sitter Harald Proczyk’s SEAT into Turn 1, with the Austrian under attack from a fast-starting Josh Files in the Target Honda Civic.
Further back, the Lubner Opel of Jasmin Preisig and the Fugel Honda of Moritz Oestreich came together, with the Engstler Volkswagen of Florian Thoma also caught up in the accident. The cars of Preisig and Thoma were stranded by the side of the track, and Oestreich limping out of the way with suspension damage.
The race was suspended behind the safety car for two laps then eventually red flagged as Thoma’s car required additional time to be recovered.
The race resumed 30 minutes later, with Halder starting from the lead ahead of Kirsch and Proczyk, but the rain began to fall just as the restart time loomed, with teams allowed to change tyres on the grid.
The majority of the field opted to switch to wet tyres, which prompted a further delay, but this turned out to be the wrong call with the conditions clearly not wet enough. As a result, the top-placed driver to opt for slicks, Oschersleben Race 2 winner Niels Langeveld in the Racing One Audi RS 3, catapulted through the field and took the lead before the end of the lap, while the wet-shod drivers all struggled to remain on circuit.
2016 ETCC drivers’ champion Kris Richard had opted for slicks and was making progress in the Target Honda, but was forced out wide and hit the barriers, prompting a second deployment of the safety car on lap six.
After three laps, the race resumed again, but not for long before the Target Competition Audi of Tom Lautenschlager was knocked out in an incident with Luca Engstler in the Volkswagen Golf, with the safety car out for another three laps.
The race restarted for one final time on lap 12, but by now the rain had increased its intensity, with the slick-shod trio of Langeveld, the Bas Koeten SEAT of Rik Breukers and the Engstler Volkswagen of Jason Wolfe now struggling to stay ahead of the best-placed of the wet runners.
Josh Files was one of those on wets in his Target Honda, but the Brit made contact with the GermanFLAVOURS Audi of Thomas Kramwinkel on lap 12, propelling the German into the barrier but the Audi driver was able to continue.
Files harried the Volkswagen of Wolfe onto the final lap, pressuring the American, who then made a move on Breuker’s SEAT to take second place, while Files was unable to find a way past the pair and had to settle for fourth.
Langeveld went on to win the race by 4.4 seconds over Wolfe, who secured his best result of the season, with Breukers third on his first appearance, with Files fourth ahead of Max Hofer in the PROSPORT Audi.
Early race leader Mike Halder crossed the line sixth ahead of team-mate Alex Morgan, with Engstler’s Volkswagen, the PROSPORT Audi of Sheldon van der Linde and the Audi of Thomas Kramwinkel completing the top ten.
Race 2 is scheduled for 12:00 CET on Sunday.
