Niels Langeveld takes his first win of the season at the Red Bull Ring

Niels Langeveld dominated the first TCR Germany race of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring to take his first win of the season ahead of fellow Audi driver Antti Buri and Volkswagen driver Benjamin Leuchter.

At the start Langeveld took the lead, with Buri making contact with him at Turn 2, forcing the Finish driver to defend from Max Hesse (Audi). That allowed Langeveld to open a gap while Hesse lost ground, falling to eighth position aftrer the second lap.

The safety car was called into action on lap three due to Lucas Niedertscheider (Peugeot) and Daniel Davidovac (Opel) coming together at Turn 6, with the Peugeot driver suffering suspension damage. The Opel managed to return to the pits, but had to retire from the race.

The race was restarted on lap six, with Buri falling behind and Langeveld opening a gap aftrer the first few corners. Buri came under attack from Harald Proczyk (Opel) as the Finn was losing ground to the leader and cars were closing in behind.

Proczyk went wide at Turn 2 on lap eight, with Benjamin Leuchter (Volkswagen) taking third position and Mike Halder (Honda) also going through.

Positions remained the same during the second half of the race, with Leuchter trying to close the gap to Buri, but the Finn upping his pace to control the attacks. Up front, Langeveld kept it tidy to take his first win of the season, followed by Buri and Leuchter on the podium.

Halder was fourth, followed by Proczyk and Luke Wankmüller (Opel) in sixth, also taking the victory in the rookie class.

Luca Engstler (Volkswagen) was seventh, followed by Hesse and team-mate Florian Thoma, with Simon Reicher (Audi) completing the top ten.

Langeveld and Proczyk are tied on the championship lead with 145 points, followed by Engstler, 15 points adrift and Halder, 32 points behind.

Race 2 is scheduled for tomorrow at 14:45 CET.