Dominik Fugel quickest in opening practice at Sachsenring
TCR Germany championship points leader Dominik Fugel kicked off the Sachsenring weekend by setting the fastest time in the first free practice session.
The Honda Civic Type-R TCR driver posted a time of 1:27.981, which was just over two-tenths of a second faster than Hyundai Team Engstler’s Antti Buri.
Fugel was on top for the bulk of the session, having set an initial benchmark of 1:28.028, some nine-tenths quicker than brother Marcel Fugel in another ADAC Sachsen Honda.
A brief red flag halted proceedings early in the session and also landed Marcel Fugel and Moto2 guest driver Marcel Schrötter in hot water.
Schrötter is under investigation for speeding under red flag conditions while Fugel is alleged to have left the pits while the session was stopped.
Once the session restarted, Dominik Fugel improved his time to his eventual fastest effort, heading Marcel Fugel by just under half a second.
Buri improved to second, just 0.266s off the pace of Fugel and a little over a tenth quicker than HP Racing International Hyundai of Harald Proczyk.
Proczyk’s team-mate Jan Seyffert was fifth quickest, ahead of René Kircher’s Volkswagen Team Öttinger and Team Engstler’s Nico Gruber.
Dziugas Tovilavicius ended up eighth quickest, with Postione Motorsport’s Harri Salminen ninth.
Schrötter rounded out the top ten in his Engstler Hyundai i30 N TCR, while Albert Legutko was slowest.
The second free practice session starts at 15:45 CEST.
