Antti Buri staves off Harald Proczyk for first Red Bull Ring victory

Hyundai Team Engstler’s Antti Buri claimed his second TCR Germany championship victory of the season in the opening race at the Red Bull Ring.

The Finn, who started second on the grid, fended off a stern challenge from reigning champion Harald Proczyk to edge his fellow Hyundai i30 N TCR driver by little under a second.

Guest entrant Mitchell Cheah completed the podium in third, having started from pole position.

Buri got the better of Cheah at the start while Proczyk also launched past the pole sitter at Turn 1 to grab second.

Proczyk immediately went on the attack of Buri out front, with Cheah staying firmly in the mix as well.

The top three were right together and Cheah reclaimed second place after Proczyk was pushed wide by Buri on the exit of Turn 3.

Proczyk eventually got back ahead of Cheah approaching the halfway point and set about trying to wrestle the lead off Buri.

The Austrian closed to within a second of Buri entering the closing stages, but a mistake on the penultimate lap and a late yellow flag for Günter Benninger’s Cupra, meant Buri clung on to claim the win.

It was a disaster for points leader Dominik Fugel, who was forced to retire after contact with HP Racing International’s Jan Seyffert.

The pair had been disputing fourth place after a strong charge up the order from eighth on the grid from Fugel.

But the two came to grief at Turn 3, with Fugel pitting with front right damage to his Honda Civc Type-R.

Off the podium, Patrick Simon finished fourth in the Engstler Hyundai guest car, while Seyffert survived his contact with Fugel to end up fifth.

Marcel Fugel was sixth ahead of Albert Legutko’s Honda and René Kircher’s Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

Race 2 is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 11:45 CET